Most rookies commit an unseemly amount of mistakes in their initial pro games.  The key thing to do is balance them out with spectacular showings that have people looking into the future and seeing more of a veteran presence on the court.  Tyler Hansbrough has battled back from early injuries and inconsistency to post some of those spectacular arrays recently.

The first round pick out of North Carolina for the Pacers has had double digit scoring efforts in three of his last four games and posted the first double-double of his NBA career on December 9^thagainst Portland.  Now averaging 8.8 points and 4.4 rebounds a game, Hansbrough believes he is getting more acclimated in the NBA.  “Recently I feel like I am starting to get more comfortable and I am being allowed some more playing time.  I’ve always said the more experience, practice, and games I get the more comfortable I am going to feel.”

The larger role and more time on the floor he has gotten coincide with the loss of Indiana’s franchise player, Danny Granger.  Out since December 5^th with a torn right plantar fascia, Granger is expected to still be out for a month.  With his extended absence from the team, new players have been expected to step up within the Pacers locker room.  Hansbrough has averaged over 22 minutes in each of the four games since Granger left the lineup and has fed off of this mindset and opportunity.  “Being able to step in right away and be a little more aggressive without Danny (in the lineup) has opened up a lot of things.”

His coach, Jim O’Brien, sees Hansbrough’s emergence less about the void Granger has left and more about the talent the rookie possesses.  “I don’t think it has anything to do with Danny.  Tyler is his own man and the more experience he gets, the more productive he is going to get in every phase of the game.”

O’Brien has been impressed with the former Tar Heel early on the defensive end of the floor.  “I think he is going to be a terrific defensive player at this level because his lateral speed is terrific and his ability to close out on a player after he stops the ball is extraordinary.”  The Pacers head man wants to see more offensively from Hansbrough as the Pacers go through the season. “It’s not all about around the basket for him now.  He developed at North Carolina a good jump shot and he needs to establish that every game, which he has done the last couple of games.”

While the job of NBA rookie has been a challenging one for Hansbrough so far, there have also been unique experiences the youngster will always look back on.  A special situation he has found himself in early on is playing against other North Carolina basketball alums, “You kind of have that bond where you don’t really know someone but you went to the same college and you shared some of the same experiences.”

One such alumnus squared off with Hansbrough on Monday. The Orlando Magic’s new acquisition and eight time all-star, Vince Carter, has glowing praise for his brother in Tar Heel blue.  “For his size and his work ethic, he’s a great athlete.  Once he gets the timing and the speed of the game he’s going to be the Tyler Hansbrough we know from college, I really believe that.

Expected to grow into the kind of player that can average 20 points a game in the NBA like he did in his final two years of college is high praise indeed for Hansbrough.  While players like Carter have started to notice the physical gifts, Coach O’Brien boasts that “nothing can beat his intensity and passion for the game of basketball.”   For the man they dubbed Psycho-T in college, these might be the attributes that guide his future basketball success more than anything else.