Tyler Hansbrough should turn pro after the season ends for the sake of his own safety.

The Atlantic Coast Conference and its officials have failed him.

They have done this young man who has performed so much for the league in the last two years a great disservice by allowing one team after the other this season, from the first game forward, to hack and hammer Hansbrough unmercifully every time he touches the ball.

If the league cares no more about the safety of its players than this, why should they hang around and make the ACC and its school millions of dollars?

The players should be the one cashing the checks.

What occurred on Sunday, when Gerald Henderson of Duke slammed a forearm into Hansbrough's face and knocked him to the floor, is the culmination of a season of abuse.

Hansbrough now has a fractured nose and some tooth damage.

In 20 years of sports writing and a lifetime of watching basketball, I have only witnessed Shaquille O'Neal and Eric Montross take this kind of consistent punishment.

And it is no coincidence that Montross is remembered as much for the blood streaming off his head in a game against Duke as for his stellar play and a national title at Carolina.

If the ACC can clean up its act and protect its players, perhaps Hansbrough could stay and develop his game. Otherwise, he will be risking life, limb and his career to hang around college basketball any longer.

The game has become a joke. The fact is basketball at every level has become a farce.

Basketball was never meant to be a form of boxing or wrestling.

Oh, there has always been some contact beneath the boards, and to some degree that is OK. It's part of the game, but what is occurring these days is out of control.

What's truly unfortunate is that it filters down.

I can recall coaching little kids and literally begging recreation department officials to have the referees call fouls. Instead they continued to allow the kids to pound on one another.

When that happens, a coach has no alternative other than to teach his players how to play the game physically in order to compete.

Perhaps nothing about this game angers me more than seeing a ref call a touch foul on the perimeter, because that's easy, and then turn around and let some tall guy in the middle get brutalized.

We can only surmise officials and the league believe the big guys can withstand it.

Well, here is a truth. Big guys' bones break the same as the guys on the perimeter. Their heads crack open the same as the ones on the perimeter. The truly horrible thing about Sunday is Hansbrough sustained more than one injury on two different cheap shots.

He got popped in the face earlier in the game and may eventually require a root canal to repair a tooth. When Henderson hammered him, a fracture in Hansbrough's nose was the least of what could have happened. What if he had hit the court head-first? He could have sustained a career-ending injury. He might have suffered a concussion.

Yet here is what Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said the real travesty was: "The person who it is most unfortunate for is G. The main thing is for Gerald's reputation. He's not that kind of player. These kids don't have long careers, and you never want an incident to soil or taint someone's reputation."

For heaven's sake, you have to be kidding.

When Krzyzewski came to the press room on Sunday and blamed Roy Williams for having Hansbrough in the game, one wouldn't think it could get worse. But that ridiculous statement managed to surpass Sunday's ignorant rant.

Krzyzewski has yet to show any genuine concern for Hansbrough, and that may be because Hansbrough has kicked Duke's butt in three of the four games he's played against the Blue Devils since coming to Chapel Hill.

Just listen to this statement and think about it for a moment.

"It's unfortunate that that kid got hurt," Krzyzewski said.

That kid? That kid has a name.

Tyler Hansbrough.

He's an All-American, twice All-ACC player, admirable for his ability to take the beatings and maintain his composure. He's been a credit to his school and his conference.

Yet the best K can do is call him "that kid."

Good Lord. Maybe they should suspend Krzyzewski for displaying a level of ignorance an otherwise intelligence person should never display. I've never made any secret of my admiration for Krzyzewski. I've said time and again, in print, that he and Dean Smith are two of the smartest people I've ever known.

But, after what I witnessed in the last few days, my respect for Krzyzewski has dropped immensely.

Mike talks a good game about relationships and people, but, no matter what one of his players does, he never fails to rationalize it and find justification for it. This time he topped himself by blaming Roy Williams and saying the harm is to Henderson.

Krzyzewski had his starters in. He was still calling timeouts. He was trying to win the game.

Williams actually had a substitute at the scorer's table ready to enter the game for Hansbrough, who couldn't come out while he was shooting free throws.

Truth is, that doesn't really matter. Henderson flung himself across the lane, leading with his forearm. I've never seen anyone grab a rebound with a forearm.

Remember back just a few years ago during an altercation at the Smith Center when Duke reserve Andre Buckner came running off the bench after then-UNC coach Matt Doherty. The next day Krzyzewski tried to award Bucker the Nobel Peace Prize by calling him a "peacemaker." Krzyzewski has exposed himself as one of the great hypocrites in sport.

He talks about the kids, but his talk is cheap and tawdry after what we witnessed this time.

As for the ACC, only the conference office and its officials are more to blame than Krzyzewski.

Had they blown their whistles more often this year and let it be known that brutal play would not be tolerated, Hansbrough might not have a broken nose today.

But the accepted strategy has become to beat Hansbrough as much as possible, because opposing coaches know the officials are only going to call so many fouls.

Duke school officials, and what Dean Smith once called "the esteemed Duke faculty," should be ashamed of Krzyzewski's behavior through all of this. He has become an example of why it is so dangerous for any human being never to hear the word "no."

The ACC should be ashamed of itself for not protecting its most prized assets: its players.

Either clean it up or petition the NBA to let these guys go pro right out of high school again. At least they could bank several million for whatever punishment they may endure.

The whole affair is disgusting and shameful, and that would be the case no matter which teams were playing and no matter which kid took the beating. It's just plain wrong.

Oh, one more thing.

What do you think Krzyzewski would have said if Josh McRoberts had suffered a broken nose from an opponent flying across the lane, forearm first?

Everyone knows the answer.