Hey Carolina fans, it's Michael Bean from SB Nation Studios sharing one of the 32-50 player profile videos we're creating prior to this year's NFL Draft. Part of our first batch of ten released yesterday and today was Quinton Coples. Looks like the real deal to me. Maybe a tiny bit of bust potential, but much more likely he'll be productive right away.

Check it out and catch the other prospects' videos if you're so inclined. Thanks!

(I took this incredibly poor photo fifteen years ago at the Indianapolis Final Four. North Carolina and Kentucky would both lose to Arizona that weekend; I consider the unknown woman who made that sign a national hero. And yes, I obviously don't know how to use the burn tool on an image editing program.)

I don not particularly like John Calipari. I don't like his teams, I don't like the coincidence that he leaves schools right before wins get vacated, and I don't like his faux modesty in every interview I've ever seen him give. Seriously, I don't understand how the Kentucky fan that runs the DaggumRoy Twitter account can stand listening to his own coach profess to not know what seed his team is two hours after his selection show. I'll be grudgingly rooting for Kansas tonight, and I'm no fan of the Jayhawks either, so that tells you something.

Even so, will a Kentucky national championship ruin college basketball. Chuck Klosterman thinks so, and said as much in a widely–discussed piece on Grantland last week.Basically the argument is that Calipari has professionalized college basketball with a reliance on transitory, one-and-done players, and by validating that approach with a national championship, the other powerhouses of basketball will follow suit, including "North Carolina, Syracuse, Kansas, UCLA, and maybe even Duke." (The fact that Duke is higher up in the moral firmament of Klosterman's mind is laughable to anyone who has spent time around the program in Durham, but so be it.) Suddenly the future plays out like this:

These schools already recruit one-and-done freshmen, but they'll have to go further; they'll have to be as transparent about their motives as Calipari is (because transparency is the obsession of modernity). If they resist, they will fade. And the result will be a radical amplification of what the game has already become: There will be five schools sharing the 25 best players in the country, and all the lesser programs will kill each other for the right to lose to those five schools in the Sweet 16. It will skew the competitive balance of major conferences and split D-I basketball into two completely unequal tiers. Final Four games will look more and more like sloppy pro games, and national interest in college basketball will wane (even if the level of play technically increases).5 In 10 years, it might be a niche sport for people like me - people who can't get over the past.

Let's start out by putting some numbers Calipari's reign of terror. His first recruiting class had four freshmen who went pro after the 2010 Elite Eight season: John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Eric Bledsoe, and Daniel Orton. (They were joined by junior Patrick Patterson.) The next year had one, Brandon Knight, although in theory, this could have been two, as Calipari recruited Enes Kanter only to have the NCAA declare him ineligible. He was drafted higher than any of his three teammates who also went pro (two more Billy Gillespie recruits were also selected, after the senior and junior seasons, respectively.). This year's team has three freshmen everyone assumes is going pro, Marquis Teague, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, and Anthony Davis, plus two sophomores he recruited also expected to leave once the nets have been cut down, Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb. All in all, three years in Lexington will likely produce 14 NBA players at minimum, 11 of which Calipari brought to UK.

That's an impressive three–year performance. If you go back further you can add to the list one-and-dones Tyreke Evans, Derrick Rose, and Shawne Williams, plus five non-freshmen players he recruited at Memphis going back to the 2004 draft. That's 22 pros over a nine year stretch. Of course, in that same time period UNC will have sent at least 15 players to the NBA (with two one-and-dones), Kansas probably the same, and Duke 11 (with three one-and-dones). In short, "These schools already recruit one-and-done freshmen," rather understates things.

Now most coaches don't like their players to only stay for one season. Krzyzewski, of course, won't shut up about how it's bad for college basketball, although he pitches it to potential students. I don't know where Calipari recruiting spiels fall on the continuum. I don't think he "adapted faster" than everyone else to a new landscape, I think he recruited the best players he could find. It's burnt him in the past, with Derrick Rose and Marcus Camby, but it's also gotten him a lot of success, although not an NCAA championship.

But you can only do so much with a constant influx of new players, which leads to the flaws in Klosterman's prediction of a dystopian college basketball future. One, there's a limited number of players who can jump to the pros immediately, and they don't all want to jockey for playing time at the same few schools. Two, divining which players are the magic bullet is tougher than it looks. Harrison Barnes was a pre-season All-American (and at least one guy's POY) who only really came into his own with the right pint guard and certain game situations. Kyrie Irving never played in a Duke-Carolina game and finished his college career in a Sweet Sixteen game. His replacement brought to Duke one dagger of a three, a bad attitude, and a first-round tournament exit. (Someone should look for a pattern in point guard sons of NBA pros.) Even Calipari is having his greatest success because of two sophomores, who stuck around with one lone Gillespie recruit to provide a core to build around.

Look, there's a reason NBA teams don't release half their squads every year and try to buy up the best free agents they can. Excessive personnel turnover is just as bad for a basketball team as excessive ball turnovers. One-and-dones provide lots of risk to any team — look at the 38 wins that are no longer a part of Memphis basketball .And recruiting isn't going to change if Kentucky cuts down the nets tonight. Coaches will still promise NBA glory everywhere — you think Michael Jordan and his 39 fellow alumni to go in the 1st round of the NBA draft are plastered about the UNC media guide for their health — and players will still select schools based in part on the professional opportunities that may await them. Calipari has had an impressive three-year performance, but he hasn't revolutionized the game; he hasn't even reinvented the wheel. Most NCAA champions are built around a core of upperclassmen, and this is the same panic we were hearing back in 2003 when Carmelo Anthony was bringing Syracuse a title. The next one-and-done freshman to win it all did it from the bench, because UNC was so reliant on its upperclassmen that Marvin Williams couldn't get into the starting lineup. It will be this way again, never fear.

There's been one cliche that's irked me this afternoon, and it's "mass exodus." For some reason, it doesn't strike me as an accurate description of Harrison Barnes, John Henson, and Kendall Marshall going pro. They're three highly touted NBA draft picks, not players fleeing a horrible situation. And more importantly, they're leaving behind a lot of talent. Next year isn't going to start like 2006, where fans we'll be struggling to remember the name of anyone besides David Noel. There will be three scholarship upperclassmen, all with significant playing experience, plus (presuming James Michael McAdoo does not elect to go pro as well) the sixth and seventh men from this year's team. I'm not ring to be fumbling to remember names. But it's worth taking a look at what players UNC has returning, and what they can still hope to do this late in the spring for next year.

First of all, here are the scholarships for the returning players as things currently stand, with Stilman White leaving for his Mormon Mission:

To this we can add the four incoming freshmen already planning on coming to Chapel Hill:

This at least gives the Tar Heels depth at every position, when you take into account the fluidity between shooting guard and small forward. It wouldn't surprise me to see three of Hairston, Bullock, Strickland, and McDonald on the floor at the same time next season. That gives us a total of 11 of the 13 available scholarships. There's also Luke Davis, who transferred from Gardner–Webb last year, but he will be a walk–on in the Marc Campbell vein, and not take up a scholarship.

So two remaining slots — what are UNC's options. High on the list is Alex Orikhai, who as a rising senior is eligible to transfer from Connecticut in light of the NCAA declaring them ineligible for the 2013 postseason. A 6'9" big man starting for a Big East team, Orikhai is drawing interest from just about everyone, although Duke and UNC are the teams mentioned most prominently. No one from UNC has officially made contact with him, although Marshall was joking around on Twitter with the guy.

Outside of that, there's also 2013 and beyond to keep in mind though. Roy Williams was in Dallas on Thursday to see Julius Randle, a 6'9" forward folks are comparing to Marvin Williams. UNC already has two players saying their coming to UNC in 2013 — point guard Nate Britt and power forward Isiah Hicks — and offers to three more, one being Randle. Now, I'm unclear as to the status of Jackson Simmons' scholarship; he's a "preferred walk-on" but I don't know if that means they'll use his scholarship for someone else if things get tight, or if that's even allowed under NCAA rules. But as it stands, twelve of thirteen scholarships are spoken for the 2013-2014 season. Now McAdoo might go pro in another year, and a myriad of other unpredictable events could occur, but I don't see Roy recruiting someone last minute just to fill a space, if it's going to confine him a year or two down the road.

Note that I said exactly that each of the past two years, and Roy Williams has proven me wrong. But either way, I don't think this team will be nearly as starved for talent as people are assuming at first glance. It'll be the UNC we remember, except possibly faster and perhaps shooting threes like we haven't seen in quite some time.

UNC has made the official announcement that Harrison Barnes, John Henson, and Kendall Marshall will all declare for the NBA draft, ending their Carolina careers. Barnes will have his jersey honored in the rafters as a result of his 2nd Team All-America award earlier this month. The other two won't unless the rules are changed to allow for the rather new Cousy award winners to qualify, as Kendall Marshall picked up that particular piece of hardware earlier today. Nevertheless, all three had accomplished most of what they could expect to in Chapel Hill short of winning a national championship, and in Marshall's case a drawerful of assist records, and all are expected to be drafted in the first round.

Personally, I expected Barnes and Henson to be NBA bound, although Marshall's departure caught me a bit off–guard. I was thinking his ability as a scorer was just begin to blossom, and an extra year would just enhance his standing. Even so, once you've won the country's most prestigious award for point guards, that's a prett good sign the next level will be interested in your skills.

Though we still haven't heard from James Michael McAdoo, his absence from this press release makes it more likely he'll be staying. If so, he'll be the primary interior weapon on a very depleted front court. He and Desmond Hubert will comprise the entirety of post players with experience. Who will play point guard will be an even dicier question. With Stilman White still presumably leaving on his Mormon mission, Dexter Strickland will be back in the role he never signed up for, with incoming freshman Marcus Paige probably being brought up to speed very quickly. UNC is also bring in two freshmen to play the post, Joel James and Brice Johnson, as well as J.P. Tokoto to play the wing in place of Barnes. And of course, there are now more scholarships available and still a few undecided high school seniors of note. Nevertheless, next year's team will be almost entirely different from this year's model, with a lot of unfamiliar faces and a much more perimeter-oriented offense. The ACC is wide open, with Duke and FSU as depleted as UNC, so we'll see what happens.

The press conference following an NCAA tournament loss invariably brings with it one of the dumbest questions the sports media asks of a player. With Harrison Barnes, it came a few questions in, and was phrased like this: "Is there a possibility that this is the last game you play at UNC?" The question is dumb because ten minutes prior the person you're asking expected to still be playing college basketball; they expected to win and advance. Unless the player is profoundly, utterly miserable at school, at that moment they have no idea if they're going to declare for the NBA draft. Barnes' answer was as bland as you would expect: "I haven't thought that far." Stupid question asked, noncommittal answer given. The script is followed.

Still, Monday morning there were a couple of columns written that served as career retrospectives on Harrison Barnes, and they weren't particularly kind. This sudden shift in perspective for the 2nd Team All-American actually began before the Sweet Sixteen, with this Atlantic profile of the player by Jason Zengerle. Zengerle has written a lot on Duke and Carolina basketball for a guy who's worked for places like Slate and The New Republic — catch his pieces on Joseph Forte and Jason Capel back in the day — but with Barnes he takes away a little too much from the interview. Basically, he's unduly impressed that a 19–year–old business major sounds like, well, a 19–year–old business major. The word "brand" appears in the piece seven times, only once in a quote from Barnes. "The longer you stay in college, the better a brand you build," is mentioned as one of his reasons for returning for his sophomore year.

Not that there isn't a fair amount of other business–speak peppered in the interview. His view of the NBA is quite clear–headed:

"The NBA is a business," Barnes told me, elaborating that players are akin to pieces of inventory that, if they don't produce, get replaced by other pieces that do. "But on the brighter side," he added, "you do gain a lot of capital, and you have a platform from which you have avenues to do just about anything you want to do." Indeed, Barnes seems amazed that more basketball players don't take advantage of those avenues. "I think if anybody has an opportunity to play professional basketball," he said, "to not transcend that into off-the-court endeavors is really a waste."

Zengerle also draws a comparison to Michael Jordan in the way Barnes ducks his questions on religion and politics, since Barnes puts forth instead "Anytime you want to get into religious or political views, that can instantly polarize people." This is taken as just more brand management, and not the infinitely more likely view that Barnes, the most reserved player on and off the court — I think he's the only player not on Twitter — just doesn't like to talk about his personal life. But overall, it's the perfect little piece for the Atlantic, a "look at this college basketball behaving just like the business mogul we all aspire to be" sort of story. It ignores the fact that, well, few in the NBA dress dress in "the kind of flashy outfit commonly seen on NBA draft night" anymore, as Lebron James is the new fashion icon, or that every highly touted high schooler approaches basketball like a career, as this ESPN story on Tony Parker makes pretty clear (more on that later). But overall, it's pretty anodyne.

And then Barnes played two games without Kendall Marshall, made 8 shots out of 30, and saw his season end.

By Monday afternoon, two columns had caught my eye, both playing off the brand theme of Zengerle's story. Andrew Sharp wrote one for SBNation, and Jay Caspian King penned one for Grantland. Of the two, King's is harsher, expressing misgivings for Barnes going back to his college announcement, calling it "too polished and produced," but both hang the loss to Kansas squarely on Barnes' shoulders. Sharp takes the view that Barnes just wasn't capable of what was assumed of him, while King goes one step further to say that not only was Barnes not that good, but everything was brand–building on a foundation of sand. Both throw in asides to absolve Barnes for the Barnes expectation levels, sort of, but still, the theme is the same. He's a bad basketball player who should feel bad.

So bad, in fact, that Kansas designed a defense focused entirely on him, taking away both his open three and the dribble penetration, knowing there was never going to be more than one person besides Barnes on the court to take a perimeter shot. So bad that Williams gave him the ball in the waning seconds of the Ohio game. So bad that he took a quarter of UNC's shots in those two games, and people were complaining that he wasn't shooting more.

Frankly, a lot of complaints about Barnes build down to the same bloodlessness affectation he has on the court when he was scoring 40 points against Clemson. He's quiet and reserved, and only the occasional on–court outburst is going to change that. Barnes was the first person to say he expected to play better in the tournament, but it's rather facile to say he should have just stepped up, and parted the defenses with his innate Harrsion Barnesness. He's a college basketball player, playing with a lot of teammates on the bench injured. To ignore that in favor of shots at his brand is to fit everything into a title morality play. Barnes, the most reticent, un–flashy player on this North Carolina team, spent too much time focusing on his image instead of his basketball? What kind of sense does that make?

I'm hundreds of miles away from Chapel Hill, with no insight into the miss of elite college athletes fifteen years my junior. So I have no idea if Harrison Barnes (or anyone else) will go pro. He would be a very high draft pick, most college athletes improve the most between their freshman and sophomore years, and he's had a ringside seat for more injuries than you can count. All of that could spur him to leave. he also hasn't accomplished what he wanted to at the the college level, which could bring him back. Or again, he could look at this season, where everyone did everything right only to have it end with three potential starting guards on the bench in ties. He may not have the energy for another year of this.

I don't know. I think Carolina fans are a little spoiled by the 2009 team returning en masse, and such moves aren't as common as we'd like to believe. But either ay, I expect Barnes to be quite successful. He's focused, he's methodical, and he's accomplished. And I don't think any of that is a brand.