All Gone!
 

May, Felton, and M. Williams have all decided to leave UNC early to enter the NBA draft, as it was announced today. They join McCants, who announced last week that he'd join. There are also 3 Tarheels that have completed their eligibility. Good riddance to them! I mean, that should make next year's team DRASTICALLY different from this year's team (and may make it better for my Terps). ESPN article can be found at http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2043604 though ESPN sucks and loads super slowly so I don't necessarily recommend looking at the site.

On related but "who cares" news, John Gilchrist will be leaving Maryland and it is believed he'll enter the draft. I wish I could say I cared about him leaving, but I really don't. Good riddance to bad blood is what I say. But you can read more about that in my blog entry at http://gimpygal.blogspot.com/2005/04...gilchrist.html

/tk

While I'm there http://gimpygal.blogspot.com (which I can't get to load at the moment), is it okay if I click on any Google-type ads I happen to see? ;)

Certainly, feel free to do that as much as you like! :D (and sorry if the page doesn't load, I think Blogger's had some server-side problems this week)

/tk

No suprise at all really, depsite a lot of people getting their hopes waaay up(personally, I will admit to having my hopes up slightly) after some of the discussions shortly after the title win.

But, i can't complain. North Carolina has another national title. Next year will be shaky but I have faith in Roy's ability to get the team back to the NCAA tournament with what he has to work with, and espicially in his ability to pull in solid recruiting classes every year consistantly so that they are reloading every year, not rebuilding.


Also, I defended McCants during the season, I thought he was making real progress. He wasn't a ball hog anymore, he wasn't causing off the court controversy, he really seemed to be improving his character quite a bit. His antics at the final four plus the fact that he's declaring for the draft by himself minutes after UNC wins the title, while the other 3 wait and let the fans enjoy the moment, and then announce it jointly as a set of teammates, is a major step back for him. I hope McCants bombs in the NBA almost as badly as I hope May can succeed.

Winning the national championship takes away much, if not all, of the sting of losing all these great players. Roy will recruit well and we'll be back on our feet soon.

:(
I've been dreading this since before the season even started.

Hopefully the departure of May and Williams will convince Uche Echefu and some other, marginal prospects to sign.

dola,

JamesOn Curry would be looking awfully nice right about now.
As would JR Smith.

tk, I thought this was gonna be about your roommate leaving town or something... I'm a bit disappointed...

:D

FM

i'm with FM on the initial reaction...

however, NC may be gone for a while sinc they'll have to get by with Williams' recruits now and we all know how he did at KU.

:D Yeah, poor, poor Kansas. What an awful program under Williams!

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2...e=jones/050422

More than a bit melodramatic, but I thought it was a decent read anyway.

Williams - Top 3
Felton - Lotto
Michael Sweetney v2.0 - Mid First
Joe Forte v2.0 - Late First

Yeh, all he did was win at least one game in the NCAAs every year and make 4 Final Fours. And he only has the highest winning % of any active coach*. What a chronic loser.

*with at least 10 years of experience

Hey--don't knock Forte, he's going to be playing for his own championship tonight.

It's all relative. The Kansas fans are unhappy because he had the best team in the tournament on at least 2 occasions and quite possibly the best on another 3 occasions and never won the title.

Kansas, like North Carolina, Kentucky, and Duke judge their program on championships. They EXPECT to win 24-27 games a year, head into the tourney with a #1 or #2 seed and get to the final four 30%+ of the time. That's a given.

And coaches who can't meet those expectations don't last a long time. "Matt Doherty" Roy lived up to that part of the bargain, but he never won a national title.

Is that fair? Hell no. But it's reality and I know a lot of Kansas fans who weren't upset to see him go because of it. (and yes, those same fans are seething at Bill Self right now, who is a solid coach as well)

So where's the post from Roy Williams to Arlie Rahn or Jim G complaining that it isn't realistic to lose your three seniors and have four underclassmen declare for the draft in the same season?

No argument there. What annoys me is this ridiculous notion that gets bandied about all the time that some guy or another "can't win the big one"--as if it is some deep-rooted characteristic of their being.

That part doesn't bother me as much. College coaches get paid ridiculous salaries adn get more face time than coaches in any other sport. How many commercials does Coach K have now anyway? :)

They can take some criticism. If they don't like it, run off to the NBA, get fired and get an announcing gig. Lots of money, no criticism there. :)

maybe UNC can get Matt Doherty back as a recruiter.

Nope. Coach D'oh! is heading to Florida Atlantic next year, I believe.

As for all the departures by UNC, it's naturally split the State board. People are already saying Sendek should win now that Carolina's players are gone, but that he still doesn't deserve to stay at State because if he has a good year next year, it's only because Roy lost all his players.

It sucks to be a State fan in basketball anymore.