Chris Hansen is open when he pulls up to the gym and parks his car.
And if you think Hansen can’t drain a long-distance 3 while standing in the parking lot, you haven’t seen the junior play for Idaho State.
Against Portland State Thursday night, Hansen mixed in five 3-pointers on 9-of-15 shooting for a game-high 27 points as the Bengals dispatched the Vikings 87-76 to start 1-0 in the Big Sky Conference.
After the game, two gentlemen stopped by the media table and asked how many points No. 24 (that’s Hansen) had. They said he was a heck of a player, but asked, “Does he normally play that well?”
That’s a loaded question I never fully answered. Does Hansen average 27 points? No, he’s a shade under 17 at 16.9.
Does he normally play as well as he did against the Vikings? From a pure scoring perspective, his average says no, but the junior exploding for double figures is expected now that he’s in his second year at Idaho State.
Hansen set a career high earlier this season at San Francisco when he poured in 33 points, and he’s topped the 20-point mark three times this year while shooting 42 percent from 3.
He’s a deadly marksman opponents have to tailor their defense to handle, because once he starts raining in 3s, the Bengals’ offense is taken to another level.
I did shoot out an answer to the two guys that asked if he normally played that well by saying, “Well, no, he’s averaging 15 or 16 for the season.”
One responded, “Oh, that makes sense. If he was then we probably would have heard about him.”
I have to admit, as they walked away, that left me a little surprised. Search Hansen’s name on the Journal’s website and 20 articles pop up since Oct. 2 with his name.
And both Chris Renkel and Jeff Landers on Local News 8 and Matt Gittins on KPVI News 6 have mentioned Hansen’s name a few times (to say the least) since he arrived in Pocatello as a sophomore.
Haven’t heard of the guy? No, I guess not if you avoid watching, reading or listening to local media. ESPN hasn’t had Scott Van Pelt spout off on Hansen’s ability to drill the long ball on his national radio show or SportsCenter yet.
I should point out that those guys weren’t being rude. They appeared genuinely shocked Idaho State could muster 87 points. Maybe they were at a game in head coach Bill Evans’ first year when the Bengals scored 60 points or more against Division I competition eight times in 29 games (they’ve done it seven times so far this season).
Maybe their expectation level is so low for Bengal men’s basketball that they couldn’t believe Idaho State could have players like Hansen, Tomas Sanchez (he had 20 against PSU) and Andre Hatchett (a career-high 24 versus the Vikings), guys all averaging 13 or more a game.
But tell you what, I’ll hit up Van Pelt on Twitter and see if he can’t mention Hansen’s shooting touch on the Worldwide Leader. Then a few more folks will know the Bengals of old, the program that’s lost 73 percent of its games the last three seasons, is gone.
If nothing else, at least they might believe Hansen is open when he pulls into Holt Arena’s parking lot.
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