UNC Basketball Recruiting

Posted by: Gutty

By now, we’ve all seen the AT&T commercial. Hopefully, you’ve also seen the Henson/Wears parody from Late Night. It’s official that Tyler Hansbrough’s fame has reached a national level of frenzy – a frenzy that has now extended into the summer offseason for the first time, showing the breadth of his media popularity.

It seemed odd initially to see Tyler featured in such a broad nationwide advertising campaign. After all, he is considered a polarizing figure to many fans. One can only assume that marketing data must have shown that he speaks extremely well to a wide demographic of Americans. Most consumers probably view him as a wholesome, All-American hard worker and a symbol of excellence. No doubt, his lottery selection to the Midwestern Pacers had as much to do with his skills as it had to do with how well the Indiana demographic would respond to him.

This chart, using data from Google, helps to visualize the peaks and valleys in the 4-year Hansbrough media frenzy:

Every March, the interest in Hansbrough peaked. Each year, interest began earlier and lasted longer at low levels than the year before. Here is a list of the peaks and the related events that caused them:

• March 2006 – Hansbrough’s surprising freshman season, peaking at the UNC-Duke game in Cameron and with the 1st Team All-America selection, and dipping quickly after UNC’s early exit in the 2006 NCAA Tournament
• March 2007 – Interest absolutely explodes after Gerald Henderson breaks Tyler’s nose into a bloody mess and UNC almost makes the Final Four with a masked madman in the post.  Again though, interest trails off quickly, although not as fast as the summer before. A media figure – Psycho T – had been born, and the fires were stoked for the next season.
• January/February 2008 – Coming into a much hyped junior season, Hansbrough’s media interest begins to pick up steam earlier in the season and throughout the beginning of his spectacular NPOY junior season.
• March 2008 – The Tar Heels make it to the Final Four after Tyler Hansbrough’s thrilling jumpshots over David Padgett. Meanwhile, Tyler racks up an impressive list of awards, including the NPOY that ensured his jersey would hang in the front row of the domed rafters forever.
• May/June 2008 – The infamous frat house roof pictures become a brief viral sensation, prolonging the interest much deeper into the summer than the year before.
• November 2008/February 2009 - UNC’s #1 preseason ranking and an insane amount of hype and coverage bring higher interest levels early in his senior season. Tyler becomes UNC’s all time leading scorer.  The media frenzy is now completely self-propelling itself on a daily basis. Lore and legend begin to mix with fact, much like the Bill Brasky satires frequently discussed on the IC and Devil’s Den forums when Hans Brolo was only a recruit.
• March/April 2009 – Tyler becomes the ACC’s all time leading scorer and UNC wins the 2009 National Championship (woot woot). Surprisingly, levels of interest in Hansbrough experience lower peaks than in 2007 and 2008. Perhaps this had to do with media fatigue from the previous two peaks. Perhaps there were more  stars on the team to focus on such as Lawson, Ellington, and the dancing Danny Green. Perhaps iconic incidents such as the broken nose and frat house roof jumping pump up the hype to higher levels than on-court achievements could ever do.
• Summer 2009 – Interest continues into the summer deeper than ever, hitting peaks with the NBA Draft and the release of the nationwide AT&T campaign. Corporate sponsors hover and capitalize on the Hansbrough audience.
• Fall 2009-Infinity – What happens now to Hansbrough’s popularity? Answer in the comments below…