Tar Heels’ Wayne Ellington Shows His Winning Touch

By GREG BISHOP
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com
April 7, 2009

DETROIT — While his teammates clipped at strands of net, Wayne Ellington wiped at the tears running down his cheeks. His thoughts drifted to the past 12 months, to his decision to forgo the N.B.A. draft and return to college, to his prolonged shooting slump, to the hardware he acquired Monday night.

Ellington considered all of what happened between, and he strained for a summary that would explain everything. He did not find it.

“You never know what this really feels like until you experience it,” Ellington, who was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four, said. “It’s something that you can’t explain.”

Less than two minutes into the N.C.A.A. championship game on Monday night, Ellington made an open jumper. Minutes later, he made a 3-pointer from the left wing to give North Carolina a 15-5 lead.

It was a good omen for the Tar Heels. Although it is point guard Ty Lawson who powers North Carolina’s potent offense, and forward Tyler Hansbrough collects the most trophies on the most talented team in college basketball, it is Ellington, and specifically his shooting percentage, that often signals victory.

In fact, after North Carolina beat Michigan State, 89-72, to win the national championship, the Tar Heels improved to 49-0 when Ellington shoots 50 percent or better from the field.

Not Hansbrough. Not Lawson. But Ellington, a less heralded junior guard and the Tar Heels’ third option on some nights and the fourth on others.

On the court afterward, his shoes flecked with pieces of colorful confetti, he said he did not play well earlier this season. But he turned to extra jump shots instead of pity, shooting his way out of the slump, and the result was a swirl of emotions Monday night.

“He shot the ball great this tournament,” the Tar Heels’ Danny Green said. “He stepped up big for us.”

Over the weekend, as North Carolina dominated its games at Ford Field, it was a sharpshooting guard from Pennsylvania who transformed the tournament into the Wayne Ellington 3-Point Shootout.

Against Villanova in the national semifinals, Ellington made five 3-pointers and finished with 20 points. He made 7 of 14 shots — 50 percent on the button, signaling another victory in a North Carolina season filled with them.

Tar Heels fans sprinkled throughout the green and white sea at Ford Field screamed for Ellington in the first half Monday night. They appreciated his contribution, maybe more so because he had been doubtful to return this season.

Ellington was a second-team all-Atlantic Coast Conference selection after his sophomore season, and like his teammates Hansbrough, Lawson and Green, he flirted with the N.B.A. Ellington, Green and Lawson made themselves eligible for the draft, but none signed with an agent, and they decided to return to North Carolina.

They came back for this — surrounded by more than 70,000 hostile fans, sentiment and hometown pride in their opponent’s favor, one final chance to deliver the national title they had come so close to but never won.

North Carolina Coach Roy Williams said earlier this weekend that his guards make the offense go: when teams double- and triple-team the Tar Heels’ waves of post players, Williams said, Ellington and Green provide the outside balance, playing yin to the yang of the tall trees that dominate inside.

So it was that Ellington provided the punch that took the Tar Heels to the title. In the first five games of the N.C.A.A. tournament, he scored 25, 23, 19, 9 and 20 points.

“He has one speed,” Michigan State guard Travis Walton said. “His one speed is going hard. Tonight was his night. He had a great tournament run.”

Ellington resumed the scoring barrage against Michigan State, scoring early and often, staking North Carolina to a 55-34 halftime lead. In the first half, Ellington made three 3-pointers, scored 17 points and emerged as an early favorite for most outstanding player.

As the game ended, Ellington stood above the Tar Heels’ bench, trying to suppress the tears he knew were coming. After the return, the slump and the tournament of a lifetime, his emotions were so strong, so wide and so varied, he could not come close to explaining them.

Maybe the N.B.A. awaits after this season. Maybe not. But for now, Ellington and his fellow returnees will savor the moment they returned for.