When Billy Packer absolved Gerald Henderson of any wrongdoing Sunday, after the Duke guard clobbered North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough on the beak, the veteran CBS analyst was once again making an unconscious decision in a conscious state of mind.

Or maybe this was simply a case of Packer pulling out his Duke pom-poms. Still, on the other side of the aisle, Packer had a rival cheerleader. On the Tar Heels Radio Network, Eric Montross flipped, saying Henderson had hit Hansbrough in the face with a balled-up “fist.”

In case you missed it, here’s what happened: With 17.5 seconds left in the game, and Carolina up by 12, 84-72, Hansbrough missed two foul shots. He grabbed his second miss in the lane and went up for a shot. Duke’s Steve Johnson knocked the ball away from him. Henderson went airborne toward Hansbrough. With Henderson clearly out of control, his arm came down hard, smashing Hansbrough across the bridge of his nose and knocking the big man to the floor.

When Hansbrough got up, blood was pouring from his broken nose.

There was no “fist” involved. Montross was just seeing Carolina Blue.

On the TV side, Packer had another shade of blue in mind. It only took him one replay to clear Henderson, saying the foul was not “nasty.” Then, twisting logic, Packer actually blamed the victim. He questioned Carolina coach Roy Williams’ motives.

“There are 14.5 seconds to go and North Carolina is 12 up. What’s Hansbrough (doing) on the floor?” Packer asked indignantly.

By the third replay, Packer had stepped up his defense of Henderson. “That was not a dirty foul at all,” Packer said.

As the replays continued – CBS aired nine – Packer continued, saying Henderson had done no wrong because he was simply “going for the ball.” For that reason, Packer said the officials (Karl Hess, Les Jones, Jamie Luckie) should not have called a flagrant foul on the Duke freshman.

“I don’t think it (the foul) was intentional at all,” Packer said.

CBS’ replays could not provide concrete evidence of Henderson’s ultimate intent or what was going through his mind. Nontheless, the video did reveal the body action of a player who, at the least, was looking to commit a hard foul. And when a player gets wound up like that, or out of control, bad things happen.

Packer, who may have actually invented college basketball, conveniently forgot to bring that up. For balance sake, Jim Nantz, Packer’s play-by-play partner, should have chimed in. Did he agree with Packer? Did he have a different take? Nantz offered no opinion. He went in the tank for his partner, allowing him to offer a dubious soliloquy.

Naturally, when the officials ejected Henderson for a flagrant foul, based on what they called “combative and confrontational” action, Packer scapegoated them.

“This,” Packer said, “is a poor piece of officiating.”

March Madness, indeed.

During the game, Nantz reminded Packer of George Mason’s run in the 2006 NCAA Tournament. He asked his pal if we might see another longshot go on a roll.

“I can’t see it not happening,” Packer said.

My oh my, how things do change. It was only one year ago, on selection Sunday, when Packer challenged committee chairman Craig Littlepage for inviting so many mid-majors to the dance.

Packer even recited so-called power conference statistics over a five-year period before telling Littlepage: “History shows the power conferences have taken over this tournament.”