UNC coach Roy Williams doesn't have any issues recruiting head-to-head against Mike Krzyzewski. PHOTO: Robert Willett

CHARLOTTE — North Carolina coach Roy Williams said on Wednesday night during a Rams Club Tar Heel Tour stop in Charlotte that he plans to spend next week focusing on hiring a new assistant coach. Williams will be filling a void on his staff left by the departed Jerod Haase, who left UNC to become the head coach at UAB.

Williams recently has been devoting his attention to recruiting, and he said he’d be doing the same this weekend. After this weekend, though, he will come closer to naming a new assistant.

“Really the meat of the work is going to be done after this weekend’s recruiting period,” Williams said. “I feel pretty good about it.” 

Tyler Zeller didn't end his college career the way he wanted, but his performance throughout the season made him a co-MVP of the 2011-12 Tar Heels. PHOTO: Robert Willet

CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina held its annual postseason basketball awards ceremony last Thursday night. And for some reason, I missed the release about it. My apologies. Senior forward Tyler Zeller and sophomore point guard Kendall Marshall received co-MVP honors during the ceremony, which was closed to the public and to the media.

Zeller at the end of the regular season received ACC Player of the Year honors while Marshall, who set an ACC single-season record with 351 assists, earned second-team All-ACC honors. Marshall joined sophomore forward Harrison Barnes and junior forward John Henson in leaving school early to enter the NBA draft.

Zeller and fellow senior Justin Watts were named permanent captains for the 2011-12 Tar Heels.

Here’s the complete list of winners:

The first NCAA tournament projection that I could find anywhere has James Michael McAdoo and the Tar Heels as a No. 2 seed. PHOTO: Ethan Hyman

CHAPEL HILL — Today is April 16. So you know what that means: It’s time to talk 2012-13 NCAA tournament projections. Joe Lunardi, the noted ESPN.com NCAA tournament bracketologist, has released his first projection of the preseason. (Is it even late enough in the year to consider this the “preseason?” I digress.)

UNC coach Roy Williams led most of his players off court with 14.2 seconds remaining in the Tar Heels' 90-57 defeat at Florida State on Jan. 14. PHOTO: Robert Willett

CHAPEL HILL — … And we continue a look back at the season that was for North Carolina basketball. Yesterday in this space I chronicled some of the best moments for the Tar Heels during the 2011-12 season. So you know what’s coming today: That’s right – a look back at some of UNC’s worst moments.

Without further delay …

Harrison Barnes, John Henson and Kendall Marshall led North Carolina to some good times during the 2011-12 season. PHOTO: Robert Willett

CHAPEL HILL — Plenty of time has passed since North Carolina ended the 2011-12 season with an 80-67 defeat against Kansas in the NCAA tournament Midwest regional final. Since then, we’ve learned that Harrison Barnes, John Henson and Kendall Marshall are leaving school for the NBA. We’ve learned that James Michael McAdoo will be back.

Most of all, we’ve had time to reflect on a season that began with such great expectations, and one that ended with the Tar Heels falling short of fulfilling those hopes. How will you remember the season that was for UNC? Will you remember it as an unquestioned success – given the Tar Heels won the ACC regular season championship, finished 32-6 and were among the final eight teams playing? Will you remember it as a failure, because UNC didn’t win a national championship, and didn’t reach the Final Four?

The legacy of the 2011-12 Tar Heels is for history to decide. We begin our belated look back at the season that was by remembering the good. So here they are – the best moments that UNC experienced during the 2011-12 season:

The return of James Michael McAdoo will provide the Tar Heels with some experience in the frontcourt. PHOTO: Ethan Hyman

North Carolina received some disappointing – but not unexpected – news last week, when Harrison Barnes, John Henson and Kendall Marshall all announced they were leaving school to enter the NBA draft. Today, though, the Tar Heels received some good news.

James Michael McAdoo, the freshman forward, is coming back to school. Here’s the story. 

Incoming North Carolina basketball recruit Marcus Paige has a stress fracture in his left foot, but his high school coach expects him to be healed by the time he arrives at UNC in June.

Paige, a standout point guard at Linn-Mar High in Marion, Iowa, first noticed something was amiss with his foot while he competed in the McDonald’s All-American game last week in Chicago, said Chris Robertson, Paige’s coach at Linn-Mar. Paige was diagnosed with a stress fracture in the days after the game.

CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina sophomore Kendall Marshall on Thursday was named the recipient of the 2012 Bob Cousy Collegiate Point Guard of the Year Award, which is given annually to the nation’s top point guard.

Marshall joins Raymond Felton (2005) and Ty Lawson (2009) as Tar Heels who have won the Cousy Award.

CHAPEL HILL — Jerod Haase, who has spent the past 13 seasons as a member of Roy Williams’ staffs at Kansas and at North Carolina, will be announced on Tuesday morning as the head coach at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, according to the Birmingham News.

ST. LOUIS — The image I’ll remember most from North Carolina’s 80-67 loss against Kansas on Sunday in the NCAA tournament Midwest regional final didn’t happen on the court. It came instead afterward, in the Tar Heels’ locker room. It was Harrison Barnes, sitting motionless in front his locker, his head under a blue towel.

The scenes inside UNC’s locker room were what you would expect, mostly. It was quiet when reporters filed in. The players were spread about, sitting silent. Most stared at the ground. Most had red eyes. None of this was unexpected. Nor was it to see Barnes in front his locker, hunched over in a chair with that towel draped over him.