North Carolina sophomore aiming for a shot at the title

SAN ANTONIO

The day after his team won the 2005 national championship, North Carolina coach Roy Williams showed up at the Philadelphia-area home of a smooth-shooting high school junior who had narrowed his college choices to the Tar Heels, hometown Villanova and Big East power Connecticut.

Wayne Ellington was flattered, to say the least.

"That just showed me how important I was as a prospect to (Williams)," he said Friday. "Just to hear the stories they told coming from the national championship, I decided I wanted to be a part of that."

He very well could be: The Tar Heels are two wins from their second title in four years. North Carolina meets Kansas at 8:45 tonight in a national semifinal at the Alamodome. UCLA and Memphis meet in the opener at 6.

Ellington is the Tar Heels' second offensive option, behind All-American Tyler Hansbrough. But he's a first-rate second option, leading the Tar Heels in 3-pointers attempted (186) and made (77). He shoots 41 percent from 3-point range, 47 percent from the field and 83 percent from the foul line. At 16.6 points per game, he's second on the team in scoring.

Williams expected nothing less, predicting Ellington could become the best scorer he has recruited. But that doesn't mean he wanted scoring alone from the 6-foot-4 guard - as Ellington learned last year.

"There were a few times I had to take him out of the game for defensive reasons," Williams said.

Ellington couldn't argue.

"I wasn't, you know, the best defender," he admitted.

A freshman can't excel at everything, can he? Ellington started 37 of 38 games and had no trouble scoring. He averaged 11.7 points and made a team-high 66 treys, primarily as a "catch-and-shoot" kind of player. Dribble drives? They weren't really in his arsenal. Shutting down an opposing player? Not his thing.

Ellington was a shooter, pure and simple, and one who let fly without hesitation - even as the clock ran down in regulation in North Carolina's East Regional final loss to Georgetown last year.

The open 3-pointer felt good coming off his fingertips - most of them do, he says - but it missed and North Carolina lost in overtime.

Ellington knew he'd have to live with the shot in the offseason. But he said he and Williams talked about turning the miss into motivation - rather than regret.

"It wasn't anything I had to put my head down about," Ellington said.

He spent the offseason shooting, lifting weights and working to improve his ballhandling skills and quickness on defense.

The results were apparent early. Ellington got to the free-throw line more in the first half of his sophomore season than he did all of his last year - evidence of his improved driving ability. He hit a key 3-pointer in a season-opening win against Davidson and another in overtime to beat Clemson in January.

"He's knocked down big shots for us that he missed in the past," teammate Danny Green said. "You know that's what he had in the back of his mind, hanging over his head."

Actually, Ellington said he was only working to become a more complete player. The shots? He figured they'd fall when he got them. North Carolina is the least 3-point-happy team of the four left standing, hoisting 100 fewer than Kansas in the same number of games, 43 fewer than UCLA and 275 fewer than Memphis.

"We don't rely on the 3-pointer," Ellington said. "We rely on attacking."

Ellington can do that now - on both ends. Williams said he has not had to pull Ellington for defensive reasons this season, calling him a "far, far, far better" defender than a year ago.

"I didn't understand all the principles as well as I do now," Ellington said. "Defense at the college level is totally different than high school or any other level because, you know, it takes a lot of assertiveness, understanding where to be at certain times."

He's more assertive off the dribble as well. Still, with teams committing two or three defenders to Hansbrough at times, Ellington knows he'll get open shots on the perimeter.

And that he'll be expected to knock down his share if he and Williams want to turn a 2005 recruiting discussion into 2008 championship reality.

Ed Miller, (757) 446-2372, ed.miller@pilotonline.com