updated 9:04 p.m. ET Oct. 15, 2008

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - For Tyler Hansbrough, the value of another year at North Carolina can’t be measured in NBA dollars. It’s not just about records, titles or trophies, either.

The reigning player of the year is also back for something else: one more season to be a kid before basketball becomes a business.

“I like my situation,” Hansbrough said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I really enjoy college. I felt like this is where I want to be. I want to be a part of this team because I consider all my teammates like my brothers, and I didn’t want to leave them behind for another year because I was wanting to do something else. I mean, I enjoy this more than anything.”

Sure, he likely would have been a first-round pick had he entered the 2008 NBA draft. Instead, he decided to stay in Chapel Hill, where he could break the program’s 30-year-old career scoring mark in the first month of the season and his Tar Heels are loaded for another shot at the national championship he so desperately wants.

He has earned the right to become the eighth player in program history to have his jersey retired. He’s the first AP player of the year to return to school since LSU’s Shaquille O’Neal in 1991. And he’s probably the biggest name to skip the draft and return for a fourth season since Tim Duncan more than a decade ago.

“Obviously with him, like Tim Duncan, there is something there besides the money,” said Dave Odom, who coached Duncan at Wake Forest. “That’s not wrong either, and we need to celebrate that. ... I’ve never seen any player who stayed four years and graduated who ended up being worse for the extra year and the diploma in his hand walking away from there.”

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Jay Bilas, a former Duke player and ESPN analyst, doesn’t question the decision. He figures the 6-foot-9, 250-pound forward would have gone in the middle of the first round had he left school and likely won’t see a huge spike or drop in his draft stock.

“You hear that a lot from people that he is who he is, and who he is very good,” Bilas said. “I think some people look at it like a negative that he’s an established commodity, that people know what they’re getting. That can be a really good thing. There’s so many guys who get drafted on potential higher than maybe they’re worth and end up being a disappointment. He’s going to play a dozen years in the NBA and make more money than any of us can count.”

A repeat performance on the court — and then some — is something Hansbrough and his teammates will be expected to produce this season. The top six scorers are back from a team that won a school-record 36 games to reach the Final Four. The pressure to win a national championship will be immense, and everyone will be ready to pass judgment on whether Hansbrough’s return helps or hurts his NBA draft stock.

No matter. The guy nicknamed “Psycho T” for his relentless oncourt style knows he made the right call.

“I realize everybody’s going to put that target on my back by coming back,” he said. “I’m not going to place any added pressure on myself. I’m just going to try to do the things that help my team win. I’m not going to try to live up to any expectations. I think as long as our team is doing fine, everybody will be happy.”

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Still, there will be repeated questions for him that count down his pursuit of the school’s all-time scoring and rebounding records, as well as the Atlantic Coast Conference scoring mark set by Duke’s J.J. Redick in 2006. But Hansbrough’s roommate, fellow senior Bobby Frasor, doesn’t expect Hansbrough to have trouble with the increased scrutiny. He sees a different side of him.

Frasor describes Hansbrough as the guy who tells “terrible” jokes and has a “strange” sense of humor, who has the “weirdest” taste in music and even dances while listening to — of all things — the ’80s song “Puttin’ on the Ritz” on his iPod.

Hansbrough, on track to graduate with a degree in communication studies, shares an offcampus house with Frasor and senior Marcus Ginyard, along with former team manager and since-graduated Preston Puckett. His family’s financial stability — his father, Gene, is an orthopedic surgeon — took out the monetary need to leave school, especially for a guy described by his father as someone who “doesn’t need Rolexes and Escalades to be a happy person.”

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