Next Year's Heels

While waiting for my championship t-shirt and commemorative DVDs, I can't help but be tantalized by the thought of Wayne Ellington returning to the Heels next season for his senior season.

Lately draft prognosticators have restated that Hansbrough will go in the second half of the first round, and that Lawson will go between the 10th and 20th pick. With his improved outside shooting Lawson's a lottery pick to me but his size keeps him from going in the first 10 picks.

But Ellington continues to be a projected second-round selection. Players who go in the first round get a guaranteed, three-year contract. However, there is no such guarantee for second-rounders.

In addition to his uncertain draft status, coming back would allow Ellington to be the MAN next year. Not only would Carolina's offense revolve around him - when was the last time, if ever, Carolina ran their offense around their 2-guard? Never? - but Ellington would be among the favorites for ACC player of the year.

The projected line up of Drew II, Ellington, Ginyard, Thompson and Davis, with Graves, Zeller, uber-freshman Hanson and one of the freshman guards backing up Drew, is tantalizing to say the least.

Some random hoops notes:

• Thanks to the two recent championships it seems like it was a million years ago that Matt Doherty was the coach in Chapel Hill. In light of FIU signing Isiah Thomas as their head coach, it's interesting to note that Doherty has not exactly set the world on fire since leaving Carolina. After a year at Florida Atlantic in Boca Raton, one of FIU's biggest rivals, Doherty is now the head coach at Southern Methodist University. According to ESPN, "SMU has gone from 17 losses to 20 to 21 in Doherty's three seasons in Dallas." Hard to believe that guy had the keys to the Carolina basketball program.
• Almost as weird as seeing Thomas go to FIU was the news that Greg Paulus may enroll at Michigan to play quarterback. Like his brother, the back up quarterback at Carolina, Greg Paulus was one of the best high school quarterbacks in the United States, and chose Duke basketball over Notre Dame football. The Paulus/Michigan story may be even odder than the Thomas/FIU one. The former is a marginal player trying to latch on to a marquee athlethic program, while the latter is a marquee college basketball player trying to latch on to a marginal college basketball program.
• For the record, FIU does have two NBA alums: Raja Bell and Carlos Arroyo (who now plays in Israel).