Barnes,Henson, and Marshall All Draft Bound

Recently Harrison Barnes, John Henson, and Kendall Marshall all acknowledged that the were going to enter the upcoming NBA draft. These departures along with those of Zeller, Watts, and White (2 year Mormon Mission) leave 6 fairly productive spots that need to be filled by Roy Williams, who already has 4 top 100 commits for next year.  This is expected news from Barnes and Henson, but the news from Marshall was not so expected from the Carolina faithful.  Although Carolina fans held out hope that he would return to run the show next season in Chapel Hill it really is no surprise he has decided to enter his name as his draft stock may never be higher according to many people.  he is projected to be a top 20 pick and possibly the first point guard taken in this summer's draft.  But I do think had he returned the Tar Heels would have been a top 5 team again with newcomers and the players returning from injury.  Marshall would have been first team all-american and possibly averaged a double-double or close to it with his new found scoring ability, I believe his numbers could be close to 15 points and 10 assists a game which would put him easily in the top 10 of next year's draft.  Unfortunately for college basketball fans everywhere who loved Marshall's old school style of play being a TRUE point guard will miss him and certainly his replacement incoming Freshmen Marcus Paige will have big shoes to fill and will hopefully continue where Marshall left off with his Pass first mentality and score when it is needed.

Barnes & Zeller earn right to be in rafters

photo from bleacherreport.com

     Insidecarolina.com reports that both Tyler Zeller and Harrison Barnes were selected as NABC 2nd team All-Americans which qualifies both of them for rafter duty when the careers at the University of North Carolina is over.  Zeller had already been qualified by winning the ACC Conference Player of the Year Award.  You can be sure that if they bring a 2012 National Championship back to Chapel Hill they will both see there jersey's up with the rest of the Carolina greats.  The only other ACC player to be named was Austin Rivers of Duke who was named to the NABC Third team and he becomes the first freshmen at Duke to earn All-American honors.  Here is a link to the NABC website with full lists of all three All-American teams.
2012 NABC All-American Teams

Successful Surgery for Marshall

Photo courtesy of nydailynews.com

     News is Marshall had a successful surgery that lasted about 30 minutes and went very well and people around Marshall are more optimistic about his return.  Even Marshall seems to be in good spirits as he was having a little humor after the surgery tweeting "Successful morning, I'm screwed"  Hopefully things will work out and Carolina can avoid having to use him on Friday and hopefully he can be ready for a game Sunday should the heels win Friday.

      The bone is on the inside of the right wrist where it connects to the thumb fracture was at the distal part of the bone meaning it was closer to the thumb than the wrist which is a good thing due to that part of the bone having a better blood supply than the proximal part and can heal rather quickly with an aggressive treatment.  I am involved in the medical field and focus mostly with athletic injuries, the best choice in my opinion and limited information on minor details of the injury, is that surgery was the best choice and would have the quickest recovery.  The only thing left for him to do now is to keep on with th icing to keep swelling down and do exercises to keep the mobility in that wrist, so it doesn't stiffen up.  The question with playing will mostly come down to how much pain can he handle and continue to be effective.  Hopefully he isn't needed Friday so he can rest for Sunday should that time come.