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Hansbrough Watch – Nov 27

Review

In the last edition of Hansbrough Watch, I predicted a close game between FC Bayern and ALBA and a Bayern loss by a margin of 7 to 15 points. I also predicted another DNP-CD for Ben Hansbrough. My first prediction wasn’t too far off the mark. Bayern lost by 6, but was in the game right up to the end.

My other prediction, however, was wrong. Hansbrough played for 11 minutes and 9 seconds, his longest in the last nine games. Rejoice!

But what happened? Why did Coach Bauermann decide to throw Ben into the deep end of an extremely high-profile and close-fought game all of a sudden? There are two main reasons:

1. Bauermann wasn’t happy with the play of his starting PG Steffen Hamann at the start of the third quarter. Hamann’s defensive lapses helped ALBA star DaShaun Wood score 9 points in the first two-and-a-half minutes of the quarter. Not long after that, Hamann committed one of his signature turnovers when he drove the lane, couldn’t find anyone to pass the ball to and blindly threw it away… right into the waiting hands of DaShaun Wood, leading to an uncontested ALBA fast break.Bauermann immediately yanked Hamann. On his way to the bench, Hamann didn’t look at Bauermann when he passed him, just gave him a dismissive wave with his hand. Bauermann was not amused. He chased Hamann to his seat on the bench and berated him, his face as red as the hardwood floor in the lanes of FC Bayern’s Audi Dome. To see Bauermann and Hamann go at it and to hear Bauermann angrily ask Hamann “What the fuck are you doing, Steffen?” was well worth the 550 euros for my season ticket behind the Bayern bench.

2. When Bauermann took Hamann out, he called Ben’s number. Jonathan Wallace, Hamann’s regular backup, was busy riding a stationary bike behind the bench. Apparently, he had suffered a minor groin injury in his eight minutes of floor time (in which he looked somewhat overwhelmed at times, turning the ball over on two consecutive possessions against defensive pressure in the backcourt).

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Hansbrough Watch – Nov 22

My article on Ben Hansbrough’s lack of playing time yesterday received quite a lot of attention, so I decided to follow up on it with the inaugural edition of our brand-new Hansbrough Watch!

From now on, the Hansbrough Watch will keep you up-to-date on Ben’s playing time – or lack thereof – after each FC Bayern game.

Before I tell you how much burn Ben got in Bayern’s Eurocup loss to Cedevita Zagreb, however, I’d like to add a few things to yesterday’s article.

As you may remember, the official reason for Ben’s non-existent minutes is that he still needs to adjust to the European game. The flaw in this reasoning is so glaring that I didn’t mention it yesterday, but after today’s game (can you guess yet how many minutes Ben got?), I thought it was time to drop the … nonsense … and expose that explanation for what it is: A load of … nonsense.

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The Curious Case of Benjamin Hansbrough

Ben Hansbrough is a household name among basketball fans in the US – and not just because he is the younger brother of Indiana Pacers forward Tyler Hansbrough. He happens to be an excellent basketball player himself. After averaging 18.4 PPG and shooting 43,5% from three-point range in his senior year for Notre Dame, he was voted the 2010-2011 Big East Player of the Year.

Although he was projected as a possible secound-round pick in the 2011 NBA Draft, Hansbrough went undrafted (which some called “the biggest snub of the year”). There were lingering doubts about his ability to defend quicker, more athletic NBA guards and to create shots at the next level. He also missed the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago due to an ankle injury, which certainly didn’t help his stock.

Soon after the draft, Hansbrough announced that he had signed a one-year contract with FC Bayern München of Germany’s BBL, the highest division in Dirk Nowitzki’s home country. Ben’s signing caused quite a stir among basketball fans in München (or Munich, as you Anglophones call it) and Germany. He was even anointed an early candidate to win BBL MVP in 2011-2012 by some over-enthusiastic fans in online discussions. That may have been a bit too optimistic, but all experts agreed that Hansbrough would be a very good BBL player. And he should be.

Yet nine games into the 34-game BBL season, Ben Hansbrough has been turned into Bench Hansbrough. He hasn’t started a single game yet. In FC Bayern’s season opener in early October, Hansbrough logged 10 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists in 23 minutes – a good debut. Since then, his playing time has steadily decreased. Here’s an overview of his BBL minutes so far:

23:22
19:17
15:17
DNP-CD
10:20
2:22
8:05
DNP-CD
DNP-CD

A grand total of 78 minutes in 9 games – or less than 9 minutes a game. Officially, he’s averaging 13 minutes, but that doesn’t take into account the three DNP-CDs. And even the 9 MPG are skewed by the fact that most of those minutes came in the first three games of the season and he hasn’t had any significant playing time in the last six games. (Seven, if you count the Eurocup game against Benetton Treviso last week, in which Hansbrough collected another DNP-CD).

So … what happened? Why is Hansbrough not playing? There are several answers to this, an “official” one and two “intelligent guessing” ones. Let’s break them down:

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