Roy Williams has a serious dilemma on his hands with this whole Marcus Ginyard situation. He won't play tomorrow against N.C. State, and it's clear at this point his surgically repaired foot isn't healing right.
Seems like the sensible thing to do would be to slap a redshirt on the senior and move on. But he's also invaluable at both ends of the floor, and you could make the argument that the Heels would have a hard time winning a national title without Ginyard, at least a mostly healthy Ginyard.
The Heels really only need Ginyard for, at most, nine games — three in the ACC Tournament, six in the NCAA Tournament. The problem is, the only way to find out if Ginyard's ready
is to play him in a game, and if he plays in one more game a redshirt
is out.
So on the one hand, do you wait it out and give him a shot in March? This team has a much better chance of winning a national title with Ginyard than a) without Ginyard or b) next year's team with Ginyard. The Heels have everything to gain from waiting.
On the other, the big-picture logic clearly points in the direction of a redshirt, because if he isn't ready to go this season, but tries anyway at some point between now and Atlanta, the Heels would lose a valuable potential member of next year's team, when Ginyard's leadership would be a welcome bonus.
This all assumes that there's nothing out there we're not privy to, such as the possibility that more surgery is the only way to fix his foot. But if Ginyard is healthy enough to play at some point in the next month, what do you do? There's no easy answer.
Luke has worked for The N&O since 2000. He covered the Carolina Hurricanes and the NHL before becoming a sports columnist in August 2008. A native of Evanston, Ill., he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. He can be reached at 829-8947 or 
