The ACC: six staying in draft & four coming back

Yesterday was the cut off day where the NCAA’s underclassmen had to decide whether or not they would be staying in this year’s NBA Draft or not. As we all know North Carolina had two players (Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington) in this group, but we also knew they would not be pulling out of the draft, since college players can only “test the water” once, and they had done that last year. Along with the two ex Tar Heels there is another four players from the Atlantic Coast Conference that decided to keep their name in the hat, and even if that sounds like a small number, do not be fooled, a team got hurt pretty badly by the decision of his players.

From ACC Now, where you can see the list of who is in and who is out, you can see that this year’s loser is Wake Forest. They lose guard Jeff Teague and forward Jame Johnson, and while I am not sure if I totally agree with fellow UNC blogger, Tar Heel Fan, about Johnson being a biggest lost for head coach Dino Gaudio, however, I do agree with him that with the two players leaving the Demon Deacons will drop from the top third (contending for the ACC Title) in the conference this season to the bottom third next (meaning struggling to make the NIT). And that alone should truly show you what kind of work head coach Roy Williams does at Chapel Hill, as he has lost two underclassmen, two seniors, all four starters, and if you ask ”people in the know”, UNC is still one of the favorites to win the conference. Furthermore, if the incoming freshmen can gel with the returning players this team could easily be an elite eight.

The other two players that decided to stay in the draft are: guard Gerald Henderson of Duke and forward Brandon Costner of N.C. State. And in something that has nothing to do with talent or anything else, this means that the six underclassmen from the ACC going pro early are all from school in the state of North Carolina. Instead, something that has everything to do with talent, I think that Henderson is going to be a huge loss to Coach K, while Costner’s leaving is not going to make a big difference for Coach Lowe, since Wolfpack just isn’t going to be that good next year or for years to come.

Below is the full list of the six players going pro and the four coming back. For the Deacs the only good piece of news is that the third player that tested the waters, forward Al-Farouq Aminu, decided to come back. If he had stayed in what a long, long season it would be in Winston-Salem.

In the draft:

G Jeff Teague, Wake Forest
F James Johnson, Wake Forest
G Gerald Henderson, Duke
G Wayne Ellington, UNC
G Ty Lawson, UNC
F Brandon Costner, N.C. State

Out:

G Greivis Vasquez, Maryland
F Gani Lawal, Georgia Tech
F Dwayne Collins, Miami
F Al-Farouq Aminu, Wake Forest

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