Gary Parrish

At least Austin Daye is remaining optimistic.

"I'll be alright, man," Daye said via text message Tuesday afternoon. "It's just a setback. But I'll be cool."

The setback is a partially torn ACL Daye suffered last week at the LeBron James Skills Academy. At the time, Daye was believed to be mostly OK as the injury was initially diagnosed as an injured tendon in the right hamstring. But a subsequent MRI performed when he returned home to California showed a torn ACL that will put into jeopardy Daye's sophomore season and Gonzaga's attempt to make its first Final Four.

To place this in context, consider that Kansas star Brandon Rush had ACL surgery last June 1 and missed the Jayhawks' first two games before returning ahead of schedule November 15. That's basically 5 1/2 months of recovery. So if Daye has surgery later this week and follows the same remarkable recovery path he would be out until at least January -- meaning he'd miss most of the Zags' non-league schedule, where NCAA tournament seeds (crucial in positioning for a Final Four run) for non-BCS programs are usually determined.

That's not good. But barring something out of the ordinary, Daye should be back. That's what he and Gonzaga fans should remember. And if the 6-foot-10 forward can recover (like Rush did at Kansas) to lead the Zags to a national title (like Rush did at Kansas) and still be a lottery pick (like Rush was coming out of Kansas) then this will indeed be just a setback, like he said.

Here's Tuesday's Dear Gary ...

Dear Gary: Tyler Hansbrough is overrated! Go Duke!

-- Hayden

I knew that column about how Stephen Curry could be the New Face of College Basketball would be perceived as a shot at Hansbrough, which is why I went out of my way to write nice things about the North Carolina senior -- like that he's the "easy pick for Preseason National Player of the Year, destined to go down as one of the best in ACC history and if I had to start a college team tomorrow I'd take him with my first pick. Make no mistake, I like Psycho T (and let the record show I think he'll be a better pro than most expect)."

Despite all that, UNC fans thought I was bad-mouthing Hansbrough.

And anti-UNC fans -- mostly Duke fans, shockingly -- applauded me for ripping Hansbrough.

But both groups of fans are missing the point.

I was not bad-mouthing or ripping Hansbrough while writing about Curry, and let me take this moment to explain how Hansbrough is not overrated at all. Most people think he's the most dominant basketball player in America and that's exactly what he is, the most dominant basketball player in America. So Hansbrough isn't overrated. He's accurately rated. Likewise most people think the Beatles are the best band of all-time and that's exactly what they are, the best band of all-time. Thus, the Beatles are accurately rated, too. So Tyler Hansbrough and the Beatles are accurately rated, and I hope we never have to go over this again.

That said, I don't necessarily believe Hansbrough is the type of player casual fans love to watch on TV.

I kinda agree with the coach from the column on that point.

His game doesn't feature blocked shots into the second row, beautiful drives to the basket or gorgeous stepback jumpers. Hansbrough does his work in other, less-pretty ways. Which is why I think Curry is the guy most fans would rather watch play a game even though Hansbrough should be the Preseason National Player of the Year (he's the best player on the best team, after all). And I think that's a reasonable point that shouldn't be taken as a shot at Hansbrough.

I am the Walrus.

Goo goo g'joob.