SAN ANTONIO -- Do you have any idea how lucky Penguins coach Michel Therrien feels? He has the best hockey player in the world -- Sidney Crosby -- who just happens to be the hardest worker on his team.

That makes coaching easy.

North Carolina coach Roy Williams knows what Therrien knows better than anyone in college basketball. He has the best player in the college game -- The Associated Press bestowed that honor on junior forward Tyler Hansbrough yesterday -- but that's not why Ol' Roy was gushing at the Final Four yesterday.

"Tyler is the most focused, driven individual I've ever been around."

Wait a minute.

Are we talking about the same Roy Williams who was an assistant coach at North Carolina when the great Michael Jordan played there?

"Michael was the best winner I've ever seen in big games ... the greatest player who ever lived," Williams said. "But Tyler even surpasses Michael off the court in his focus and his discipline at the same stage."

Wow.

It's not just Williams who says that and talks about Hansbrough's all-out, all-the-time effort.

Kansas coach Bill Self, whose team must find a way to stop Hansbrough and the Tar Heels in the second national semifinal game at the Alamodome, talked about how Hansbrough gets "80 percent of the 50/50 balls. He doesn't allow himself to be blocked off. He just has a mind-set to him that few people have."

Earlier this season, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, after watching Hansbrough torch his team for 44 points and 33 rebounds in two games, called him "one of the ultimate competitors to ever play college basketball" and challenged the rest of us to "go below the surface with this kid. ... You do that, you find the heart and, all of a sudden, you find Tyler Hansbrough alone. I respect that kid ultimately. I'd love to coach him just like every other coach in the country would love to coach him."

Two things, Krzyzewski said, Hansbrough does better than anyone because of his extraordinary want-to.

"First, he gets his team into the bonus more times and quicker than any team in the country."

Hansbrough holds the Atlantic Coast Conference record for most free throws (728) and most free-throw attempts (939).

"It's an incredible strength to have," Krzyzewski said. "It's not like he gets the calls, either. He works for it."

Then, there is this:

"The second thing is, he sets a tone of winning and strength better than anyone in the country," Krzyzewski said.

It's not just that Hansbrough -- a consensus three-time, first-team All-American -- has averaged a double-double this season (22.8 points, 10.3 rebounds). Surely, this stat impresses the Krzyzewskis of the world even more: Hansbrough was credited with taking 42 charges this season.

No wonder they call the man "Psycho T."

"No one wants to win more than Tyler Hansbrough," teammate Deon Thompson said yesterday.

Added teammate Ty Lawson, "He's an animal. I mean, it's amazing how hard he plays. He never gives up a play."

And this from yet another teammate, Marcus Ginyard: "We're just trying to give the same effort that Tyler gives every game."

Good luck with that.

The Carolina people will tell you Hansbrough even goes hard in practice.

Perhaps the greatest Hansbrough compliment came from little-used North Carolina reserve Surry Wood.

"It's an honor," he said, "to get your head bashed in by Tyler every day."