Hansbrough doubles up with player of year honors

SAN ANTONIO - Tyler Hansbrough had a very busy Friday morning on the biggest weekend of his young basketball career.

The North Carolina junior forward was selected the Associated Press' college basketball player of the year, an honor that came less than an hour after he was presented the Oscar Robertson Trophy by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association as their player of the year.

The ceremonies were a couple of blocks apart, and the 6-9 Hansbrough, his coach and parents made the short walk.

Hansbrough led the Atlantic Coast Conference in scoring (22.8) and rebounding (10.3) as the Tar Heels (36-2) were ranked No. 1 for all but six weeks this season and were the overall top seed for the NCAA tournament. He was given the award the day before the Tar Heels play Kansas in the second game of the Final Four.

"The No. 1 goal is getting wins here; that's the most important thing," he said. "Individual awards are great, but the national championship is the ultimate goal."

Drake's Keno Davis was selected coach of the year by the AP. He and Tom Davis, who won the award in 1987 at Iowa, became the first father and son to win the award.

"I remember seeing this trophy when my father won it and thinking that except for championships there couldn't be anything better to win," Keno Davis said.

Stewart injured, out Kansas was finishing its Alamodome practice session on Friday afternoon. Coach Bill Self told his freshmen to go to one end of the court and entertain the crowd with some dunks.

Rodrick Stewart, a 6-4 senior reserve, decided to join the fun. As Stewart started his takeoff, his right knee buckled and he went crashing to the floor.

Self put an end to practice immediately. He told the players to head for the locker room, rather than remain and watch Stewart twist around in pain. He was moved after 10 minutes.

"Rod has a fractured kneecap, so he is obviously out," Self said. "He'll have surgery when he gets back to Lawrence [Kan.] ... Rod said he slipped on a wet spot."

Stewart was eighth on the Jayhawks in minutes played at 12 per game.

"We're very disappointed. It's bringing us down right now," said teammate Brandon Rush, who hurt his knee last summer. "We definitely don't need that right now."

Good year for Rose Derrick Rose, Memphis' outstanding freshman point guard, was asked if he would've been in the NBA this season if not for the league's rule making players directly out of high school ineligible.

"I am not ready for the NBA right now," he said. "I am glad they made the rule. I need to improve on my ballhandling, basketball IQ and be a more vocal leader."

Staff writer Patrick Reusse contributed to this report.