news-record.com

RALEIGH -- Wayne Ellington is still hanging there, drifting just a bit off line and watching a shot he'd just released and could never get back. He floated back to earth just as the ball reached its target, or at least the general vicinity.

The ball slammed off the back of the rim.

"I thought it was in," Ellington said.

The truth is, almost a year later to the day, he's still hanging there. North Carolina has begun another postseason exactly where the last one left off. Or at least the general vicinity. The Tar Heels (32-2) are ranked first in the country and playing in the same building with Georgetown on the day their NCAA tournament resumes.

A lot has happened in that year. The team aged, became deeper and stronger and faster and even more dangerous than a year ago, when Carolina blew a double-digits lead and lost to Georgetown in the East Regional final in East Rutherford, N.J. The players still talk about it, especially Ellington, who spent much of the offseason taking that exact same shot, a 3-pointer from 20 feet out on the right side that would've won the game at the end of regulation, sent Carolina to the Final Four and made Ellington a Tar Heels legend.

"It felt good," he said. "It felt good all the way until it hit the back of the rim."

Ellington still imagines it going in. He has thought about that shot for a year now. A lot of his teammates have, too.

"Our goal is to get past last year and hopefully go further than that," point guard Ty Lawson said. "It would be a disappointment for our season not to go further than last year."

The team opens the 2008 tournament against Mount St. Mary's in a Raleigh pod that includes Georgetown, the team that ended Carolina's 2007 tournament. That loss has haunted the Tar Heels. Roy Williams, the Carolina coach, was talking about it last week in the otherwise giddy moments after winning the ACC championship. And he was taking about Ellington's shot in the hours leading to today's game.

"I think the Georgetown game added motivation to his work ethic during the summer and the offseason," Williams said of the designated shooter in his offense. "I think once the season started, I don't think he's been concerned, if at all, about that. He's just been trying each and every day to work harder on his game and be better than he was the day before.

"But I don't think there's any question, in my opinion -- Wayne may disagree -- but in my opinion missing that shot did provide him with a little extra motivation to work in the summer and try to get stronger and all the things we talked about."

They've talked about a lot in the year since Ellington's shot bounced away and Carolina was bounced from the tournament. The team matured and endured injuries that wobbled the Tar Heels midway through the season. Heading into its 40th NCAA tournament, UNC is seeded first in the nation, playing 25 miles from home and expecting to get through the first weekend and return to the regionals to deal with last year.

Carolina has evolved into the team Williams hoped for a year ago, a team that can run at will, play full-court defense and overwhelm opponents with sheer numbers. But the Tar Heels also have a player who can do it himself, a player who can rise up and take over a game as he did Sunday against Clemson, as he did earlier in the season when he single-handedly beat Clemson with 36 points and the shot at the buzzer in overtime.

Ellington is smooth and fearless, the one player on the team who slithers around the opposing defense until he finds a soft spot. The opponents follow his every step.

"Shooter! Shooter!"

The players yell it as he slips off screens. The coaches yell it from the sideline, far more afraid of him from the bench. The fact is, Ellington should shoot more. In any other offense on any other team, he would.

Carolina has the option of turning its offense over to him completely, but rarely has it needed to do so. Tyler Hansbrough has developed into one of the best inside players in ACC history. Lawson has returned from an injury and has given the Tar Heels the quick-strike element it had a year ago. If all goes as planned, Carolina can put away opponents long before the very end.

This is a different time of year, though, and games tend to come down to the very end. During warm-ups Thursday, as the Heels went through a loose practice on the eve of the tournament, players took turns firing jumpers from 35 feet and beyond. It was all smiles, Dudley alumnus Will Graves putting on a show for the fans who came to watch, Danny Green laughing and joking as he fired shot after shot from the RBC Center logo.

A few feet away, No. 22 was rising again and again from 20 feet out on the right side. His shot arced perfectly, every time, an effortless shot born of endless summer afternoons shooting it over and over and over again.

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com