Saturday, January 12, 2008

Hansbrough vs. Hickson matchup was irrelevant

The much anticipated Tyler Hansbrough-J.J. Hickson matchup at center didn’t exactly materialize as planned Saturday afternoon.

Hansbrough’s teammates were so much better than Hickson’s as North Carolina steamrolled N.C. State that the matchup in the post was irrelevant. Even if Hickson had dominated Hansbrough – which he didn’t – the Tar Heels would have won by 20.

The question a lot of people were asking before this game was which player would be selected ahead of the other if both enter the draft after this season. The best guess here is that Hickson has more athletic ability and probably a higher ceiling than Hansbrough, but doesn’t have the track record as a freshman that Hansbrough does.

Hansbrough is a proven commodity after three college seasons, and his toughness and tenacity are known entities that will make any NBA team better.

Particularly if you’re a mediocre team selecting in the middle or late stages of the lottery, you draft Hansbrough over Hickson.

– Ken Tysiac

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The deciding factor that kept Hansbrough from jumping to the NBA last year was when Roy Hibbert beat him to a pulp in last years NCAAs. Tyler thought to himself "do I want to do THAT 3 nights a week in the NBA?" UNC is much better than NCSU, but Hanbrough shot 3-11 because he had a big body on him. Hickson has played less than half of his freshmen year and has already proven that if he jumps he will be a lottery pick. You go ahead and pick Hansbrough as your guy but tell me where you are going to put him on an NBA floor. Its not fair to compare those two but if I have the pick im taking Hickson. Hansbrough will be a "tweener" but Hickson has much more NBA potential. I dont have a dog in the UNC NCSU fight, but if the Bobcats pick Hanbrough I will barf on Michal Jordans shoes.

Anonymous said...

I guess you missed the fact Tyler had 28 and 13 against Hibbert in that game. Jeff Green was the player that killed Carolina in his matchup with Wright. And to your point of a tweener, what do you think Hickson is going to be. They are the same height. And frankly he dodged any contact with Tyler Saturday. Nobody wants a tweener who is afraid to mix it up.