Hansbrough named AP player of the year
SAN ANTONIO -- Tyler Hansbrough had a very busy Friday morning on the biggest weekend of his young basketball career.
The North Carolina junior forward was selected The Associated Press' college basketball player of the year, an honor that came less than an hour after he was presented the Oscar Robertson Trophy by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association as their player of the year.
The ceremonies were a couple of blocks apart, and the 6-foot-9 Hansbrough, his coach and parents made the short walk.
"I know people don't believe this stuff, but he's just a kid, a regular kid," Tar Heels coach Roy Williams said when the group arrived for the AP's presentation. "We're walking over for him to get another player of the year award and practice for the Final Four is in less than an hour.
"I tell him that it's going to be close for him to change clothes and get ready when he just stopped and said 'What about eating?' He's doing all this and he's still just a kid, a great kid who happens to be a darn good basketball player."
Hansbrough led the Atlantic Coast Conference in scoring (22.8) and rebounding (10.3) as the Tar Heels (36-2) were ranked No. 1 for all but six weeks this season and were the overall top seed for the NCAA Tournament.
Hansbrough was presented the award the day before the Tar Heels play Kansas in the second game of the Final Four.
"The No. 1 goal is getting wins here -- that's the most important thing," he said. "Individual awards are great, but the national championship is the ultimate goal."
Drake's Keno Davis was selected coach of the year by the AP, and he, too, had a busy morning as he swept the awards given Friday.
He and his father, Dr. Tom Davis, who won the award in 1987 at Iowa, became the first father and son to win the award.
"I remember seeing this trophy when my father won it and thinking that except for championships there couldn't be anything better to win," Davis said.
Davis led Drake to a school-record 28 wins, its first Top 25 ranking since 1975 and its first NCAA Tournament berth since 1971. He becomes the second straight first-year coach to win the award. Like Washington State's Tony Bennett last season, he succeeded his father as head coach.
Hansbrough received 56 votes from the 72-member national media panel that selects the weekly Top 25. Freshman Michael Beasley of Kansas State had 15 votes, and junior guard Chris Douglas-Roberts of Memphis got 1 in the voting conducted before the NCAA Tournament.
Hansbrough, second on the North Carolina career scoring list with 2,151 points, 139 behind Phil Ford, joins Michael Jordan (1984) and Antawn Jamison (1998) as national players of the year from North Carolina.