Tar Heels No. 1 Recruiting Class

A tear in Marvin Williams' eye was all Wayne Ellington needed to see.

On the second day of his official visit to North Carolina in May, Ellington sat in coach Roy Williams' house, watching the Tar Heels' NCAA championship video with the North Carolina coaching staff, his parents and Marvin Williams.

Ellington was struck by No. 2 NBA draft pick Marvin Williams' moist eyes as the video concluded.

"That's when I realized how serious Carolina basketball was," said Ellington, a 6-foot-4 high school shooting guard from Merion, Pa.

Soon Ellington became the third of six commitments in a North Carolina recruiting class ranked No. 1 nationally by most analysts as the early signing period begins today.

Three -- Ellington, point guard Tywon Lawson and power forward Brandan Wright -- are rated best nationally at their positions.

All-Star Sports analyst Bob Gibbons said unusual circumstances led to one of the best classes since Michigan's Fab Five in 1991 that included Chris Webber, Jalen Rose and Juwan Howard.

The Tar Heels have a highly respected coach, nearly unparalleled tradition and won the NCAA title last season. They also became the first team in school history to lose its top seven scorers as Marvin Williams, Raymond Felton, Sean May and Rashad McCants entered the NBA draft early.

That created a talent deficiency seldom seen in a program as storied as North Carolina's.

"The real telling point in all of this was the opportunity," Gibbons said, "and this is what kids want today. Unlike the old Dean Smith era, when (former coach) Dean Smith would say the best thing about a freshman is when he became a sophomore, kids want to step in and play."

Bleary-eyed start

Roy Williams wasted little time building his team for the future. He returned April 5 from the Final Four in St. Louis, and left April 6 to recruit. Williams and assistant Joe Holladay were so exhausted they had somebody drive them on their first recruiting trip."It didn't work worth a darn, because we had to stay awake to make sure (the driver) didn't get lost," Williams said.

North Carolina already had a commitment from William Graves, a 6-6 forward from Dudley High in Greensboro, a player on the lower fringes of most top-100 lists who fashions himself a shooting guard despite a body more suited to play linebacker. The commitments of Lawson and Ellington in the spring quickly added spark to the class.

Lawson said he was impressed with the chance to fill Felton's role by pushing the ball in Roy Williams' fast-breaking system.

Ellington said he was affected by Marvin Williams' tears and had fun bowling on his visit with David Noel, Reyshawn Terry, Marvin Williams, Byron Sanders, Wes Miller and Quentin Thomas. Ellington won the first game and said he doesn't think the North Carolina players let him win.

"It was competitive," he said.

So was North Carolina's class after his commitment.

"That gave them the nucleus of a tremendous backcourt," Gibbons said, "and then you sort of fill in the other positions."

Big men spurn Heels

Even the best recruiting classes have players who get away.

Kevin Durant, a 6-10 teammate of Lawson's at Oak Hill Academy (Va.) last season, visited North Carolina in May. Lawson's father, George Lawson, expressed optimism at the time that Durant would join his son at North Carolina, but Durant committed to Texas in June.

It didn't appear to be a huge loss at first, because Durant appeared headed to the NBA out of high school. But about a week after he committed, the NBA announced that its collective bargaining agreement would keep players out of the draft until a year after they graduate from high school.

Spencer Hawes, a 6-11 player from Seattle, then became the Tar Heels' top front-court prospect. Hawes' father, Jeff Hawes, and uncle, Steve Hawes, played basketball at Washington, but Spencer visited North Carolina on the weekend of the Tar Heels' ring ceremony at halftime of the football game against Wisconsin.

Hawes was so impressed with the atmosphere and passion for basketball at North Carolina that he was leaning toward playing there for a while. But the family ties and opportunity to build a rising Washington program were too much for North Carolina to overcome. Hawes called Williams and said he took the news well.

"When you're a coach at that level, you know you're not going to get everybody," Hawes said.

Go West, Roy

With Hawes out of the picture and the North Carolina program still desperately short of post players, Williams zeroed in on the West Coast, whose talent helped him build a powerhouse at Kansas.The contacts he built out West continue to pay off in recruiting as Williams enters his third season as North Carolina's coach. Six of the 13 players he has signed or received commitments from have come from outside the Eastern time zone. In this class, he focused on two Californians, 6-9 Alex Stepheson and 6-8 Deon Thompson, late in the recruiting process.

Greg Hilliard, Stepheson's coach at Harvard-Westlake in North Hollywood, asked Stepheson early to name a dream school. Stepheson named North Carolina, but became interested in other schools as the Tar Heels didn't offer a scholarship early.

When North Carolina finally did offer a scholarship, Stepheson's mother, Diane, wondered if the Tar Heels' delay meant he wasn't a priority. Williams' honesty -- he told Stepheson early in his junior year that he needed to work on protecting the ball in the post -- seemed to be working against him.

"We told (the family) that in their process each school does it differently," Hilliard said, "but when they come to the point they offer you a scholarship, believe me, they think very highly of you."

Late in the summer, Thompson's high school coach, George Tachibana, asked him if there was any school that interested him that wasn't recruiting him. Thompson said he wanted to be recruited by North Carolina.

Tachibana called Holladay, who told him the Tar Heels probably would make an offer. Thompson visited campus the weekend of Oct. 1. He went with players to a local arcade where they raced go-karts and was the fastest player on the track (are you noticing a pattern here? The prospects win a lot).

Thompson watched film in Roy Williams' office of Marvin Williams, Sean May and Jawad Williams rotating in the games and alternating in the high and low post on the NCAA championship team.

"I always liked North Carolina because of Sean May," said Thompson, known for his low-post scoring. "I think I play the same way he does."

The reputation for rotating post players was crucial for North Carolina, because the Tar Heels weren't done recruiting.

Silent commitment?

Thaddeus Young, a 6-8 forward from Memphis, has been one of the most interesting stories of this recruiting season.

The Memphis Commercial Appeal reported that NCAA investigators were asking questions about Young after he committed to Georgia Tech. According to the Commercial Appeal, there has been speculation about inappropriate contact between Young's family and Arkansas boosters, and about Nike's role in Young's commitment to Georgia Tech.

Jerry Johnson, Young's coach at Mitchell Road High, said Felton Young, the player's father, told him Young had given a "silent" commitment to North Carolina but had his scholarship offer withdrawn when Brandan Wright committed publicly to the Tar Heels.

Thaddeus Young denied this in the Commercial Appeal; Felton Young declined to comment to the Observer. Either way, Gibbons believes North Carolina got a better player in Wright, a 6-9 forward from Brentwood, Tenn.

Wright visited for North Carolina's season-opening "Late Night with Roy" practice. Wright also visited the arcade, and reported that North Carolina's women's players were there, too, and won most of the go-kart races.

Wright enjoyed the players' skits at "Late Night," but like Thompson, was more impressed with how Williams' system might help him get to the NBA.

"Being able to hit shots in transition, run the floor well, I think that's what a lot of NBA scouts were looking for," Wright said.

Wright returned home from his visit Oct. 16 and committed to the Tar Heels after talking with his parents. He said he was never told of any silent commitment from Young.

After Wright announced his commitment, analysts Gibbons and Dave Telep of Scout.com moved North Carolina's class ahead of Ohio State's to No. 1 in the rankings. Roy Williams had achieved a recruiting coup on the heels of the NCAA championship.

"It puts a big target on our back," Wright said. "We've got to go out now and perform. And I think we will."

Source-Charlottehttp://http://www.charlotte.com Observer