Without Reggie Bullock, James Michael McAdoo would take on a greater role for North Carolina -- if, that is, McAdoo returns to school. ROBERT WILLETT

CHAPEL HILL — So Reggie Bullock is leaving North Carolina one season early to follow his dream of playing in the NBA. This isn’t a surprising a decision. It’s probably the right decision, right now, for Bullock.

No, we don’t know how it will turn out. We don’t know where Bullock will be drafted in June, or what might have happened to his draft prospects had he decided to return for his senior season. But we do know this: Bullock comes from a meager financial background. The chance to make money now has to be appealing. And after three years, who knows how much more he could have improved in college.

North Carolina was a good shooting team during the 2012-13 season, but consistent scoring in the post eluded the Tar Heels. ROBERT WILLETT

CHAPEL HILL — You might recall that before North Carolina’s season-opener against Gardner-Webb on Nov. 9, I posted a list of 10 questions that surrounded the Tar Heels at the start of the season. You can read those 10 questions right here.

Little by little, UNC provided answers to those 10 questions as the season progressed. And now, with the season complete, those answers are final. So here goes – the questions that surrounded UNC then, and the answers to those questions now, with the season already a memory:

CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina junior guard Leslie McDonald will serve a three-game suspension, the school announced in a statement on Wednesday.

UNC didn’t specify the reason for McDonald’s suspension but both McDonald and Tar Heels coach Roy Williams said in a statement that McDonald failed to meet his responsibilities as a “student-athlete.”

The North Carolina bench would be shorthanded if Leslie McDonald can't play on Thursday night against Miami. ROBERT WILLETT

CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina guard Leslie McDonald didn’t practice on Tuesday and his status is unknown for the Tar Heels’ game here on Thursday night against Miami.

Marcus Paige begins his college career as the starting point guard at North Carolina. How ready is he? ROBERT WILLETT

CHAPEL HILL — It’s here. Basketball season is here. Finally. It never really goes away in Chapel Hill, but it returns tonight when North Carolina begins the season at the Smith Center against Gardner-Webb.

Around this time a year ago, the Tar Heels began the 2011-12 season with national championship aspirations. Entering this season, though, who knows what to expect? I wrote some about that in a story we ran earlier in the week, which you can read right here.

The headline tells the story: “More questions than answers” for UNC.

CHAPEL HILL -- The momentum of the dance contest was so strong even Roy Williams couldn’t resist: Freshmen in ballet tutus, salsa moves and a Broadway kick line. When the entire team came to the bench and tried to pull Williams onto the floor, he obliged with a shuffling sort-of shag, never mind the still-healing scars from his kidney surgery.

“I was surprised,” Leslie McDonald said. “I didn’t know he was going to do it at first. But coach Williams is a lovable, passionate type of guy, so when he hears the crowd going, he’s going to get up and dance.”

Williams was caught up in the moment at a Late Night with Roy that was very much a tribute to the coach after his recent cancer scare. His appearance on the court was greeted with a standing ovation, and his official introduction prompted another, prolonged ovation that left Williams visibly emotional.

Each time Leslie McDonald made a play on Tuesday night in the Greater N.C. Pro-Am, the public address announcer at N.C. Central said, "It's gotta be the shoes." McDonald wore a pair of yellow Nikes. They were new, he said. PHOTO: Robert Willett

DURHAM — I wasn’t around to see it, and wasn’t covering North Carolina then but, by all accounts, Leslie McDonald was having a nice summer last year in the Greater N.C. Pro-Am, the summer league at N.C. Central comprised of local college and professional standouts past and present.

CHAPEL HILL — Leslie McDonald’s world changed last summer, when he was playing in the Greater NC Pro Am, a summer league at North Carolina Central. McDonald, the junior guard at North Carolina, suffered a knee injury – a torn ACL – that put an early end to his college season.

Nearly one year later, McDonald said on Wednesday that he has recovered from his injury.

“I am 100 percent back and the knee feels fine,” McDonald said. “I have no problems in the knee.”

And no problems playing in the same summer league, either.

North Carolina junior guard Leslie McDonald, who tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in a Durham summer-league game in July, will not return this season and will redshirt the year as he continues his rehabilitation.

McDonald recently returned to practice with the Tar Heels and is ahead of schedule in his rehabilitation, UNC coach Roy Williams said today. However, Williams said that after meeting with McDonald and his family, it was decided that it would be in McDonald's best interest to take the whole season off to recover.

North Carolina coach Roy Williams said today during his weekly ACC teleconference that junior guard Leslie McDonald, who suffered a torn ACL during a summer league game in July, has been practicing with the Tar Heels on a limited basis.