* Rashad McCants is gone. In the locker room after the Illinois game McCants told reporters he would hold a news conference in a few days to make his announcement. As Andy Katz said yesterday:
This will be about as suspenseful as Monday's Hall of Fame announcement that Connecticut's Jim Calhoun and Syracuse's Jim Boeheim will be inducted into the class of 2005 after word got out on Friday.Personally, I don't know if McCants is mature enough to be on his own. In fact, I'm not sure if he's mature enough to be in college, but that's where we're at. The thing is, McCants probably would've gone higher in the draft if he'd come out last year. Now, he's only the second-best freak athlete on this team behind Marvin Williams, who by all accounts is the nicest kid in the world. There's still no word yet on whether McCants will hold his press conference shirtless.
* Raymond Felton and Marvin Williams: probably and maybe. Here's Roy Williams yesterday about Felton:
"Raymond [Felton], he and I sat down before the season started and said we would have a discussion once the season was over."Ray certainly has nothing left to prove. He won a championship, and before Monday's game he was named the best point guard in the country.
And here's Roy on Marvin:
"Marvin [Williams], I've heard him say that he'd really love to stay, but he and I are going to sit down and talk."It's really hard to argue that a guy should stay in school when he'll probably be a top-5 pick. Instead, maybe we should be thanking him for coming to Carolina for even one year. That said, one more season of college experience can't hurt, right?
* Sean May is going.
May has said for weeks that he would return for his senior season. But that was before he was named the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player and was easily the most dominant big man in the NCAA Tournament. May has his national title to match his father, Scott, and soaring stock that could land him in the lottery.Sean may is staying.
"I'll sit down with my father and make a decision," May said. "Raymond [Felton] could have an opportunity to leave. The big fella, Marvin, might leave, so there's no telling what might happen."
Sean May ... suggested he would return for his senior season during remarks at the Tar Heels' victory celebration in Chapel Hill with fans in the Smith Center on Tuesday afternoon.Other than injury, May really has nothing to lose by coming back. His family is well off so he's not a hardship case, he likes college, and as Kornheiser and Wilbon mentioned on PTI yesterday, he can be this decade's Grant Hill. It could be a lot worse.
"I love ya'll. Thank ya'll. We're going to try to come back and do it next year," May said. "Along with that I'm going to try to get some of these guys to come back with me."
Williams confirmed May's stated intentions.
"Sean has said publicly he is coming back, but we'll sit down and talk," Williams said.
Now if we could only make sure that David Noel's staying around for his senior season.
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Bill Simmons has some comments on Carolina players' prospects in the NBA. He likes Sean May ("He could absolutely become a 15-10 guys in the pros ... ") but questions his work ethic (" ... if he gets in shape and decides to start running back on defense), is a big fan of Marvin Williams ("Would be more effective in the pros because he's so active and does so many of the Little Things -- along the lines of Luol Deng last year"), and even has some high praise for perennial under-the-radar-guy, Jawad Williams ("Grew on me throughout the tournament -- one of those fundamentally sound, fifth-banana types who doesn't take anything off the table... And can you really go wrong with a guy named "Jawad"?").
If Simmons thinks Sean May is out of shape now, I'm guessing he hasn't seen a UNC game in the last two years. Compared to last season, May is like Jared from those Subway commercials. Not surprisingly, he's penciled McCants in as "a leading candidate for the 2005 Bo Kimble/Miles Simon Award." Woe is Robots.
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And finally, Eric Neel blogged from St. Louis for Page 2, and it's a good read (especially if you're satisfied with the outcome).
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