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Tyler Hansbrough always sat in the same spot on the same couch in the players’ lounge when doing interviews following North Carolina home games back in the day.

It was on the left edge, near the entry way into the room from the hallway. Any media interested in getting Psycho T’s first take after another one of his many double-doubles and Tar Heels wins had to establish a spot well before number 50 came out.

But he always talked to us. Even after losses.

Hansbrough was the consummate competitor on the court, and that often carried with him into interviews. He didn’t blow smoke. He was always highly confident, engaged with the media, though not overly verbose, and he was just who he was:

Sometimes awkward; sometimes uncomfortable with the attention, or so it seemed; and sometimes ready to finish interviews to move on to the next thing.

It was always interesting speaking with Hansbrough 15 minutes after he delivered another blood-bath performance, wrecking the opposition to the tune of 22 points and 12 rebounds. He delivered blows causing bumps, bruises, and sometimes the red stuff.

Football players get “death marks” on their helmets, Hansbrough’s body always got gashes and scraped. And sometimes, he didn’t even realize it until a reporter pointed one out.

“Oh, that, I don’t know,” he once responded when asked how and when he got a massive reddened scrape on his upper left arm.

He really didn’t know, and he really didn’t care. Battle scars were the norm for arguably the most accomplished North Carolina basketball player to ever live. The numbers don’t lie. The accomplishments are etched in stone.

And while Hansbrough wasn’t the most graceful, he was the most productive, and was part of perhaps the best stretch of teams UNC has fielded, or awfully close to it.

The 2009 Tar Heels might be the last truly great college team. Kentucky in 2015 nearly surpassed them, but those Cats didn’t cut down the nets, which is a prerequisite to determine greatness.

And perhaps the most important development of the 2008-09 season came courtesy of Hansbrough. He knew he was the man, the dawg, the best. And he knew it was his team.

But Hansbrough also knew when to theoretically step aside in January that season allowing Ty Lawson to scoot into the lead car pacing Carolina’s race to a national title. Lawson, a junior guard, had grown up enough for his mind to match his skills, and it resulted in him winning ACC Player of the Year, an honor Hansbrough claimed the season before. He was the National Player of the Year, too.

But Psycho T wanted to win. He so badly wanted to cut down the nets, that if it meant being the number two Tar Heel to do so, that was fine. He was still a damn good player, actually a great college player, it’s just that Lawson was other-worldly during that stretch and deserved the honor.

Hansbrough was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame on Wednesday night, alongside former Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski, who never beat Hansbrough in a home game. And noted as much as anything were the numbers Hansbrough posted at Carolina.

But in looking back at the more than 100 games of his in college I covered, the most vivid lasting memory is and always will be his unbridled focus on winning. That meant bringing it every time, being the bull in the China shop nobody could match, pumping his fists in a manner that made great tennis players envious, and the look on his face after Gerald Henderson wrecked his nose.

Hansbrough didn’t have a great NBA career. His approach in the paint didn’t always work at that level. But I did cover a game one night when he was with the Indiana Pacers, a 90-89 loss at the Charlotte Bobcats in November 2012.

Psycho T played 17 minutes but scored 15 points and grabbed six rebounds. He looked just like the guy I saw in college. So afterward, I was in the Bobcats’ locker room talking with Brendan Haywood, another former Tar Heel, and asked about Hansbrough’s performance.

His response summed it up: “Man, that’s just Tyler being Tyler,” Haywood said, smiling.

It was.

There has never quite been a Tar Heel like Tyler Hansbrough and likely never will be. He is worthy of every honor that comes his way, and most certainly including Wednesday’s induction.

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