Tyler Hansbrough Is Even Crazier With the Mask

ESPN.com's Bomani Jones writes something I was thinking (but much more eloquently) while watching Tyler Hansbrough sport his fancy face gear during yesterday's UNC-Boston College game:

"Rather than obscuring his on-court persona, it accentuates it. Like Bill Laimbeer's face guard managed to make his whining look more pointed and plaintive, Hansbrough's mask brings out his personality. It's the cherry on top of the crazed persona Hansbrough's created in his time in Chapel Hill, time which dances on the line between intensity and insanity."

Any self-respecting Tar Heel fan knows Hansbrough goes by the handle "Psycho T", but all I could think while watching him wrestle every rebound from Boston College players was, "man, Tyler's a bigger meathead with the mask than without it ... how is that possible?"

He's like the anti-Richard Hamilton; Hamilton plays so well with his mask he hasn't taken it off in several years ... it's kind of his security blanket. Hansbrough, on the other hand, looks like a two-year-old forced to wear a suit to church and is doing his best to squirm out of it. He couldn't look more uncomfortable on the court if he had to wear this.

Hansbrough is obviously a different player with the mask -- he admitted his vision was obscured -- but I like his attitude: If he can't score, he'll just play defense and get rebounds. He's like Warren Martin, but without the big glasses and afro.