One of our favorite examples of horrendous journalism came in the form of an article written by Eddy Landreth. In fact, we even named an award in his honor based on how incompetent he is. Landreth basically wrote that UNC’s Tyler Hansborough should enter the NBA draft after last season because the ACC refs were allowing him to get hammered so much that it would lead to a major injury. You can check here for our review of that article, or click here to see the piece of garbage itself.
But we have a new theory as to who is putting Tyler Hansborough in danger this season - his coach, Roy Williams.
This past Saturday, with the Tar Heels leading N.C. State by 33 with under 4 minutes to play, Roy still had his starting 5 on the court. Now, we could go into lectures on sportsmanship and class, but we won’t waste your time with all that. But Roy should keep the health of his players in mind when running up the score on a rival.
The Heels had already embarrassed the Wolfpack in a less a-hole-ish way by holding them to 13 points in the first half. Was it necessary to inflict further humiliation by trying to increase a 33-point margin in the closing minutes?
But here’s the real problem: Hansborough plays at one speed. Whether his team is up 3 or 33, he will still elbow and push other players out of the way for a rebound.
In the Forrest Gump style voice-over of the movie about Hansborough’s life, Tyler will say: “Coach told me to rebound, and that’s just what I did.”
But imagine you are a player on the opposing team. You are already losing by 33, then this goofy big man elbows you in the back while fighting for an offensive rebound.
We’re not saying anyone should take out Hansborough, but we are saying that possibility gets a lot more realistic when he’s sprinting on a fastbreak with a 33-point lead with 3:40 left in the game.
Does Roy really want to take that chance? Is it really that important to beat down the Wolfpack by 38 instead of 33?
Ol’ Roy can play his guys however he wants, but we’ll just say we won’t be shocked it Psycho T ends up with something worse than a broken nose at some point this season.
image found at: http://uncbasketballupdate.com/images/tyler-bloody2.jpg
Comments
Well, I can’t much argue with the premise of the article… the starters should have played in rotating minutes with the good backups for a while and the white guys from the end of the bench should have been in the game after the 4 minute TV timeout. However, considering Landreth’s article was on the money and a prime example could be seen in the first Carolina ACC game (i.e., Booker and Mays and the other Clemson “thug life G’s” just beating the hell out of Tyler), I think you are all simply trying to find any way to put down Hansbrough that you can. I can give you a better way than the fact that he gets fouled every time he touches the ball and someone noticed though–he’s supposedly dumb as a rock. Try that one. It’s likely more accurate than naming awards after a guy who hit the nail on the head.