With the fall beginning and college basketball just around the corner, it's time to look back at what our favorite teams did during their summer vacations. Some did some good things; some had a bad time. So let's look back at who did what in our How I Spent My Summer Vacation series.
Today's look is the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Roy Williams Hits Jackpot When All His Guys Return
The Tar Heels were at quite the crossroads. After a great season ended with a disappointing loss to Kansas, Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Danny Green all decided to take a look at the NBA Draft. Hansbrough decided to come back, but the other three entered the draft with the opportunity to come back to school if they didn't like their draft status.
If any or all left, the Heels were facing some uncertainty heading into the season. Yes, they'd still be a good team but they'd have a few holes.
In a somewhat surprising move, all three Heels decided to come back for one last hurrah. That means Ol' Roy gets everyone back from that Final Four team (sans a transferred Alex Stepheson and a graduating Quentin Thomas -- both role players). They also bring in three McDonald's All Americans.
North Carolina guard Ty Lawson said Wednesday if he's not confident he'll go 20th or better in the NBA draft, he'll pull out of the process and return to North Carolina for his junior season.
He said his challenge this week at the NBA pre-draft camp is convincing teams his left ankle is healed and showing he'll take -- and make -- jump shots when the opportunity is there.
This goes against Lawson's statement that he doesn't like the "test the waters" phrase since it implies that he's not seriously ready to go to the NBA. However, it is the first nugget of information that Carolina fans have been wanting to hear.
The other is this: guard Wayne Ellington really struggled in his first pre-draft game on Wednesday. He hit just one of his five shots from behind the arc (remember, the NBA arc) and committed six turnovers.
Two major developments are coming out of Chestnut Hill, MA today. One is the fact that North Carolina guard Ty Lawson has finally come back into the lineup for the first time in a month. He didn't start (Quentin Thomas did) but did come in and play a few minutes in the first half.
The other is Boston College's Tyrese Rice. Rice scored 23 points in the first seven minutes of the game ... and has 34 points in the first half. Rice has hit eight three-pointers thus far (again, it is halftime) and set his career high -- for an entire game!
North Carolina ... one of the best scoring teams in the nation ... has just 40 points at the break.
The odd thing is Lawson is having to guard Rice when he's on the floor. Lawson hasn't played since Super Bowl Sunday when he injured his ankle in the opening minutes against Florida State. Now he's asked to guard on of the best scorers in the ACC ... but when he's feeling it offensively.
Boston College leads the #2 Tar Heels 54-40 at the half.
North Carolina point guard Ty Lawson will miss a third straight game with a high ankle sprain. He will sit for Tuesday night's game against Virginia and it is unknown when he will play again.
Senior Quentin Thomas has been starting in his place with mixed results. At times, he's looked pretty good. At other times, he is very erratic and turnover prone. Junior Bobby Frasor is out for the season with a torn ACL suffered in December.
Thomas had been backed up by Marcus Ginyard ... the Tar Heels' starting small forward. Now comes word that he won't play against Virginia either. Ginyard, who has been nursing a sprained left big toe, twisted his ankle in the first half against Clemson on Sunday. There is a possibility that he may suit up, but it is doubtful that he'll play.
That means that North Carolina has no other real options at point guard. Sophomore transfer Marc Campbell could be a possibility. Campbell has played in just twelve games this season (all of 20 minutes), mostly in garbage time. He has scored five points and dished out two assists all season long.
Normally, being a bit short against the last place team in the ACC isn't a big deal, but Virginia's point guard is some guy named Sean Singletary ... who is one of the top scorers in the ACC.
Yes, North Carolina missed Ty Lawson in more ways than one. His replacement, Quentin Thomas, came out nervous and turnover prone (he would eventually calm down). The Heels offense looked bogged down and struggled to find out where they wanted to go with the basketball. It was a rare sight to see the Heels in a fast break tonight.
He also hurt defensively, as Duke point guard Greg Paulus hit six three-pointers in scoring 18 points.
It doesn't help when your backcourt mate, Wayne Ellington, can't hit water if he fell out of a boat. Ellington (the ACC's fifth leading scorer) was just 3 of 14 from the field, the Tar Heels were just 19 of 30 from the line and the UNC was spanked by Duke, 89-78.
Duke played a brilliant game. They ran their spread offense to perfection, hitting 13 of 29 shots from behind the arc and, in turn, affecting the Tar Heels size advantage. The Heels had to combat it by going small and ended up losing their rebounding edge. UNC only won the rebounding war: 41-40.
The first half ended with Duke nailing threes from everywhere and Carolina dominating the paint ... let's see how it will work itself out.
Quentin Thomas opens up the 2nd half by shaking Greg Paulus out of his jock.
Duke opens up the second half hitting their first two threes.
Make that three threes.
Huge moment with 17:12 left in the game. UNC's Deon Thompson commits his fourth foul.
Even bigger moment with 16:16 left. Duke's DeMarcus Nelson gets his fourth foul.
ESPN keeps showing these, I don't know, photos of past UNC-Duke games with audio in the background. Why not actually show the video of the games instead? I mean, those games were televised by ESPN?
Roy Williams' battle with vertigo hits again as Roy goes down to a knee for a brief moment.
14:47 left in the game: Michael Jordan name drop
First sight of freshman nerves in the rivalry: Taylor King airballs a three.
12:38 left: and Dickie V refers to his "one eye"
Hansbrough passes Jordan for 11th on Carolina's all time scoring list.
ESPN's Mike Patrick keeps mixing up Duke's Gerald Henderson and DeMarcus Nelson. So much so that you'd wish he was talking about Brittney Spears
6:09 left, Hansbrough and Henderson meet again. This time, tumbling over a jump ball
Duke, up nine, is taking a page out of Dean Smith's handbook and running the four corners with DeMarcus Nelson handling the point.
Thompson fouls out with under five minutes left.
UNC looks like they need a fork put in them. Their offense looks tired, the defense looks tired and they are being beaten on loose balls and rebounds now.
If there ever was a shot that captured this game for Wayne Ellington ... a long three hit every part of the rim, then crawled out.
Amazing that the Tar Heels have missed 11 of 30 free throws and Duke has missed 8 of 21.
Tar Heel senior Quentin Thomas is a guy that makes Carolina fans a bit quesy. When he comes into a game, it's like watching a clumsy person carrying a wedding cake or a teenager driving for the first time: you just pray that the damage is minimal.
Thomas will be on center stage tonight, as the #2 Duke Blue Devils come calling. The Heels starting point guard, Ty Lawson, may be unavailable with a high ankle sprain ... leaving Thomas to get the starting nod.
For those who don't know too much about Q Thomas, he is one of the fastest players in the ACC. In his freshman year (the 2005 championship squad), he was too fast ... often times running past his dribble. He's calmed down a bit since then but can still get a little out of control at times. Not good against the ball pressure he's likely to see from the Blue Devils.
He's also a great passer. No one can deny that. Thomas has that rare eye to find open players before even they realize their open. He's great with the bounce pass (not many players are) and can look off defenders extremely well. The issue is that he's not a scorer. Not so much that he can't shoot as much as he doesn't look to shoot. In the past several weeks, however, he has looked for his shot a bit more.
One year ago, UNC ... a national championship contender ranked #4 ... went into Littlejohn Coliseum at Clemson to face the 17-1 Tigers. They left with a creaming of Clemson, 77-55, and the Tigers would go on to lose 9 of 11 games. In that game, Clemson made a horrid 5-of-19 from the free throw line.
Same sort of story heading into this year's game. North Carolina enters the game at 14-0 and the #1 ranked team in the land. Clemson is 12-1 heading into their ACC opener. This will be a big game for Clemson to see if they are indeed a different team from last year and one to be reckoned with in the ACC.
UNC comes into this game lacking its usual depth. Bobby Frasor is done for the season after tearing up his knee, Quentin Thomas is recovering from a sprained ankle and Alex Stepheson has been in California tending to his sick dad. If Stepheson doesn't play, that will be big news in facing a big Clemson front line who is tenacious on the boards.
Clemson may have trouble with their patented press. Last year, they used the press to confuse a freshmanTy Lawson into a career low two points, three assists and seven turnovers. Lawson is a completely different play now, as an aggressive playmaker who has shown good range of late.
The big matchup, of course, will be Tyler Hansbrough and James Mays, two physical players who may be the best interior players in the league.
The Tar Heels lead the all-time series, ahem, 118-19.
With the fall beginning and college basketball just around the corner, it's time to look back at what our favorite teams did during their summer vacations. Some did some good things; some had a bad time. So let's look back at who did what in our How I Spent My Summer Vacation series. 
It would seem as if the only drama going on at the NBA's pre-draft camp is the status of 
North Carolina point guard 
Yes, North Carolina missed 
Tar Heel senior 
One year ago, UNC ... a national championship contender ranked #4 ... went into Littlejohn Coliseum at Clemson to face the 17-1 Tigers. They left with a creaming of Clemson, 77-55, and the Tigers would go on to lose 9 of 11 games. In that game, Clemson made a horrid 5-of-19 from the free throw line. 
