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Shr Daily (Ear Hrrl Hansbrough among elite J 9 1L,,-,;; Jjgg A W %e*\ : §Hp ®Br .Pjjp W OTH FIIE/OAVID ENARSON North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough has been a force of nature for the Tar Heels this season. He leads the team in both points and rebounds. THE LOWDOWN ON TONIGHT'S GAME No. 3 North Carolina at ■gS N.C. State RBC Center, 7 p.m. (15-10,4-7 ACC) Radio l 360 WCHL (24-2, 9-2 ACC) HEAD-TO-HEAD N.C. State has struggled to find consistency at the point this season with Javier Gonzalez, Backcourt and Quentin Thomas has been effective for UNC in Ty Lawson s absence. Plus Wayne Ellington is heating up. Edge: UNC Tyler Hansbrough has been on fire lately. and he still remembers N.C. State fans FrontCOUrt rushing the court last year But Hansbrough and Alex Stepheson will have a challenge in freshman J.i Hickson. Edge: UNC UNCs depth seems to get smaller every week, but not many teams feature talent like Bench Danny Green and a big man like Stepheson who played well Saturday coming in to spell the starters. Edge: UNC To say the 'Pack is desperate for a win is quite an understatement They'll be out [BmV Intangibles for blood and the RBC Center should be roaring. UNC didn't handle that well last year, even with Lawson. Edge: NCSU The Bottom Line North Carolina 84, N.C. State 72 COMPILED BY JESSE BAUMGARTNER 818 Bplf •*™' \-/ *^ iV 1 i ' k V' '"v 11 ' *'"*^ s §§ uKk'' Sports UNC center adds midrange game BY JESSE BAUMGARTNER SENIOR WRITER Tyler Hansbrough's junior sea son is defying the natural rise and fall of a typical collegiate career. At some point, even a great player is supposed to trail off a little bit But a season after posting 18.4 points and 7.9 rebounds a game and earning second team All- America honors, Hansbrough has somehow come back even better this season in almost every depart ment. His numbers currently stand at 22.8 points, 10.6 rebounds, 55.2 percent shooting and 81.4 percent free-throw shooting, and compli ments have been showered on him from every part of the country including the ultimate one from Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski. “I think Hansbrough’s the best player best college player —as far as his value,” he said. “What he brings, his toughness he's a very unique player.” As always, Hansbrough's game this year begins down low with his relentless energy and intensity. Few opposing teams have been able to contain him there, and Hansbrough has been able to utilize his let’s call it unique jump hook. You know the shot. Hansbrough gets the ball on the block, feels the contact from the defense and opens up his body. Then he sort of leans back like he's haring back spasms, ducks a little as he jumps and throws up an ugly one-hander. And it usually goes in. “It’s just a little awkward; he just opens up a little too quickly is all he does," said UNC coach Roy Williams, who pointed out the shot doesn’t get blocked too often because of the lack of shot blockers in college basketball. “It’s not that far off from being a nice jump hook, but again he makes a heck of a lot of them. Why screw around with something?" Hansbrough, on the other hand, said the staff does try to make him change in practice. “Yea, coach (Joe) Holladay, he does it a lot," Hansbrough said. “Every day in group work, coach Holladay is like, ‘l'm going to block you if you open up again.™ But the biggest changes in Hansbrough’s offensive game this year haw no doubt been the added range on his jump shot and ability to drive to the hoop from the perimeter thanks to improved hall handling. There was some initial perime ter hesitation early in the year, but Hansbrough now seems to be quite comfortable rising up from most 7 think Hansbrough s the best player best college player —as far as his value." MIKE KRZYZEWSKI, DUKE COACH spots on the floor —as evidenced in the Virginia game when he lit up the Cavaliers for 17 first-half points in the form oftmmerous jumpers. After the Maryland-UNC game earlier this season. Terrapin coach Gary Williams wisely surmised that if Hansbrough Is hitting jumpers, “it’s really going to be a problem." Defenders are forced to back off and not let Hansbrough post up or drive around them to the hoop, so the jump shot is usually open. When it's dropping. Stuart Scott puts it best “That just ain’t right." “One, it gets me away from the basket it doesn't allow that dou ble or triple-team down low w here there’s a lot of contact,' Hansbrough said. ‘And also it opens some things up inside for our other big guys." Hansbrough's effort and work ethic haw always been his strengths, as evidenced by a typical “psycho" dive to the floor against Clemson in overtime to grab a loose ball. But lie’s also improved his position defense and is much more willing to get close to perimeter players and trust his feet to stay in front of them. While he doesn't block many shots, he had drawn 26 charges heading into the Virginia game last week. On the other hand, Hansbrough's relentless attack of the basket can sometimes get him into trouble and cause him to lose sight of the other four players on the floor. Despite facing constant double and triple-teams that leave team mates open, he has only 22 assists in 26 games against a team-leading 55 turnovers —a common criticism during his time in Chapel Hill. But those turnovers average out to about two per game, and with Hansbrough's general offensive efficiency and ability to carry his team to victories (24 so far), the Tar Heels can live with the fact that he might never be Chris Paul in the passing department. Contact the Sports Editor at sports (a unc.edu. sanies Level: [HOSH 9I 6 7 4 " 421 6 8 _7_ __ 4 5 3 9 1 6 8 2 98 "TT 46 | ~98 3 1 Cwhat the heck are) DTH we going to do withV. •mm j mj . - ' O \thls old couch? z\ClS' " '- - N Q O Q bringing people together fwhere the heck are ") ... _jr, _,, , C"^we going to find an \CT 9 . 1^ 962 ~” 63 . ! Xaffordable couch?rl x\ www.daily ter heel .com v _ /~y J I THE Daily Crossword Edited by Wayne Robert Williams ACROSS 1 Rooster's pride 5 Aids a criminal 10 Don't move! 14 Capital of Samoa 15 Second airing 16 On the quiet side 17 Redhead Lucille 18 Excuse 19 Seward Peninsula town 20 Chefs quick creations 23 Goiter Ernie 24 Shade tree 25 Jamaican cultist 28 NYC arena 31 Immature insect 35 Mind reading 36 Place ol worship 39 College bigwig 40 Chefs brunch dilemma 43 Head ot France 67 "West Side Story" hit 68 Slaughter of baseball 69 Asian sea 70 Silvery food fish 71 Laertes or Hamlet, e g DOWN 1 Hack 2 Colorful marine fish 3 Uris novel. " 18" 4 "Swan Lake." e g. 5 Riyadh residents 6 Actor Lugosi 7 Composer Satie 8 Hollow cylinder 9 Maliciously derogatory 10 Not from a factory 11 vera 12 "Champagne Tony" of golf 13 PGA pegs 21 "Killing Me Softly .’ 44 Oddball 45 Payable 46 Lulus 48 Slightly shitty 49 Tightwad 51 Stretch ol time 53 Cross or Blue 54 Chefs secret ingredient 62 Kuwaiti ruler 63 Soviet collec tive 64 Diplomat EHhu 66 Hari iXfcjoMc n aln k u pMt q o i|a|nßm i LIE A g eBo e r s jjx T * c]e|n t s £ aHoBBKi e tmn e h o in elxJa c tIMBBe d[d y s h n aWT e o n a r and oIIM c * lJi f o r n i as w]e e t mma s k e t t eMd vt? HiMOHO e ljk] in k e T H e[s[a N T A C L AlWjspßi H R s|s T U 0 I E DMoIuI I I £ £ £■£ £ £ s JL££H£[lllj WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2008 ‘Psycho T takes on the ‘Beast’ Beasley vies for Player of the Year BY JESSE BAUMGARTNER SENIOR WRITER W'e’re now past the halfway point of the season, and it’s about that time when the National Player of the Year talk really heats up. With his consistent produc tion, North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough has put himself as one of the hands-down favorites to win the award. But he has plenty of competition from the nation's best freshman, Kansas State's Michael Beasley. It figures to be a choice between these two at this point, and it's interesting to pit a college v eteran in Hansbrough against another stud rookie —a la Texas’ Kevin Durant last sea son. Logic says that voters won’t be too eager to hand the nation's most prestigious Michael Beasley has been taking college hoops by storm at KSU. award to another young guy. but Beasley’s eye-popping numbers warrant the consideration. Check these out: 25.7 points, 12.6 rebounds. 54.8 percent shoot ing from the floor and 41.9 percent 3-point shooting from a guy who measures in at 6 feet 10 inches. The scoring and rebounding rank fourth and first in the country, respectively. Beasley has even increased his 3-point shooting to 50 percent in conference play, and he just put up a monstrous 40 points and 17 rebounds against Missouri the second time he has recorded at least 40 points and 15 rebounds in a game this season. Hansbrough has been equally impressive in putting up 22.8 points and 10.6 rebounds while shooting 55.2 percent from the floor and 81.4 percent from the line. He has upped that production with the recent injury to point guard TV Lawson and willed North Carolina Sudoku By The Mepham Group © 2007 The Mepham Group Distributed by Tribune Media Services AN rights reserved Complete the grid so each row, column and 3-by-3 box (in bold borders) con tains every digit 1 to 9 For strategies on how to solve Sudoku, visit www.sudoku. org.uk. Solution to Tuesday’s puzzle 8 4 9I 1 7 3I 5 6 2 562948317 71 35 26849 987635421 635214798 421789635 394851276 17836 2 9 5 4 25649 7 1 8 3 singer 22 Off one's feed 25 Right-hand page 26 Unusually pale 27 Malicious ill-will 28 Flowing tresses 29 Ruin 30 Saxophonist Mulligan 32 Marsh grasses 33 Indistinct 34 Wrath 37 Fell trees 38 Inc. in the U K 41 Of the brain I I • o i j i 1 i —| hmb l * ** r ißßr* - "' ] |hhhh|hv “™" HHHI r Ugl “ ■ Wr SF || Tyler Hansbrough vs. Michael Beasley PTS: 22.8 vs. 25.7 REBS; 10.6 vs. 12.6 FG%: .552 vs. .548 20 pt-15 reb games: 2 vs. 6 to several impressive wins. Both players have pulled their teams to a higher level. Hansbrough has UNC sitting pretty at 24-2, while Beasley has carried the Wildcats to a 18-6 record with a win against power house Kansas. It can be argued that Hansbrough has more offensive weapons around him in Lawson and Wayne Ellington, forcing defenses to not solely focus on him. In reality, however, Hansbrough’s statistics might be higher if he only had one marquee teammate like Beasley has in Bill Walker. While Beasley is a threat from the outside, Hansbrough can cause even more damage to the other team because he gets to the free throw line so often 26.9 times in 26 games resulting in both points and problematic foul trou ble for the opposing team. When push comes to shove, Beasley's numbers are unmatched by anyone in the country. But Hansbrough is awfully close, and his superior team combined with his status as a blue-collar upper classmen might be the deciding factor if voters don't want to see a Durant scenario play out for a sec ond consecutive year. At this point in the season, it’s just too early to pick between these two dynamic players. If Kansas State fades out of the Top 25, Hansbrough could be an easy selection. But if Beasley and Walker make a run in the Big 12 and build upon the Wildcats' already impressive 8-2 conference record, it won't be easy to say no to what might be the country’s best pure talent even if he’s a freshman. Contact the Sports Editor at sports® unc.edu. Defend yourself Learn how to do the basic self defense moves Project Dinah teaches. See pg. 5 for story. Juicy gossip A gossip Web site is protested for its effects at some campuses across the country. See pg. 6 for story. Students ‘feel boobies' An event Tuesday in the Pit pro motes cancer awareness and self breast exams. See pg. 6 for story . Dolla dolla bill Students live on $1 a day to raise funds and awareness for Millennium Village Project. Go online for story. Animals gone wild Noticed people dressed as a moose, turtle and squirrel running around campus? See pg. 1 for story . (C 12006 Tnfcun* Mock* Serwes me AW MgTrt* reserved 42 Ancient writer -47 _ Lanka 50 Hardened (to) 52 Don or Samuel 53 Musical note 54 Disaster org 55 Actor Sharif 56 Poet Dove 57 Whiskey shot 58 Tours to be 59 Singer Young 60 New Rochelle college 61 Roger Rabbit feature 65 Hall of a fly? 9
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