Basketball Bytes – Hansbrough fouls even in celebration (11:15 updated w/ column on Roy)

08-09 Basketball General70

So much going on out there that we couldn’t ignore it all and thought you would appreciate a comprehensive entry following-up on a lot of topics.

celebrationbyRobertWillett

This couldn’t be more classic.

The picture to the left was taken by the N&O/Charlotte Observer’s Robert Willett after Monday night’s NCAA Championship game and served as the front page for the Charlotte Observer.  A better version of the picture can be seen by clicking here. Do us a favor and click there to drive some traffic in return for us posting the pic; and, while you are ‘surfing’ why not hit our new Google ads a bit 🙂

I want you to take note of Tyler Hansbrough right arm and the odd positioning of his body while he is running.  Compare his ‘running’ posture to that of every other player in the picture (and every other player in the world).  Sheesh…Hansbrough is friggin pushing-off and attempting to slow down the faster Wayne Ellington as the Tarheels storm the court to celebrate.  Some things never change, eh?  It is not even natural when you look at positioning of his body.  I am 100% serious, who runs like that?  ‘Psycho T’ is so accustomed to knocking around others that he literally cannot step onto the court even in celebration without creating some kind of contact with people around him.  We later learned that this contact resulted in Hansbrough shooting two extra free throws hours after the game.

Going pro

  • It appears Wake Forest will experience a 1-1-1 situation between their roster and the NBA as James Johnson is gone; Jeff Teague will test the waters without an agent; and Al Farouq-Aminu will return to Winston-Salem.  (Link)
  • Lots of smoke emerging around Gerald Henderson and Ed Davis. (Link) These are potential ‘conference transformers’ next year.  The ACC would be shaping up for someone like NC State to make a move if we were better positioned to take advantage of the changes.
  • Out in the desert the great Herb Sendek will lose the services of All-American guard, James Harden.  (Link) Sendek ‘coincidently’ hired Harden’s coach just before Harden committed to the Sun Devils; so, it appears Harden’s old coach will out last him in Phoenix.  Harden will go down as one of the greatest players in ASU history and will finish his career with a 20-16 conference record and a 1-1 record in his lone NCAA Tournament appearance.  ASU will have two of their players drafted this summer as all-conference post player, Jeff Pendergraph was a senior.  Maybe it is becoming more clear why coach Sendek tried to position himself for jobs at Virginia, Georgia and Kentucky this off-season.  It’s a shame the Athletics Directors at those schools don’t ‘know basketball’ like the media and Lee Fowler.
  • Sean Miller’s first year at Arizona isn’t going to be easy as he may lose his three best players; two have already jumped. I know that was some good money; but I can’t help but wonder a little about this move.
  • If you want more on early entries you will enjoy this link at Rush the Court.  It is funny to see ‘unranked’ Brandon Costner’s name sitting there.  Also of interest is Florida’s Nick Calathes.  It is good to see Calathes’ name on the list considering his performance against NC State last year and the fact the Gators visit the RBC Center next season.

Coaching talk

  • Fran McCaffery has reportedly signed a new eight year contract at Siena.  (Link) I personally think that McCaffery would have ended up at Virginia if the Cavaliers had not landed Tony Bennett (or someone from that similar tier).  I can’t help but keep my eye on McCaffery.
  • Florida State’s Leonard Hamilton got a five year contract at Florida State.  As RTC said, ‘ensuring another half-decade of mediocrity in Tallahassee.’

Roy Williams Haskell? (update)

  • Mike Freeman of CBS Sportsline doesn’t seem to be as enamored with the “Aww Shucks” personna of Roy Williams as some: “Williams has been able to pull off one of the neatest tricks in all of sports — portraying himself as a golly-gee guy while quietly being just as cutthroat and bottom line as almost every other person in his profession. The only difference between Jim Calhoun and Williams is public temperament and spoken accent.” That’s not the only firecracker Freeman tosses at Ole Roy’s feet, and it is entertaining reading to be sure. Maybe we should send Freeman a live-feed link to the Roy Williams Show where he jumps on his fans?

Others

  • RTC ran a very cool series on the best team of the modern era – UNLV from 1991 won.
  • As a follow-up to the previous Hansbrough comments you should take a look at Deadspin’s entry. It is hilarious, as is the video in it that we are including below.

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08-09 Basketball General

70 Responses to Basketball Bytes – Hansbrough fouls even in celebration (11:15 updated w/ column on Roy)

  1. Noah 04/09/2009 at 8:55 AM #

    The 1996 UK team gets my vote for the best team of all-time. Waaay better than UNLV.

    That UNLV team was great, but they were thin. Hell, I think the 1983 Houston team was better than the 1991 UNLV squad. The 1988 Oklahoma team doesn’t even belong in the equation.

  2. choppack1 04/09/2009 at 9:07 AM #

    I’ll be watching Fran McCaffery too. He did a solid job at UNC-G, and is now doing the same at Siena. He actually played ACC basketball – at Wake Forest.

    Don’t be surprised if returns to the ACC. Things could get real interesting next year…I think Dino, Sidney and Hewitt will all be on the hot seat. I think he’d be a “fallback” candidate for the Wake or State job.

    Also worth noting – Davidson’s McKillop has survived another year of open job positions. I think he’s probably pretty happy – but you have to wonder if any big boys will come calling.

  3. Noah 04/09/2009 at 9:16 AM #

    McKillop is a little long in the tooth, isn’t he?

    I think Hewitt will turn in a solid season next year. I don’t think he’ll get fired.

    How long before Oliver Purnell draws the eyes of a major contender?

  4. Alpha Wolf 04/09/2009 at 9:18 AM #

    Noah, where would the 1976 Indiana team rank?

  5. wufpup76 04/09/2009 at 9:18 AM #

    Funny stuff 🙂 …

    McCaffery is great. Another to keep an eye on that I’m surprised is not getting more talk generated is Craig Robinson. He performed close to a near miracle in his first season at Oregon State. I saw them play a few times this season, including the CBI tournament which they won and they were a completely transformed team. Confident, aggressive, poised … nothing like the 0-18 mess they were the other season. (I don’t blame you if you laugh at me for watching CBI tournament basketball).

    I can’t see Robinson staying at Oregon St. for long … Obama factor or no, that was a hell of a turnaround in just one season in Corvallis.

  6. wufpup76 04/09/2009 at 9:20 AM #

    “where would the 1976 Indiana team rank?”

    ^I don’t think they were included in the “modern era”. RTC cut it off at 1985, IIRC.

  7. Wolf Dog 04/09/2009 at 9:21 AM #

    McKillop’s best assistant, Matheny, just took the head job at Elon. He most likely would have been tagged by the school as the next head coach at Davidson had McKillop left. Matheny leaving seems a clear indication that McKillop is happy at Davidson and not planning on leaving soon.

  8. Dan 04/09/2009 at 9:21 AM #

    1996 Kentucky team hands down. Tony Delk, Walker, Derrick Anderson, McCarty, Nazr Mohammed, Scott Padgett, Mark Pope all played on the Nba.

    One thing is for sure. The ’93 Heels team is the worst championship team in history. Seriously. They had to have cheated.

  9. Wolf Dog 04/09/2009 at 9:23 AM #

    I predict in 2-3 years if you want clips of Hans you will have to go to Europe and get them.

  10. sautz 04/09/2009 at 9:24 AM #

    I’d be worried about hiring Fran McCaffery with our string of luck with not-so-masculine-named coaches:
    Les – Herb – Sidney – Fran

    Maybe it’s time to hire a John or Robert 😉

  11. com state10 04/09/2009 at 9:35 AM #

    Thank you guys for posting the ‘One Shining Moment’

    The ACC sets up pretty well for us next year I think if our team comes together and plays the way we know they are capable of, and maybe one or two of the new guys surprises us.

    Classic thread title too.

  12. Wulfpack 04/09/2009 at 9:39 AM #

    Though Purnell has done a great job at Clemson, the fact he has never won an NCAA Tournament game is troublesome.

    The past five years, the ACC schools with the best records in the NCAA Tourney are 1. UNC, 2. Duke, and 3. NCSU. Crazy stat!

  13. choppack1 04/09/2009 at 9:55 AM #

    Interesting what Robinson did at Oregon State. He’s definitely worth watching – and you know if his team is ever close to the bubble, they’ll get a bid!

    Cue VAWolf reminding us of State’s RPI when we were getting those at large bubble bids! 🙂

    I don’t know what the guy at Cleveland State’s story is, but he took Kent State to the Sweet 16 a couple of years ago.

  14. YANCSSB 04/09/2009 at 10:01 AM #

    I still think the 1990 UNLV team that crushed Duke by four touchdowns is the best tournament team ever. Good God they were nasty.

  15. Greywolf 04/09/2009 at 10:04 AM #

    sautz
    April 9th, 2009 at 9:24 am
    “I’d be worried about hiring Fran McCaffery with our string of luck with not-so-masculine-named coaches:
    Les – Herb – Sidney – Fran

    Maybe it’s time to hire a John or Robert”
    `
    Are there any “Dicks” available? And I don’t mean Coach Fowler.

  16. wufpup76 04/09/2009 at 10:08 AM #

    “I don’t know what the guy at Cleveland State’s story is, but he took Kent State to the Sweet 16 a couple of years ago.”

    ^Gary Waters is a good coach. The only problem is that he struggled somewhat at his only major conference stop at Rutgers. That said, it’s hard to imagine many not struggling at State University of New Jersey. Waters did at least get them to the NIT a couple of seasons.

    Other than that, he’s been pretty successful. Really good defensive coach.

  17. Noah 04/09/2009 at 10:11 AM #

    Noah, where would the 1976 Indiana team rank?

    Probably around the same place as the 1993 UNC team. PERFECT college teams. Neither of those teams had a speck of NBA superstardom on them…but they had the ideal college players.

    Even in today’s game, I don’t think the UNC team had a single player who would have gone pro early.

    The ACC sets up pretty well for us next year I think if our team comes together and plays the way we know they are capable of, and maybe one or two of the new guys surprises us.

    The three or four early forecasts that I’ve seen for the league next year have us at either 9th or 10th. Has anyone seen us higher than that?

  18. Greywolf 04/09/2009 at 10:14 AM #

    YANCSSB
    April 9th, 2009 at 10:01 am
    “I still think the 1990 UNLV team that crushed Duke by four touchdowns is the best tournament team ever. Good God they were nasty.”
    `
    “Best tournament team” opens up a real can of worms. I’d put in a plug for ’74 State team. Or one of the Alcinder lead teams of John Wooden’s Bruins.

  19. LRM 04/09/2009 at 10:19 AM #

    I’m looking forward to the day when I can come to this site and not see the headlining blog focused on Carolina — it’s bad enough half my friends and family are gloating Carolina fans.

    I propose a moratorium on Carolina coverage for one month. Let’s ignore them long enough to regroup and lick our wounds, and then go back to hating them once the stench of all this has worn off.

  20. Alpha Wolf 04/09/2009 at 10:19 AM #

    Question for any coach that comes into the ACC is “how many Mickey D caliber players can you recruit and bring onto your team?”

    It all starts with talent. You could have put John Wooden in charge of NC State this year and while they would have been better, they wouldn’t have been Duke either.

  21. mafpack 04/09/2009 at 10:25 AM #

    Haha, I hadn’t seen that last video before. That was awesome and I definitely laughed out loud sitting here at my desk 🙂

  22. Greywolf 04/09/2009 at 10:31 AM #

    There are a lot of “good” coaches around. We had one several years ago. Do we really want another “good” coach? I don’t. What I LIKED about hiring Sidney was that he WASN’T a proven “good” coach. Either Sid will adjust to coaching at the college level OR he would bust at the college level. If he adjusts, he can go one of three ways.
    1. He will be mediocre
    2. He wiil be “good”
    3. He will be what we are looking for, outstanding and capable of winning championships
    `
    I’m not sure he has had enough time to adjust fully to being head coach at a major U or in a major conference. He has had enough time for us to form opinions on what’s predictable but that’s not the same as him having enough time to prove himself. I’m in the “4 years is enough time” group that says he should be able to show the kind of progress that lets us know whether he will or will not make it.
    `
    I’m also of the mind that if we said 5 or 6 years, we should be willing to pay him for the 5 or 6 years. That would give Sid enough time to find another coaching job in the NBA or in the collegeranks if that’s what he wants to do. Regardless, we should be straight with him at all times. If we are going to look and replace him, let him know so he can look. Both parties should have enough integrity to keep the deal quiet.
    `
    In the meantime, he’s the man.
    `
    GO PACK!!

  23. timswar 04/09/2009 at 10:40 AM #

    Looking at that picture I think you have, as they say, the wrong end of the stick.

    Tyler, on the other hand, does not have the same problem.

    Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

  24. wufpup76 04/09/2009 at 10:42 AM #

    ^This is a generic thread. The coaches mentioned/discussed above were not brought up as potential replacements for Sidney Lowe. They are mentioned as coaches to keep an eye on during this and future coaching carousels. Whether N.C. State will be a part of that time will only tell.

    In addition to N.C. State basketball, I and others enjoy talking about college basketball at large. Just because certain positions and coaches are brought up doesn’t mean they are necessarily brought up with N.C. State in mind.

    No one had mentioned Sidney Lowe and his standing in this thread until you did.

  25. Gene 04/09/2009 at 10:49 AM #

    I predict in 2-3 years if you want clips of Hans you will have to go to Europe and get them.

    I think Hansborough may be a better pro prospect than people realize. Carlos Boozer was a great college player, and people doubted his NBA ability because he was a tweener – too big for SF and too small for PF – but is doing very well in the NBA. Carlos was nearly automatic in college near the basket. Hansborough’s also good at getting shots to fall near the basket. He has a jump shot, which should help him and he’s quicker than people realize, in my opinion. Not blazing fast down the court, but good foot speed in the half court.

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