The Basketball Times announced their All American teams and Ty Lawson was named to the 1st team. This is absolutely correct and we applaud BT for giving Lawson the recognition that the AP(2nd team) and the USBWA(no team at all) failed to fully give him(SI and CBS also named Lawson to the first team.) On the other hand, BT also put Tyler Hansbrough on the 2nd team. Okay, maybe they had a good reason so let's look at the rest of the 1st team:
Blake Griffin, Oklahoma...no problem there
DeJuan Blair, Pitt....still doing okay
James Harden, ASU....seems to line up with everyone else
Cole Aldrich, Kansas...okay that sou--wait a minute....who?
Cole Aldrich? They put Tyler Hansbrough on the 2nd team and put Cole Aldrich on the first team? How in the name of Dean Smith do you make that mistake. When I saw Hansbrough was 2nd team I just assumed that Hasheem Thabeet was on the first team. Cole Aldrich? Really? Don't get me wrong, Aldrich was not bad, he averaged 14.9 ppg, 11.1 rpg and 2.7 bpg but Tyler Hansbrough went for 20.9 ppg, 8.1 rpg and 1.2 spg. I am not sure how you can equate the two much less give Aldrich the nod over Hansbrough even based on the stats. And that is before you even get into strength of schedule. I suppose it could be on of those positional things but that still does not fly since the AP had no problem fitting Hansbrough on the first team alongside Blair and Griffin.
Clearly folks have a problem putting Hansbrough and Lawson both on the first team and undoubtedly Hansbrough is being slotted down due to Hansbrough Fatigue in the media. In the end it doesn't matter, especially if he is cutting down the nets on Monday night.