Tyler Hansbrough - Is He Being Officiated Differently?

Much has been made recently about whether Tyler Hansbrough has been getting officiated differently recently in ACC games. People have been citing his lack of point production and noting how many fewer times he has been getting to the foul ine. Hansbrough has made a living throughout his college career of getting to the free throw line by drawing contact. His game is unorthodox in the way he shoots the basketball in the post many times and he seems to relish the contact that he gets from opposing defenders. He has shot a ton of free throws throughout his career. He is currently number two all-time NATIONALLY in free throws made during a career. Has he been officiated differently recently? He only shot four free throws against Maryland on Saturday. seven against NC State last week, and only two against Miami about a week ago.

The question to be answered is whether he is being treated differently by the officials because of the overwhelming amount of complaints targeted towards Hansbrough for his large volume of FT's shot and the no-calls on what some consider obvious travels throughout the course of his career.

While some referees may be looking at him slightly differently for whatever reason I do not think that all of the referees in the ACC got together and decided to completely change the way they view Tyler and all of the contact he attracts and draws in the paint. This would have been something that would have happened much earlier in his career and not with a month to go in his senior campaign. I see three main reasons he is not getting to the line as much.

First, he is not getting the ball as much. I think one would see, through looking at box scores from the last three weeks or so, that UNC is not looking to get Hansbrough as many touches. If he does not have the ball he cannot get fouled and go to the line. Ty Lawson has started to take over as the team's number one option recently and taken a much larger role shooting the basketball. Some would make the case that this is now "Ty Lawson's team". In UNC's game a week ago against Miami Hansbrough had the fewest shot attempts of any starter for UNC. He is simply not getting as many touches in the paint and this is one reason his FT attempts have gone down.

Second, teams have changed the way they defend Hansbrough. In Hansbrough's first couple of years and most of his junior year teams did not double team him all that often. With Hansbrough's strength and physicality down low he scored almsot at will by initiating contact with the defender and using that to create space and score enough points that he will probably break JJ Redick's ACC record for career points. I have noticed a distinct difference this year in watching UNC as to how opposing teams are defending him. As soon as he catches the ball this year he is getting doubled immediately. There are none of those late double teams or anything else. Just a straight, as soon as he gets the ball, double team. I believe teams noticed that Hansbrough is not an elite passer for a big man and while he can re-locate the ball out of a double team, he rarely makes a pass for a quick basket out of the double team. In essence, it doesn't hurt teams too badly to double Hansbrough because there is not a huge risk of the man that is then unguraded scoring a ton of points of Hansbrough assists. With double teams coming this quickly and often, Hansbrough is forced to pass the ball much more often than in his first three years at UNC and therefore cannot get to the line as often.

Third, even in one on one defense of Hansbrough, I have noticed a great difference in how he is defended when compared to other big men in the ACC. Not one big man from another team has tried to "body" Hansbrough when he catches the ball in the paint or establish their defensive position on him once he catches the ball. Rather, teams now are simply guarding him with a hair of a cushion and when he goes to shoot simply putting their hands straight into the air with no real attempt to block the shot. This is completely legal defense in every way and it does not allow Hansbrough to initiate contact and get a call. Hansbrough is supremely gifted in traffic at playing through contact and getting a shot off anyway. When teams don't allow him to initiate the contact and just put their arms up there is really no way the referees can call a foul. Previously, I had seen bigs from other teams over and over reach at the ball when Hansbrough shot it becuase it does look blockable at times with his low release point from around his shoulder on many post moves. They can't get to it though and it would lead to foul after foul after foul call and marches to the line for Tyler. With the way I have seen defense played on Hansbrough in one-on-one situations recently there is simply not much of a chance that Tyler will get a lot of calls becuase it is hard for refs to blow the whistle when all the defender is doing is standing straight up. He is allowed to be there after all.

Tyler Hansbrough will go down as one of the best to ever play in the ACC. There isn't really any way to argue that. He has been a point machine and won a lot of games for the Tar Heels over the past four years. There is a very good chance that he may be the last four-time all-American in college basketball. There are not very many guys that will stay four years that are first team all-Americans every year before. I see Hansbrough's lack of FT attempts and production over the past few weeks as something that other teams have done defending him and what his own team has done to defend him in a sense (not getting him his normal quantity of touches).