Tim Hardaway Jr. (AP)

Michigan advanced to the national championship game this season despite being the youngest team in the NCAA tournament. Any possibility of the Wolverines playing for the title for a second straight season next year just became less likely with Tim Hardaway Jr. announcing he is leaving for the NBA.

Hardaway was named a first-team All-Big Ten guard this season and helped lead the Wolverines back to the Final Four for the first time in 20 years. It's not a bad list of accomplishments for the son of former NBA All-Star Tim Hardaway, but he likely would have been able to add much more to it had he returned.

Hardaway is taking a bit of gamble. He is not considered a surefire first-round draft pick. In fact, the majority of mock drafts across the Internet project him as a second-round pick right now.

Joe Dooley (Kansas athletics)

Florida Gulf Coast could have made a coaching change in its men's basketball program a year ago at this time and it hardly would have been noticed.

But on the heels of an historic run to the Sweet 16 as a No. 15 seed in the NCAA tournament and former coach Andy Enfield being hired by USC in the Pac-12, its suddenly national news that the school has found the third coach in the program's history.

FGCU athletic director Ken Kavanagh announced he hired Kansas assistant coach Joe Dooley on Wednesday to take over a team that was among the most fun to watch in the postseason last month and became synonymous with the Twitter hashtag #DunkCity!.

(AP)The recently completed college basketball season had its share of highlights and memorable moments, but it also proved to be one of the uglier season's in recent memory in terms of offense.

Scoring was down across the board. Remember back in November when Georgetown beat Tennessee 37-36? It proved to be a sign of what was to come.

Sure, maybe that's an extreme example to illustrate the point. After all, most of Georgetown's games are generally fairly low scoring because of the style the Hoyas play. Not everyone can play the uptempo, 3-point-jacking variety of basketball you see from Iowa State for example.

Marcus Smart (USA Today Sports Images)

Too often these days we see young men with questionable credentials giving up the opportunity of a free college education in hopes of getting drafted by the NBA or other professional leagues only to find out later they made a big mistake.

What we don't often see is a player whose credentials are top-five-pick legitimate opting to return to school instead of cashing those paychecks so many of their peers covet. But that is what we're expecting to see Oklahoma State guard Marcus Smart do when he addresses his future during a press conference Wednesday on the OSU campus in Stillwater, Okla.

Multiple media outlets in Oklahoma have reported Smart has decided to stay for his sophomore season, despite being ranked by some as high as the No. 3 overall pick in the June draft if her were to turn pro.

James Michael McAdoo (Getty Images)

At the end of a disappointing sophomore season in which he did not emerge as one of the nation's top players the way many expected, North Carolina's James Michael McAdoo had a difficult decision to make.

Leave school now and hope his upside is enough to entice an NBA team to select him in the first round? Or stay another year and hope to play his way back into the lottery in the 2013-14 season?

That McAdoo chose the latter option is great news for a North Carolina program hoping to return to the nation's elite next season. At worst, he solidifies his team's frontcourt and makes the Tar Heels a threat to Duke in the ACC. At best, he develops into one of the nation's premier players and elevates North Carolina into the national title picture.

"I am ecstatic about having the opportunity to coach James Michael for another season," North Carolina coach Roy Williams said in a statement. "He's an incredible young man who did some really nice things this year. He's going to be an even better player in the future. Coaching young people like James Michael is what makes me enjoy coaching so much."

[Also: Projected top-five NBA pick Marcus Smart stays in school]

Though McAdoo averaged a respectable 14.4 points and 7.3 rebounds as a sophomore, there were glaring holes in his games where he can improve. He has an impressive physique and athleticism but he is neither a true post-up threat nor a consistent mid-range shooter, which leaves NBA teams unsure if he's well-suited to play either forward position at that level.

In addition to celebrating the accomplishments of a senior class that won four straight Big 12 titles, Kansas coach Bill Self unleashed a playful one-liner at the expense of one his players during Monday night's team banquet.

Self was reliving senior Elijah Johnson's 39-point outburst in a late February victory at Iowa State when the subject turned to the point guard's game-ending fast-break dunk after the outcome had already been determined. Johnson apologized for the needless showboating after the game, but the dunk enraged Iowa State fans so much that one of them went so far as to confront Self on his way off the floor.

Quipped Self on Monday night, "Talk about Elijah's 39 points, which I think is great, Elijah, but your last two almost got my ass whipped after the game was over."

Funny stuff. And a wise choice by Self not to make a joke of Johnson's struggles in the Jayhawks' season-ending loss to Michigan in the Sweet 16. It's probably still too soon for that.

Vander Blue (Getty Images)

Just when Marquette seemed to be on the verge of a preseason top 10 ranking next season, the Golden Eagles suffered a crippling loss that will probably diminish expectations a bit.

Vander Blue, Marquette's leading scorer as a junior, announced Tuesday morning that he will forgo his final year of college eligibility and enter the NBA draft. The decision comes as a surprise since Blue is unlikely to be a first-round pick and would not be guaranteed a roster spot with the team that selects him if he goes in the second round.

[Also: James Michael McAdoo’s return boosts North Carolina’s hoops title hopes]

"I've had three great years here and appreciate everything Marquette has done for me during that time to help me develop," Blue said in a statement. "At this point I want to pursue my dream. I've prayed about it and discussed it with my family and think this is the right decision for me at this time."

A celebrated five-star recruit who developed incrementally during his three seasons at Marquette, Blue played his way onto the NBA's radar as a junior. He averaged 14.8 points per game as a slashing shooting guard, leading the Golden Eagles to a co-Big East title and a berth in the Elite Eight.

A 29-point performance against Butler in the NCAA tournament should boost Blue's stock, but the concern for NBA scouts will be his perimeter shooting. Can a 6-foot-4 shooting guard who hits only 30.3 percent from behind the arc realistically be a first-round pick? It seems unlikely because Blue is a good but not explosive athlete and because his outside shooting has never been a strength.

Norvel Pelle (screen shot via YouTube)

Before he began helping Norvel Pelle prepare for this year's NBA draft, athletic trainer Robbie Davis wanted to be sure his newest client understood what was at stake.

Davis pulled Pelle aside and urged the promising but unproven 6-foot-11 former St. John's signee to work harder than he ever has preparing for workouts with NBA teams because they could determine the trajectory of his pro career.

Unlike most draft prospects whose strengths and weaknesses are well established after a year or more competing in college or against pro players internationally, Pelle remains a mystery to NBA teams.

Once the No. 1 center in Rivals.com's Class of 2011 rankings and the centerpiece of a decorated St. John's recruiting class, Pelle never played a minute of college basketball because he was unable to meet NCAA minimum academic requirements. Instead the Los Angeles native has spent the past two years in anonymity at three different prep schools, meaning pre-draft tryouts will be most NBA teams' lone chance to scout him against top competition.

"Workouts for NBA teams are sometimes a little overrated, but for Norvel, it's make-or-break," Davis said. "Some guys they've scouted four years and the workout is more about getting to know the guy, shaking his hand and seeing how hard he works in person. For Norvel, it's way more than that because there's no tape on him. This is their one chance to judge him as a player too."

That Pelle's lifelong dream to play in the NBA may rest on a handful of 45-minute workouts makes him one of the biggest wildcards in this year's draft. NBA scouts who tracked him in high school recall being intrigued with his shot-blocking prowess, baseline-to-baseline speed and ability to defend multiple positions, but they also remember a player who gave spotty effort and often seemed content to get by on talent alone.