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The 5 hardest ballers of the last 10 NCAA tournaments

REUTERS/Ellen Ozier

For many people, acting hard doesn't come easy. Being hard all the time, as a way of life, is even tougher; much as some may try, hardness is an ingrained, not learned, trait.

Never is that on display more than in the NCAA tournament. Here are five of the hardest college ballers from the last decade of March Madness.

Tyler Hansbrough, North Carolina

Any discussion of toughness begins and ends with Tyler Hansbrough, who balls so hard that North Carolina head coach Roy Williams measures effort on a scale from "zero" to "Tyler Hansbrough."

Not only was Hansbrough one of the greatest college basketball players of all time - he ranks 13th in career scoring and has a player of the year award and national championship on his resume - but few have ever played the game so unmercifully hard.

The result is the nickname Psycho T, complete with YouTube mixes, and one of the most iconic tournament performances ever, an 18-point, seven-rebound showing in the 2009 national championship game.

And for further proof of his toughness, look outside the tournament to a March 4, 2007 game against Duke, where Hansbrough bounces up from a Gerald Henderson elbow and gets hard:

Aaron Craft, Ohio State

There are a few words that describe Aaron Craft well: grit, hustle, leadership, intangibles. The best word of all may be "hard."

Few players in recent memory played all-out the way Craft did, earning high praise for his defense from Kyrie Irving, the nickname Man of Steal and a training camp invite with the Golden State Warriors last fall. Now playing well in the D-League - Craft averages 9.4 points, five rebounds, 6.4 assists and 2.5 steals - Craft leaves behind a terrific tournament legacy.

In 13 career tournament games, Craft won 10, tallying 38 steals, 49 rebounds and 74 assists in the process. His career ended on the opposite of one shining moment, but the highlight tells you all you need to know about his style of play.

Kenneth Faried, Morehead State

When it comes to going hard, few did so with unbridled energy like Kenneth Faried, who has continued to do exactly that at the NBA and international levels. 

If running the floor and crashing the glass with abandon can stand as good measures, few got hard like Faried. The NCAA's 12th-leading rebounder all-time, Faried led the country in rebounding in his junior and seasons, came second in his sophomore campaign and has three of the six most prolific rebounding seasons since the turn of the millennium.

What's more, he brought it for tournament games for underdog Morehead State, averaging 12.8 points and 15.3 rebounds in four games over two appearances, winning a 16-seed play-in game in 2009 and winning as a 13-seed in 2011. He also blocked a potential game-winner at the buzzer of that 13-4 upset against Louisville.

Rico Gathers, Baylor

List the current NCAA players you'd least like to take a charge from and Baylor's Rico Gathers probably comes up at the very bottom of that list.

Standing 6-foot-8 and 280 pounds, Gathers is not only perhaps the strongest player in college basketball, but the hardest, too. Not even coaches are safe at times of celebration.

Gathers averaged 11.6 points and 11.6 rebounds as a junior this season, ranking fourth in the country on the glass and second in total offensive rebounds. Baylor would come up short in an upset loss to Georgia State in the NCAA tournament, but Gathers did his part with nine points, 10 rebounds, one block and countless mean mugs.

Dude works so hard that a team manager literally has to follow him around in practice mopping up his sweat.

Terry Rozier, Louisville

If one of a player's NBA comparables is Kyle Lowry, it's a safe bet he's among the hardest players in the college ranks. Such is the case for Louisville's Terry Rozier, who earns rave reviews for his quickness, finishing, defense and, of course, toughness and effort.

In last season's tournament, Rozier tallied nine rebounds and three steals over three games in a minor role. Now a year more experienced and far more important to the Cardinals, Rozier has scored 37 points with eight rebounds, 12 assists and a pair of steals in two tournament games. One of those was a game-sealing swipe against UC Irvine in the Round of 64.

While it's tough to measure, few serve as the engine to a team the way Rozier does, and he may be the hardest player left in the Sweet Sixteen.

He sees you looking.

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