Tyler Hansbrough is on the mend, but likely won’t play for No. 1-ranked North Carolina for at least a couple of weeks.
Gene Hansbrough, Tyler’s father, told Jeff Goodman of FoxSports.com that his son “can’t feel the sore spot [in his right shin] anymore.”
Hansbrough, the 2008 national college basketball player of the year, was diagnosed Oct. 31 with a stress reaction condition in his right shin that would cause him to sit out “indefinitely.”
Now it appears Hansbrough will miss the first part of the season, which includes the Nov. 15 tipoff with Penn, a Nov. 18 game against Patrick Patterson and Kentucky and the Maui Invitational, which begins on my birthday, Nov. 24.
“I think Maui’s going to be a big question mark,” Gene Hansbrough told Goodman. “The early games are nice games, but you’ve got to be thinking down the road.”
“He’s like a caged tiger right now,” the father added. “Rest is a hard thing for him to do because he doesn’t see himself improving.”
Hansbrough did not miss a single practice his freshman and sophomore seasons and only one his junior year. That came the night after he played 47 minutes in a double overtime win over Clemson, a game in which he played with an infected toe on his right foot.
“Of course we are all disappointed for Tyler and our team, but everybody on the roster has a chance to do a little more and play a little better to help make up for the loss of the national player of the year,” Carolina coach Roy Williams said.
Rutgers is due to visit North Carolina Dec. 28.
