A sure 2012 title for UNC? Well, no

Harrison Barnes' decision to return to UNC today certainly makes the Tar Heels the consensus No.1 choice in the early polls for the 2011-12 season. Barnes joined Tyler Zeller and John Henson in skipping out on the NBA for at least one more year, meaning the Tar Heels' entire starting 5 will return from a Final Eight team. And UNC will add James McAdoo, who had 26 points in the Jordan Brand Classic all-star game in Charlotte Saturday night and would start for 95 percent of all college teams right now.

Does all that assure a national title? Of course not. But it certainly makes it more likely -- this does feel a lot like early 2008, when Tyler Hansbrough, Wayne Ellington, Ty Lawson and Danny Green all came back for another run at a title and got one a year later.

But remember, UNC also had a team in 1984 that included Michael Jordan (in his final year), as well as Sam Perkins, Brad Daugherty and Kenny Smith, and that team didn't win it all. In the NCAA's one-and-done postseason format, anything can happen. And other teams aren't standing still, either -- Kentucky had four players in that all-star game in Charlotte Saturday night, and several will contribute immediately.

Still, this was great news for all Tar Heel fans. The UNC second string for 2011-12 would be quite a team in itself, and Roy Williams is going to have a nice problem trying to distribute minutes fairly for this bunch. A friend of mine suggests that the next Tar Heel team may have as much talent as any team in the state since the 1992 Duke Blue Devils -- and he might be right.

Enjoy Barnes while you can, UNC fans

After watching Harrison Barnes light up Clemson for 40 points Saturday in North Carolina’s improbable 92-87 ACC semifinal overtime win, I get the feeling we all just saw the best game Barnes will ever play in a Tar Heel uniform.

Maybe I’m wrong and Barnes, a precocious freshman, won’t come out early for the NBA draft. Maybe the impending possible lockout will keep him in school, or maybe he just likes school and wants to stay like Tyler Hansbrough (who also once hit 40 points as a freshman) did for four seasons.

But when you can do something like that, it’s hard not to hear the siren song of the NBA.

A couple of notes about Barnes’ 40 points, which matched his uniform number:
-- They were the most ever in 115 previous ACC tournament semifinals.
-- They were the most points scored by a UNC player in the ACC tournament in 40 years (Lennie Rosenbluth still has the school record with 45 in a 1957 quarterfinal).

For the second straight game, UNC lived very dangerously. The Tar Heels fell behind 14-3 early and were down 73-66 with 2:30 left (and Clemson had the ball). But the Tar Heels scored the final seven points of regulation, then never trailed in overtime.

Barnes had 14 of the Tar Heels’ 19 points in that overtime period, assuring the win. It was amazingly good. Said Barnes of the NBA after the game: “When the season is over, I’ll think about it.”

Enjoy No.40 while you can, Tar Heel fans. I don’t think he’s going to be around very long.