CHAPEL HILL - Jersey spattered with blood, cotton shoved up his fractured nose, North Carolina forward Tyler Hansbrough asked that his picture be taken before he left the training room Sunday night -- to be used as inspiration in the weight room.

"I wish I wouldn't have smiled," Hansbrough said Tuesday of the photo. "It would have made it a little meaner."

Typical toughness. Typical Tyler.

Hansbrough, UNC's leading scorer and rebounder, will have to wear a protective facemask in practice this week, and perhaps in the top-seeded Tar Heels' opening game on Friday in the ACC Tournament.

But the sophomore said he has no hard feelings toward Duke freshman Gerald Henderson -- who flagrantly forearmed him in the nose Sunday, earning an ejection and one-game suspension -- because he knows a bit about aggressive play himself.

"I understand that if I hit somebody like that, I don't ever intend to hurt anybody, and I don't think he intended it to be like that," said Hansbrough, adding that he doesn't expect to be contacted by Henderson or any Duke official with an apology. "So if people look at it and say he did it intentionally, I think that would be wrong because as a player, you don't always want to do that -- hurt somebody."

It only looks like it sometimes -- especially when playing against the 6-foot-9, 245-pounder aptly nicknamed "Psycho."

Sunday's flagrant call was the fifth excessive foul whistled against a Hansbrough opponent this season (Tennessee's JaJuan Smith was ejected after a flagrant personal foul on Nov. 24, Mike Jefferson of High Point was called for an intentional fould on Dec. 9, and Georgia Tech's Zach Peacock and Ra'Sean Dickey were called for intentional fouls on Jan. 20). Hansbrough also leads the league in free-throw attempts (259) because he gets tagged so often.

Coach Roy Williams said that many opponents, sometimes two or three at a time, tend to be aggressive against Hansbrough because he is so physical himself.

"It's not that he's always looking for contact, but he's not a jump-over-the-moon guy," he said. "If he wants to be at the basket, and it's the other side of you, he wants to get there."

But the price of getting there is often scratches, bumps and bruises.

"I'll be honest with you: I've had someone tell me that he's a very hard player to officiate because there is always contact, and I understand that," Williams said. "... I'm not saying he's Shaquille O'Neal, but somebody that's fouled and doesn't fall to the floor on every play -- and doesn't appear that the foul affected the shot or affected the play -- is not going to get that foul, where somebody else would get that same foul, and it would be called."

Hansbrough said he thinks he is drawing more physical attention this season -- evidenced Tuesday by the bruise under his right eye and wiggly upper tooth (courtesy of a run-in with Duke's Josh McRoberts in the first half Sunday).

That's why he's determined not to let the clear, custom-fitted facemask distract him. And if he does, he hopes the medical staff will let him ditch it.

"I was telling my mom, [the fracture] being on my face, at least it doesn't mess me up with running or lifting or anything like that," said Hansbrough, who has slight trouble breathing out of his right nostril -- but insists it won't affect him because he breathes out of his mouth when he plays.

"I can still run really fast, and jump as high as I want. So that's the good thing about it."

Typical toughness. Typical Tyler.

"He gets hit in the face and all over his body more than any other player I've ever played with -- and probably any other player I've ever seen in college basketball," senior Wes Miller said. "But the thing about Tyler, sometimes I think he likes contact, because he responds pretty well to it."

As evidenced by the bloody, smiling picture in the weight room.