In case you’re pressed for time, here’s the gist of today’s Hansbrough Watch: Ben Hansbrough was FC Bayern’s best player in last night’s Eurocup loss against BC Spartak St. Petersburg (along with Chevy Troutman).

And here’s the long version:

Jonathan Wallace was active today and played a few minutes, but it seems that for now Hansbrough has moved past him in the rotation. Ben played 23 minutes and 12 seconds, scoring 13 points on 5/9 field-goal shooting (3/5 from beyond the arc). He added 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. What the statistics don’t show, however, is the impact he had on Bayern’s game.

When Hansbrough came on about midway through the first quarter, things weren’t going well for Bayern. They gave away easy buckets, committed careless turnovers, couldn’t get any shots to fall. Their offense was somewhat static and predictable. Hansbrough made it dynamic and unpredictable. He drove to the hoop, drew the defense in, kicked the ball out to the open man. He swung the ball from one side of the perimeter to the other. A little risky at times, but it forced the defense apart and opened up gaps.

What impressed me most was his almost uncanny court vision at times. He always seemed to know where the open man was. Unfortunately, his teammates rarely capitalized on the opportunities Hansbrough created for them …

In the third quarter, Hansbrough was instrumental to a 19:4 Bayern run, draining three three-pointers in quick succession – and waking up a dormant crowd in the process. In one 20-second sequence, he hit a three, grabbed the defensive rebound at the other end and whipped a beautiful fast-break pass to Philipp Schwethelm (who couldn’t convert but was fouled and sent to the line).

Unfortunately, Ben’s efforts were not enough, as Bayern allowed St. Petersburg an inexcusable 0:20 run spanning the last two minutes of the third quarter and the first few minutes of the fourth. Bayern gained the lead with Ben’s third three-pointer, 49:48. About six minutes later, they were down 49:68. Not Ben’s fault, just a collective meltdown. In fact, Hansbrough had just sat down on the bench when St. Petersburg started its run.

There was a nice hustle play by Ben I’d like to mention. Bayern was playing a full-court press after they scored when there was a problem with the game clock. The head official and the scorer’s table sorted it out and the game continued after a few minutes. Ben was caught on the wrong foot and his mark, Yotam Halperin, escaped with the ball. Ben chased him the entire length of the court and managed to slap the ball out of Halperim’s hand when he went up for the layup. The ball was last touched by Halperin, so Bayern was awarded the inbound (although Halperin thought he was fouled).

All in all, Ben was Bayern’s best player today, along with Chevy Troutman. That’s not to say he didn’t make any mistakes, however. He sometimes looked a little shaky bringing the ball upcourt against Patrick Beverley, which led to a few turnovers (he had five in all). It should be mentioned, however, that Beverley is a supreme defender and has excellent lateral quickness. And at least one of the turnovers was preceded by a foul by Beverley that went unnoticed by the officials.

This led to a funny situation when one of the officials wanted to help Hansbrough up and he refused. He probably thought “if you’re not showing me any respect, I don’t need your help”. (Speaking of a lack of respect, Hansbrough was also whistled for two very quick and very dubious fouls when he first came into the game.)

I think it’s safe to say that with performances like today, Ben is making a strong case for more playing time. It was also nice to see Ben and Coach Bauermann communicate during the game. They talked and signaled a lot, setting up plays and defensive schemes.

Bayern’s next game is in the BBL on Saturday, against Bremerhaven. Ben will likely see 20+ minutes of floor time again, I think.

By the way, the fourth quarter was basically 10 minutes of garbage time, so I’ll spare you a detailed description. Ben didn’t do anything noteworthy in the quarter … not that any of his teammates did.