Broken Nose or No, Hansbrough Is Very Ready to Go

Tyler Hansbrough walked into the media room Tuesday at the Smith Center looking very much like the man from the old Tareyton cigarette commercial. You know the one—“I’d rather fight than switch.” (I know, I know! It was years ago, but people my age remember it like yesterday.) The actor in the commercial always had a shiner painted on.

The only visible sign of the broken nose Hansbrough suffered Sunday from the Gerald Henderson shot heard round the college basketball world was the bruise below the right eye.

He was in good spirits despite the incident that has caused a national commotion. Hansbrough said that basically, he’s “kind of tired of hearing about it.”

“I was upset when it happened,” Hansbrough said in talking for the first time about the blow to the nose. ”I don’t think he did it intentionally. I don’t really like talking about it because I really don’t know how to handle the situation, but I’m fine right now. I feel fine.”

Hansbrough, who also had some teeth loosened in the game, said he was shocked to find out his nose was broken. He said he thought it was just a bad nosebleed.

Now he has to wear a custom-fitted mask for the ACC tournament, which he’ll tell you he’s none too pleased about.

‘I’m not to crazy about the mask,” says the first-team All-ACC performer. “It’s one of those things where they strongly recommend me wearing it. But at the same time, I have no problem taking it off.”

It’s been a rough couple of days for Duke, with the Devils on the defensive the whole time. Both Henderson, who was ejected for a flagrant foul, and coach Mike Krzyzewski have repeatedly said there was no intent to injure. Hansbrough, who says he hasn’t heard from Henderson, says there’s no bad blood.

Carolina freshman Wayne Ellington, a high school teammate of Henderson, has heard from his friend and says Henderson feels bad about everything.

“Anybody in that type of situation is remorseful,” Ellington says of Henderson. "He didn’t mean to hurt anybody or anything like that.”

Roy Williams answered a lot of questions about Hansbrough on Tuesday. Williams says that lost in all the attention of the “incident” is what Hansbrough’s had to go through personally.

“It’s unfortunate the thing happened,” says Williams. “But everybody is still focusing on other things instead of the kid who got whacked, and I don’t think that’s the way it should be.”

He added, “The guy who’s getting no sympathy spends half the day in the hospital, half the day in the doctor’s office, half the day in the dentists office—we barely got him to class.”

Williams says that Hansbrough’s practice time will be limited the next couple of days as they try to see how he adapts to the mask.

Now, time can be a healer, and Hansbrough’s teammates have had some fun at the big guy’s expense, joking about how the man called Psycho T wanted his picture taken in his bloody uniform so it could be put on the wall in the weight room to show everybody could see just how tough he is.

Fellow sophomore Marcus Ginyard says the mask will just add a little more to his reputation. He may really look psycho.

“He’s gonna look a little funny, but I think it’s just gonna add to the killer mentality that he’s got," Ginyard said.

Oh, he’s got that all right—and Tyler Hansbrough will play in the ACC tournament mask or no mask. He won’t miss this.

The guy who left the floor Sunday covered in blood is indeed a tough hombre, and everybody knows it. He’s strong and powerful and has never been afraid of contact. Williams says he’s the same way in practice. When Hansbrough’s around, collisions are bound to happen. It’s the way he plays.

“He has tremendous focus, the best focus I’ve ever seen about making the basket,” says the veteran Tar Heel coach. “A lot of guys will try and draw contact and throw it up. Tyler goes in reverse—he tries to make the basket and, 'Oh yeah, I got fouled, too.'”

Carolina will go into Friday’s quarterfinals the top seed in the ACC tournament. They haven’t won one of these events since 1998. Tar Heels fans are antsy.

This time, an ACC tournament title might mean a top seed in the NCAA tournament. Roy Williams says he wants to win “that sucker.”