3 Tar Heels choose to skip NBA Draft

North Carolina is expected to contend for another NCAA championship.

Associated Press

North Carolina underclassmen Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Danny Green will return to Chapel Hill next season after removing their names from the NBA draft Monday.

The school’s announcement came less than an hour before the deadline for underclassmen who had not hired agents to withdraw from the draft.

It means the Tar Heels figure to enter next year as prohibitive favorites to reach the Final Four. North Carolina will return its top six players while also adding one of the nation’s top recruiting classes.

All three players had participated in the predraft camp in Orlando before working out for individual teams in recent weeks. Coach Roy Williams said the three gained “valuable information,” but said the timing for a leap to the NBA “was just not exactly right at this point.”

Other players withdrawing Monday were Texas guard A.J. Abrams; Arizona forward Chase Budinger; Ronald Steele of Alabama; Robert Dozier of Memphis; Jeremy Pargo of Gonzaga; UAB guard Robert Vaden; and Tennessee-Martin guard Lester Hudson.

UCLA’s Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, DeAndre Jordan of Texas A M, California’s Ryan Anderson and Alabama’s Richard Hendrix will enter the NBA draft.

Abrams, Texas’ career leader in 3-pointers with 284, surprised many when he joined point guard D.J. Augustin in submitting his name for the draft. But Abrams never signed with an agent, allowing him to return to the Longhorns.

Next season, Texas will return four starters from a team that went 31-7, won a share of the Big 12 regular season championship and advanced to the advanced NCAA’s regional finals.

The 6-foot-7 Budinger was Arizona’s second-leading scorer last season at 17.1 points per game and he averaged 5.4 rebounds.

Budinger said he wanted to play another season for coach Lute Olson, who took a leave of absence for personal reasons in 2007-08 but is back on the job.

Dozier joins teammate Antonio Anderson in pulling his name from draft consideration to return to a team that went 38-2 last season and lost in the national title game.

With Anderson and Chance McGrady, Dozier could be a part of the winningest four-year class in Division I history. The record for most wins in four years is 133 by Duke between 1998 and 2001. Dozier’s class goes into next season with 104 wins.

Pargo, the West Coast Conference player of the year, worked out for six NBA teams in recent weeks. He had said he would skip his senior year only if he was to be a first-round draft pick.

He averaged 12 points and six assists last season. Pargo’s older brother Jannero plays for the New Orleans Hornets.

Vaden set the Conference USA record for 3-pointers in a season and set school marks for points in a season along with 3s attempted and made. He averaged 21.1 points as a junior.

UCLA coach Ben Howland said Mbah a Moute will hire an agent and forgo his senior season with the Bruins. The 6-8 forward from Cameroon became the first player to start in three consecutive Final Fours since 1999-01. He averaged 10.3 rebounds in the NCAA tournament, and had 12 points and 13 rebounds in UCLA’s national semifinal loss to Memphis.

Jordan, a 7-0 freshman center, told Aggies coach Mark Turgeon he would remain in the NBA draft with hopes of becoming the third Aggie taken in the first round since 2005.

Jordan averaged 7.9 points and a team-high 6.0 rebounds last season. The Aggies lost to UCLA in the second round of the NCAA tournament.