In less than a week, on June 28th, the NBA Draft will take place. As usual the World Wide Leader in Sports will be televising the event (on ESPN and ESPN3) which will begin at 7:00 pm EST. For North Carolina fans it will be a chance to watch their four former stars hearing their names called by commissioner David Stern. And for the most part neither the fan base nor the players should be waiting too long, as most mocks have the quartet going in the lottery picks. I went to seven sites to see how both main stream media and the bloggers have the former Heels fairing in the draft. Some of what I found did not surprise me, some did.
Both Harrison Barnes and Tyler Zeller are lottery picks in all the mocks visited. Except for one of them the sophomore small forward is a Top 5 pick, while in none does the senior center break the Top 10. John Henson is a top 14 pick in all but one mock, while Kendall Marshall is out of the lottery picks in four out of seven. The junior power forward highest ranking is ninth, which four sites go with, while the sophomore point guard does not break the Top Ten and is as high as 19th. I was not surprised that Barnes was going to be that high. I am a bit surprised by the margin of picks for both Henson and Marshall, and even more so that people are not seeing that the floor general was the one that made this team run as well as it did.
Here is the compilation of the seven sites I looked at…
Starting this weekend I will give a break down of the four players and then on Thursday I will try to give live updates as soon as each player is taken. So, make sure you come back often to get your fill of UNC and the NBA Draft right here on ISPORTSWEB. I will also have a few guests talking about the quartet from Chapel Hill on my podcast this Saturday morning from 9:30 til 11 am EST.