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"When he came back, you could immediately see a difference," said Mules scorekeeper Tom Hoover, a former player, coach and principal at Poplar Bluff. "He just looked like a man."

Hometown hero

The hard work paid off as Hansbrough averaged 26.5 points and 11.4 rebounds while leading the Mules to their first basketball state championship in 2003-04.

Fans lined up two hours before the junior varsity tipped off in order to secure a seat for the varsity games. Nike outfitted the team. The Mules were invited to play in other parts of the country.

But it was the school's second state title that will resonate with generations of Poplar Bluffians.

Vashon, a basketball powerhouse out of St. Louis that had moved up from Class 4-A to 5-A, was riding a 60-game winning streak when it arrived in Columbia for the championship game.

With 75 percent of the arena filled with folks wearing maroon grinning-Mules logos -- "You could have robbed a bank in downtown Poplar Bluff and no one would have known," said Gene Bess, the basketball coach at Three Rivers Community College -- Tyler scored 29 points, grabbed 16 rebounds and blocked two shots as the Mules won by 16 points.

"It was like 'Hoosiers' around here," Poplar Bluff athletics director Bill Caputo said. "People lined the highway to welcome them back; Tyler stood in that gym and signed autographs for forever."

Pretty big stuff in a town whose most famous former residents include Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, the creator/writer of the hit TV series "Designing Women," as well as NBA star Latrell Sprewell, who played two years at Three Rivers before transferring to Alabama.

"I know little fifth-grade boys who wanted to know where Tyler got his hair cut so they could get their hair cut just like Tyler," Callahan said. "... But he never got a big ego. ... And he taught a lot of kids around here a lesson: If you work hard like he did, you can be successful."

The next step

After watching him average 21 points and 5.5 rebounds in two exhibition games, UNC fans are counting on Hansbrough to adjust quickly to the college game -- especially with Duke's Shelden Williams and Wake Forest's Eric Williams down the road, waiting to test him.

With so few big men backing him up, he'll have to learn to avoid foul trouble, but Roy Williams has said that Hansbrough, whom his teammates have dubbed "Psycho T," is perhaps the most relentless freshman he ever has coached.

None of it surprises the folks in Poplar Bluff.

"He's something special; he's once-in-a-lifetime," Hoover said. "I've been going to basketball games here since 1948, and I knew when he came along he was once-in-a-lifetime."

The town itself has become a Carolina blue outpost.

At Hibbett Sports store, "everything we get with North Carolina on it, we sell," said assistant manager Kathy Frey.

The local newspaper, the Daily American Republic, is running a "Tyler Tracker" after every UNC game.

"He may be hundreds of miles away now, but this town will always support him,'' Callahan said. "We'll be watching."

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