Yes, college basketball is just around the corner and it looks like the Tar Heels ain’t ready just yet.

The brand new 2008-09 NCAA college basketball season will start on November 10 and unfortunately for one guy dubbed as the national player of the year, he could be sitting out the start of the new basketball year.

It’s still uncertain if reigning national player of the year Tyler Hansbrough will miss any regular-season games because of a leg injury. According to him, he felt pain in his right shin for a few weeks before going to the UNC medical staff.

The North Carolina Tar Heels said Hansbrough will be out of practice indefinitely with a stress reaction, which can be a precursor to a fracture without proper rest. This is bad news considering that Hansbrough is the first returning AP national player of the year since LSU’s Shaquille O’Neal in 1991. He entered his senior season on pace to break the school’s career scoring and rebounding records, as well as the Atlantic Coast Conference career scoring mark. He has never missed a game and had missed just one practice in his three-year career before the injury.

It’ll be too bad if the white dude from North Carolina misses any time.

This is the Tar Heels’ second key injury in the preseason. Starter Marcus Ginyard, the team’s best defender, is likely out until December after having surgery this month to repair a stress fracture in his left foot. That injury apparently began as a lingering stress reaction that required him to wear a protective boot at times last season.

The news came on the same day the Tar Heels became the first unanimous No.1 team in the AP Top 25 preseason poll. They return their top six scorers from a team that won a school-record 36 games and reached the NCAA Final Four.

The Tar Heels enter the brand new season as a heavy favorite to win a fifth NCAA championship, anything less will be regarded as an utter failure.

Who will win the 2009 NCAA college basketball national championship? Bodog sportsbook has the odds.

North Carolina Tar Heels 2.50

Connecticut Huskies 11.00

Memphis Tigers 26.00

Kansas Jayhawks 26.00

Want more odds? Visit Bodog for more basketball betting odds. Want to watch college basketball live? Get college basketball tickets online now.

North Carolina Tar Heels Tyler Hansbrough