CHARLOTTE, N.C. — They say his work ethic is the greatest in the game. They say he plays harder than a hundred teams. They say he has the mental toughness that can lift a team to new heights. His coach says it. The media say it. His teammates say it.
Saturday night, after Tyler Hansbrough had a game that will go down in North Carolina history in beating Louisville 83-73 in the East Regional championship game for a Final Four berth, someone with even more substance said it. Rick Pitino, who has taken three teams to the Final Four, won a national title and coached 5 1/2 years in the NBA, went one step further.
“I haven’t seen a guy play every possession like that in a long time,” Pitino said. “I’ve never seen it, actually.”
His defeated players wouldn’t argue, nor would the 19,092 mostly delirious North Carolina fans. They’ve seen it before. They just haven’t seen it on this stage. The junior hit 12-of-17 shots and finished with game highs of 28 points and 13 rebounds.
More important, with scrappy Louisville (27-9) continuing to crawl back in the second half and down only 71-66, the 6-foot-9 Hansbrough hit two straight 18-foot jumpers to all but book tickets to San Antonio.
“I’ve never played against somebody who plays that hard, and the kid is just absolutely determined to be a great basketball player,” Louisville center David Padgett said. “Big-time players make big-time plays, and he made two big-time plays at the end of the game.”
In a game of big-time centers, Hansbrough won in a walk. Padgett, Louisville’s leading scorer and the senior propeller that drove Louisville’s leaking boat from rocky seas to the Elite Eight, got smoked. He made one basket in five attempts and scored six points, barely half his season average.
Moments after his final game, Padgett stood bent under his own basket, his elbows on his knees, and fought back tears. If it’s any consolation, Padgett wasn’t the only victim for 13th-ranked Louisville.
Louisville’s press had minimal effect. It forced 14 turnovers, but the Tar Heels, second nationally in scoring, still hit 53 percent. Four other Tar Heels scored in double figures. Carolina’s maligned defense forced Louisville into 19 turnovers and Terrence Williams had two crucial traveling calls down the stretch.
“They are focused young men,” Tar Heels coach Roy Williams said. “They have dreams and hopes. I’ve said many times this year, we don’t deal in other people’s expectations. They don’t have anything invested like these kids do.”
Like all of North Carolina’s NCAA Tournament games this year, third-seeded Louisville looked like just more cannon fodder in the first half. Wayne Ellington had 11 points and Padgett was shut out as top-seeded and top-ranked North Carolina (36-2) led 44-32.
However, Pitino switched to a zone defense that kick-started Louisville’s offense. Guard Jerry Smith, who led the Cardinals with 17 points, made three 3-pointers in a seven-minute stretch. When reserve Earl Clark hit a free throw, Louisville had a 59-59 tie with 10:21 left.
Suddenly, Hansbrough’s magazine covers and headlines began fading into nightmare flashbacks of last year’s regional final, when North Carolina blew an 11-point second half lead to Georgetown, shooting 1-of-23 during one stretch.
“It was in the back of a lot of our minds,” Hansbrough said. “There was that point where they went on that run and I think the difference this year is we handled that run better and stayed poised and came back.”
More like Hansbrough put the Tar Heels on his back. He scored 11 of their next 16 points. But the biggest howitzers were the two jumpers, both with the 35-second clock winding to zero.
“Well, to be honest with you,” he said, “I kind of felt like they were both going in when they left.”
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
