Shanoff’s Wake-Up Call: Hansbrough Gets No Love

By Dan Shanoff
Today’s Calls: Tyler Hansbrough vs. Kevin Love, Butler vs. Cinderella, Syracuse vs. Villanova, Kobe Bryant vs. Nick Young, Amare Stoudemire vs. Drew Gooden, Don Nelson vs. Tommy Lasorda, Larry Fitzgerald vs. Vernon Gholston and More.
The Opening Pitch: Tyler Hansbrough? Bah. With all due respect to my SN colleagues who named him college hoops player of the year, the Wake-Up Call’s college hoops P.O.Y. is ...
Kevin Love.
The UCLA post sensation is the Bruins’ (and arguably the Pac-10’s) best freshman since Lew Alcindor. And Love is the best of the best freshman class that anyone can remember (with four of its members making my first-team All-America list).
He averages a double-double (leading the team in points and rebounds), after instantly starting for one of the top 3 teams in the country -- with the added pressure of defending back-to-back Final Four appearances (which sets Love apart from one-man show Michael Beasley).
As for Hansbrough, the highest compliment I can pay him is that he is a quintessential “college superstar” -- an impressively long productive career ... because he has absolutely limited NBA potential.
But if Hansbrough’s “experience” is going to be the deciding factor for SN’s award, I can’t get past Hansbrough and UNC’s failures when it has mattered most: In last season’s Elite Eight, when UNC was blitzed by Georgetown in OT and in 2006’s shocking opening-weekend tourney loss to George Mason. His jersey-retiring legacy is that of a loser.
Love gets the benefit of not having that tournament history: All he has produced is phenomenal regular-season results -- undoubtedly, my pick is influenced by my feeling that Love, in his first (perhaps only) tournament, is going to lead UCLA to a breakthrough national title.
Like Carmelo Anthony before him, THAT is a player of the year.
Shanoff’s All-Americans:
1st: Love, Beasley, Derrick Rose, Eric Gordon, Hansbrough.
2nd: D.J. Augustin, Chris Lofton, Shan Foster, Adam Emmenecker, Brian Roberts.
Madness you may have missed last night:
Butler! The Top 10 Bulldogs were an at-large lock anyway; the real intrigue is how high (or anti-Cindy) their seeding will be.
Let’s set the over-under at 5. Nothing tests a mid-major more than to make them the favorite in the dreaded “5/12.”
Oral Roberts! Three auto-bids later, they have come such a long way since the 2006 16-seed I vowed would beat 1-seed Memphis.
Western Kentucky! Ending the Middle Tennessee State dream.
Championship Week Auto-Bid Finales tonight: Big Sky! (Portland State vs. N. Arizona) NEC! (Sacred Heart vs. Mount St. Mary’s)
Your rooting interests: Portland State is playing in its first Big Sky title game ever ... Mount St. Mary’s beat NEC top-seed Robert Morris en route to being one win away from a once-unlikely Dance bid.
Power conference tournaments ramp up today, starting with the inimitable Big East Tournament, featuring Syracuse, West Virginia, Pitt and Marquette (all in today’s PRELIM round): Cuse-Nova is a must-win.
NBA Last Night: Was Kobe’s 34 inspired by Kobe Bryant Day across the sports blogosphere yesterday; the Lakers are back on top in the West ... Did the Bulls really beat the Jazz? Was Drew Gooden (season-high 24) really the X-factor? ... 29 and 13 for Amare Stoudemire in a Phoenix rout of the Grizz ... Rookie Watch: It took 60 games, but DC’s Nick Young scored a career-high 22... One more season of Nellieball is great for Warriors fans (and for fans across the rest of the NBA)...
NFL: Larry Fitzgerald gets 4Y/$40M deal from Cards, with a jaw-dropping $30 million guaranteed. I think he’s the best WR in the league, stuck on a truly terrible team.
NFL Draft: Could Vernon Gholston jump Chris Long among defensive ends (and everyone else) to become the No. 1 overall pick?
MLB Spring Training: How is leaving Josh Beckett stateside on Boston’s trip to Japan anything but a no-brainer? ... Blue Jays fans will learn to loathe Armando Benitez’ entry in to close games as much as fans of other teams he has played on ... You know, that young rising Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda could really use his own kids’ TV show.
Butch Harmon drops John Daly: Who had “4 months” in the office pool? Come and collect your prize. It’s a carton of Daly’s favorite cigs.
Terrelle Pryor and his Jeannette (Pa.) teammates sidestep suspension for that basketball imbroglio: The best high school athlete in the state’s history avoids punishment in the middle of the state playoffs? No!
The Last Word: Pat Tillman should be a lock for the College Football Hall of Fame. Everyone else on the ballot is secondary (even if reading over the list and seeing Paul Palmer’s name brought back memories -- remember Palmer when he was so dominant for Temple?)
Dan Shanoff writes The Wake-Up Call every weekday morning for SportingNews.com and blogs daily at DanShanoff.com. Got any comments, questions or feedback? Email Dan at shanofftsn-[at]-gmail-[dot]-com.
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