Tyler Hansbrough's Pro Potential

I wanted to get in a quick post after reading this great article from a favorite writer (John Hollinger) of mine on the pro potential of top college players. There will be more on the state rankings when I get back to Minneapolis. Below is the link to the article:

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/draft2008/insider/columns/story?columnist=hollinger_john&page=ProRater-071228

Below is his ranking of the top 20 rising major college basketball players (excluding freshmen) of 2007-2008 based on stats:

Player School Rate

1. Chase Budinger Arizona 688.37
2. Ty Lawson North Carolina 627.02
3. Roy Hibbert Georgetown 615.39
4. Ryan Anderson California 608.03
5. Darrell Arthur Kansas 588.19
6. Lawrence Hill Stanford 578.01
7. Chris Lofton Tennessee 566.91
8. Patrick Beverley Arkansas 546.71
9. Darren Collison UCLA 545.07
10. K.C. Rivers Clemson 540.85
11. D.J. White Indiana 531.81
12. Wayne Ellington North Carolina 530.73
13. Jamont Gordon Mississippi St. 522.97
14. Tyrese Rice Boston College 515.87
15. Wayne Chism Tennessee 510.45
16. Josh Heytvelt Gonzaga 510.31
17. Tyler Hansbrough North Carolina 500.11
18. Jodie Meeks Kentucky 494.64
19. Luke Harangody Notre Dame 494.2
20. Danny Green North Carolina 489.96

As you can see Tyler Hansbrough isn't one of the top 2 pro prospects on his own team. I have always said/wrote that Ty Lawson was a much better player than Hansbrough and the above rankings confirms that not only is Lawson a better pro prospect but so is Wayne Ellington. However, both Lawson and Ellington combined get about 1/10th the press than Psycho T gets. As a Duke fan I would much rather see UNC without Lawson than without Hansbrough. Anyway you slice and dice it, Tyler Hansbrough isn't a good basketball player and has very little pro potential. The media love him because he is white, plays for a good team, and is scrappy. In fact if you google (fans of http://www.firejoemorgan.com/ should get this) Tyler Hansbrough and scrappy you get back 1320 hits in only 0.29 seconds. (Side note I googled Tyler Hansbrough is awful and got 7680 hits in only 0.28 seconds).