Heels holding breath on Hansbrough
The University of North Carolina is only +250 on WagerWeb.com to win the NCAA basketball crown, which is amazingly low odds considering the depth of Division I these days (UNC is -265 to win the ACC).
All the optimism in Chapel Hill is because last year’s top six scorers return, led by reigning National Player of the Year and unanimous preseason All-American Tyler Hansbrough, and they will be joined by another top-three recruiting class.
However, remember that UNC was the favorite last year, and they were knocked out in the Final Four. And a potentially big injury has hit the Heels already.
Hansbrough, the first returning AP national player of the year since LSU’s Shaquille O’Neal in 1991, will be out of practice indefinitely with a stress reaction in his leg, which can be a precursor to a fracture without proper rest.
Hansbrough enters his senior season on pace to break the school’s career scoring and rebounding records, as well as the ACC career scoring mark. Last year he averaged 22.6 points and 10.2 rebounds.
Hansbrough has never missed a game and had missed just one practice in his three-year career before the injury, so you know it’s potentially serious. He will be re-evaluated in about two weeks, but it’s very likely he could miss the start of the season, and there are rumors he may not suit up until the Heels begin ACC play in the beginning of January.
“We don’t know how long it’ll be,” UNC spokesman Steve Kirschner said.
If it’s the first month of the season, he would miss marquee games against Kentucky (Nov. 18), potentially Notre Dame or Texas in the Maui Invitational, and then Michigan State in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. The Heels open the season Nov. 15 against Penn.
In the interim, the Heels would turn to Deon Thompson (who started all but one game last season) and freshmen Tyler Zeller and Ed Davis to man the middle. But forget all that talk of an unbeaten season.
It’s not the only injury to a starter, either. Small forward Marcus Ginyard, the team’s best defender, is likely out until December after having surgery to repair a stress fracture in his left foot.
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