Hall of Fame: Tyler Hansbrough enters exclusive company

One local basketball standout and former college All-American will forever be immortalized in the world of college basketball.

Tyler Hansbrough, a 2005 Poplar Bluff High School graduate who led the Mules to a Class 5 state title before advancing to the University of North Carolina, where he became a three-time All-American, will take his rightful place in the College Basketball Hall of Fame for the class of 2023.

Hansbrough becomes the 14th Tar Heel enshrined in the National Collegiate Basketball of Fame.

Hansbrough was placed into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame earlier this year. Similar to his previous induction, he gives a lot of credit to the community of Poplar Bluff for sticking beside him throughout his journey.

“It’s a really good feeling,” Hansbrough said about being inducted into the College Basketball HOF. “We had a lot of success, but when someone talks about me going into the Hall of Fame, I wasn’t alone because I had a lot of people who helped me with my career. I had a lot of good coaches, teammates and support from my community. Hopefully, with me going into the College Basketball HOF, they can also feel like they're a big part of that.”

Hansbrough finished his career with the Mules as the all-time leading scorer with 2,464 points. He is UNC’s all-time NCAA tourney scoring leader with 325 points, the 2008 National Player of the Year, the ACC’s all-time scoring leader with 2,872 points, the only player in ACC history to earn First Team All-America and All-ACC honors in each of his four seasons and is a national champion with the 2009 Tar Heels.

Hansbrough said he was very lucky to play at UNC when he did because the college basketball landscape has drastically changed over the past few years with Name, Image and Likeness deals (NIL) and the transfer portal. When he played, it was for the love of the game. He said playing under legendary college basketball coach Roy Williams was tough, but he demanded a lot from its players and also from himself.

“I played for an amazing coach,” Hansbrough said. “I learned a lot of lessons from Coach Williams, such as being a team player, being respectful to the coaching staff, showing up on time and putting in the work to earn everything we got. All the success that we had at Carolina, we worked for it every single day, and that's because of the way Coach Williams ran the team.”

As for his favorite memories at UNC, of course, winning a national championship holds top honors. For most college basketball players, winning a national championship is the greatest achievement but for Hansbrough, it was going undefeated against longtime Bluebloods rival at Duke University.

Though Williams played a huge role in Hansbrough's accolades, he also gives a lot of credit to his high school basketball coach, PBHS football and baseball coach John David Pattillo, who coached Hansbrough as the boys basketball coach from 1996 to 2005.

“Coach Pattillo wasn’t an easy coach to play for either,” Hansbrough said. “The entire coaching staff worked hard at Poplar Bluff, and I think that's also a representation of the community. We were in the gym daily and put in a lot of work. He taught me work ethic, and the community as a whole really supported me no matter the team from Poplar Bluff and then on to Carolina.”

Pattillo said it was a great experience to coach Hansbrough and watch him blossom into a phenomenal player at UNC. He said it was a lot of fun watching all of Carolina’s games on TV and being a fan as he watched all of his successes.

“It's awesome to see Tyler enter the College Basketball HOF,” Pattillo said. “He really had the support from the entire community. He did some really great things here and in North Carolina. At that time, he was probably the most dominant player in college basketball, and it was just amazing to witness. All of our kids who played in that program at that time had such a great experience. We got to travel and did a lot of things not everybody gets to do, and a lot of that was because of Tyler.”

As a hometown hero, Hansbrough said the biggest advice he can offer to any kid with dreams of playing at the collegiate level is to earn everything.

“If you want to be a great player, you must have a great work ethic,” Hansbrough said. “You must put in the work and be patient because not everything happens overnight, especially in today's society where everyone sees highlight clips on social media. Master the fundamentals and the basics because there’s something special about a player that does that. You'll never regret working hard and that's always been my thing.”