NCAA Basketball Charlotte

"Jim Lampley (a UNC graduate) has been telling me about the rivalry for 20 years or so," says HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg. "I was also aware of the subculture of both universities, and even though UNC was the state school, they think of themselves as the dignified force in the rivalry. They think Duke is a bunch of animals even though Duke is supposed to be the Ivy League of the South. That never meshed right with me and it was interesting. Plus, you had all these legends coming out of these two schools, the [Michael] Jordan's, the [Christian] Laettner's and the [Mike] Krzyzewski's and [Dean] Smith's. Unbelievable iconic names have floated through both places and it makes for a great documentary."

Davidson head coach Bob McKillop is close to signing a long-term contract with Davidson. Details of the contract aren't yet known, but McKillop did say an announcement would be made soon.

Davidson reached the Elite Eight last year and were a missed three-pointer at the buzzer from downing eventual champion Kansas. On the way to facing Kansas, the Wildcats beat Gonzaga, Georgetown and Wisconsin. The 2008 NCAA Tournament will mostly be remembered for what McKillop's Wildcats did.

This news makes me happy because it is nice to see a coach from a small school stick around once his program gets some notice. Many times, a coach uses an opportunity like that to land a much higher profile (and paying) job. It is hard to blame them since most people who jump at those chances.

All around Tar Heel Nation, there are smiles. Ever since April, it has been rare to see such an occassion (with the obvious exception of Player of the Year Tyler Hansbrough's decision to not go into the NBA Draft). There was the blowout to Kansas in the Final Four, Roy Williams wearing a KU sticker during the title game and the defection of four players from a team that would've been favored next season.

Today, Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Danny Green all decided to come back to North Carolina next season. While Ellington and Green aren't total surprises, there was a point that it felt both would actually leave. Lawson returning is a huge surprise since (a) he didn't seem like he really wanted to come back, (b) the arrest in Chapel Hill would mean consequences from Williams and (c) his stock actually seemed to rise into easy first round status.

This is a huge get for Williams and Tar Heel fans. The only two non-returning players (that mattered) from a 36-3 Final Four team are Quentin Thomas (graduation) and Alex Stepheson (transfer) -- both reserves.

The starting lineup will probably stay the exact same: Lawson, Ellington, Hansbrough, Marcus Ginyard and Deon Thompson. The bench will consist of Green (one of the best sixth men in the nation), Bobby Frasor (injured last year, a smart, steady player with a defensive presence), freshman Ed Davis (who will fill the defensive/rebounder role that Stepheson left), William Graves (long range shooter), freshman Tyler Zeller (a 7-foot guy who loves to run) and freshman Larry Drew (solid PG that won't be relied on too much).

"They are all going back to school," one source said. "None of them were 100 percent sure they would be taken in the first round."

A Chapel Hill police officer arrested Lawson, 20, at 2:33 a.m. on North Columbia St., in the heart of town. The officer stopped Lawson in a 2005 four-door Chevrolet with Maryland plates after hearing loud music coming from the car, said police Capt. Chris Blue.

The officer suspected that Lawson had been drinking, conducted a field sobriety test and found probable cause to charge him, Blue said.

Understand that this isn't a true DUI because it isn't stated that Lawson was drunk. However, he is under the legal drinking age and the law falls under the same statute. Lawson will appear in court on July 8th.

This is really bad timing for Lawson. He is currently "testing the draft waters" by working out for NBA teams. He played pretty well in his only game during the NBA's Pre-Draft camp ... but sat the next two days with a hip pointer. Lawson did state that he'd stay in the draft if he was a top twenty pick, which seems to be higher than experts have him projected -- and that was before this incident.

This arrested really puts the pressure on Lawson as it may hurt his draft status a bit. Now, it isn't the end of the world that a 20-year old drank some alcohol (again, the report didn't say he was drunk) and was playing his stereo loud. However, NBA teams really want their point guards to be good decision makers ... and Lawson sure didn't show that.

It would seem as if the only drama going on at the NBA's pre-draft camp is the status of the three North Carolina Tar Heels that declared for the draft.

Heels fans have been vocal about wanting these guys back and how they aren't ready for The League. It seems that UNC guard Ty Lawson is kind of coming to this conclusion, as well:

North Carolina guard Ty Lawson said Wednesday if he's not confident he'll go 20th or better in the NBA draft, he'll pull out of the process and return to North Carolina for his junior season.

He said his challenge this week at the NBA pre-draft camp is convincing teams his left ankle is healed and showing he'll take -- and make -- jump shots when the opportunity is there.

This goes against Lawson's statement that he doesn't like the "test the waters" phrase since it implies that he's not seriously ready to go to the NBA. However, it is the first nugget of information that Carolina fans have been wanting to hear.

The other is this: guard Wayne Ellington really struggled in his first pre-draft game on Wednesday. He hit just one of his five shots from behind the arc (remember, the NBA arc) and committed six turnovers.

If you are a North Carolina fan, you are hoping that the three Heels who declared for the NBA Draft (Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Danny Green) all come back to school and create one of the most loaded college teams we've seen in a while.

The fact that they are "testing the waters" -- meaning they didn't hire an agent to preserve their college eligibility -- feeds into that hope.

However, don't tell that to those guys:

"But that's not the truth," he said Tuesday. "Everybody is in the draft to stay in the draft unless [they get hurt]. Comments like that are misleading to NBA teams, to say we're just testing the waters."

{ ... }

"Guys don't enter the draft unless they want to be in the draft," Ellington said. "I'm trying to raise my stock a bit and solidify a first-round position."

When UNC's Danny Green declared for the NBA Draft last month, the first question out of people's mouths was "what the heck is he thinking?"

Well, here is what he was thinking (hat tip: ACC Now):

" I mean, if I'm going to be projected to go in the second round, then it's probably going to be in my best interests to go back to school,'' Green told the website. "That's what Coach [Williams] is saying. Coach doesn't want me to go unless I'm guaranteed a contract.

"I mean, I called [Williams] and talked to him about it, but when it came down to it, it was the 'Big Three.' So they had their own meeting, and he thought I wasn't thinking about doing it. But I called him and told him about doing it, but he didn't think it was for my best interests... He gave me his advice, but I wanted to do it anyway. I wanted to see how good I could do. My family's not the richest in the world – not the poorest – but whatever I can do to help my family and whatever's best for my situation, I'm going to do. I thought it was best to try and see what I could do this year."

It has been six weeks since Kansas spanked North Carolina in the Final Four, but Tar Heels' coach Roy Williams isn't done talking about it. He's taken a lot of heat over not using time outs to stop the bleeding of an early collapse, not (apparantly) having his team prepared and wearing a KU sticker two nights later to the title game.

Well, Ol' Roy has something to say to you:

"Only two games in my entire career have I looked back on and wondered what might have happened had I done something different. But was we did in preparation for that game was exactly like Louisville. Washington State, Arkansas and everybody on down the line. And I've talked to my players and they felt it was the same preparation so ..."

"No, you know people ask me about that a lot but, my god, we had a timeout at 16, 12, 8, and 4. If we didn't have timeouts, yeah, I'd probably take them but, my gosh, timeouts are so dadgum long I can't think of stuff to talk about for that long anyway. ..."