February 24, 2009
The Nashua Telegraph:
Hanson, DWC Fit Perfectly

This article is reprinted with permission of the Nashua Telegraph. It ran on Februayr 24, 2009. Learn more about the Telegraph by clicking here.
By Tom King, Staff Writer
sports@nashuatelegraph.com 

NASHUA – Chris Hanson is in hoop heaven right now.

The 6-foot-2 Daniel Webster College sophomore guard is playing college basketball, something he never really thought he would do. And he's playing it well.

"Here I am playing basketball and it's exciting," he said. "College basketball in general is amazing . . . When I got on campus, it was like, 'I'm playing college basketball.' It's unbelieveable."

"We're very fortunate to have him, to have him with the right approach," Eagles head coach Dave Faucher said. "And he's very fortunate to have us, his teammates, and I realize that too."

What everyone realizes is that Hanson is one of the top players in the New England Collegiate Conference as the post-season tournaments for men's and women's teams at DWC and Rivier get underway tonight. The Eagle men (16-8 overall, 10-4 NECC) tied their highest win total ever and as the conference's third seed will host a playoff game at 8 vs. No. 6 Newbury (7-18, 4-10) for the first time in a decade. In fact, this is the first time in recent memory all four local teams qualified for postseason play.

Hanson leads the third-seeded Eagles in scoring with close to 19 points and game, and at last look was fourth in the NECC in scoring, sixth in field goal percentage, second in 3-point percentage, and first in 3-pointers per game. And this is following up his freshman year where, in the Eagles' former home, the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC), he was the Rookie of the Year while averaging 13 points a game.

He's also a two-time NECC Player of the Week and one-time ECAC Player of the Week for Division III.

And just think, he has two more years to go, the future of the program.

"Last year I felt (the pressure) more," he said. "Everyone was new and they put a lot of trust in me as a freshman. That's tough to do as a young player. But there's no burden or any of that. We're all close and we all work together.

"I knew (his success) was going to happen, I've worked hard for it. I expected to have an impact, but not like this . . . That's what hard work does."

Hanson, who played his high school ball in Salem, Mass., was actually a point guard back then. But now he spends a lot of his free time in the Vagge gym, shooting, shooting, and more shooting.

"What's amazing, with all the scouting going on, are the people who are capable of doing it when they're marked," Faucher said. "The best thing about it is he's amazingly consistent. A lot of people score points, but they don't do it at the percentage of the time they're taking shots. His two-point percentage is extremely high (49 percent) his 3-point percentage is extremely high (44 percent). I mean, he's got things to work on, he's got to have a better shot fake, turn it over less, and play hard defensively.

"But those are things you do. But the core – he's really a fine offensive player, no question about it."

All Faucher and his coaching staff needed to do was fine-tune him.

"He goes into screening opportunities and he reads it," Faucher said, "whether they go over him, under him, and he's done a great job . . . I knew he was going to be marked coming into this year. But I told him if he works hard, learns how to move and read the defenders, we will make sure he stays open throughout the year, and he's fulfilled that responsibility to the nth degree."

Hanson re-dedicated himself to basketball his final two years at Salem, thanks to the urging of his AAU coaches, Rich Sweeney, and Jeremy Currier. Currier, of course, ended up becoming the DWC head coach for a year and recruited Hanson to the college.

"I mean, he has that shooter's arrogance where he expects every shot to go in," Faucher said. "He has that look on him, and he backs it up, game in and game out . . . He's in shape too, now, which helps. He wasn't in shape in the fall. He'll stay in shape. I think he absolutely loves the game."

"This year," Hanson said, "has been awesome. I'm not worried about the individual stuff. It's all about winning."

Which the Eagles are now doing, thanks in part to him.

Meanwhile, before tonight's men's game, the fourth-seeded Eagle women (10-6, 15-10) host Becker College (No. 5, 10-6, 14-1) at 5:30 p.m. at the Vagge Gym, the winner to face Mitchell College in the semis on Friday in New London, Conn. If the Eagle men win tonight, they face Becker College in the semis on Friday in Chicopee, Mass.