CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP)—North Carolina underclassmen Tyler Hansbrough, Ty
Lawson and Wayne Ellington—who led the Tar Heels to the Final Four—remain
undecided about whether to enter the NBA draft, coach Roy Williams said Thursday
night.
Williams said he is still gathering information about where the trio would
likely be picked in this year’s draft, adding that he will have contacted 18 NBA
teams by Friday afternoon either directly or through the league’s undergraduate
advisory committee. The deadline for underclassmen to declare is April 27.
“We’re not finished with the process right now,” Williams said after the
team’s end-of-year ceremony.
The three players did not talk about their futures during the ceremony at
the Smith Center. Hansbrough and Lawson each briefly addressed fans in
attendance after winning team awards, though they didn’t mention whether they
will return and were unavailable to reporters afterward.
Hansbrough, selected the national player of the year by The Associated
Press, is a 6-foot-9 junior who averaged 22.6 points and 10.2 rebounds while
leading the Tar Heels (36-3) to the winningest season in school history.
Ellington, a sophomore, was the team’s No. 2 scorer at nearly 17 points per
game, and fellow sophomore Lawson averaged about 13 while directing Williams’
fast-paced offense.
At least one fan in attendance offered his opinion, shouting “One more
year, Tyler!” at the end of the ceremony. But junior Marcus Ginyard said the
team has tried to avoid the topic completely.
“I don’t want to know honestly,” he said. “I just hope everybody comes
back. I’m sure these guys are really thinking hard about their decision, but
I’ve got no information about that.”
Still, Ginyard admitted he was anxious, and it’s easy to understand why. If
the three come back, North Carolina will return its top eight players while
adding one of the nation’s top recruiting classes. If they don’t, the Tar Heels
will have to rebuild in much the same fashion they did after losing four
underclassmen to the NBA and their top seven scorers overall from the 2005 NCAA
title-winning team.
Hansbrough faced questions all season about his future, but he remained
adamant that his only goal was to lead his team to the national championship.
The Tar Heels got back to the Final Four for the first time since ‘05 before
losing to eventual champion Kansas in San Antonio.
By winning numerous national player of the year awards, Hansbrough has
ensured that he will become only the eighth player in school history to have his
jersey retired when he leaves school. He enters next season ranked second on the
school’s career list with 2,168 points, putting him 122 behind Phil Ford for the
record. If he returns, he’ll likely pass Ford in the first few weeks of the
season and would be within reach of the Atlantic Coast Conference career mark
set by Duke’s J.J. Redick (2,769 points) in 2006.
Gene Hansbrough, Tyler’s father, said late last month that he didn’t know
what his son would decide.
“He’s very happy in Chapel Hill and he likes being a college student,” he
said. “He’s a frugal person. He doesn’t need Rolexes and Escalades to be a
happy person. … They may have to redshirt him to get him out of there.”
North Carolina underclassmen Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington remain undecided about whether to enter the NBA draft.
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