RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina might be the favorite to win the men's national championship again. Then again, the Tar Heels might not be picked to win the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2005-06.

Such is the predicament facing coach Roy Williams, who has one of the top recruiting classes in the country coming to the Chapel Hill campus next season. For now, that is all Williams knows for sure.

Williams anticipates guard Rashad McCants will skip his senior season to enter the NBA draft, although no announcement has been made. Fellow juniors Sean May and Raymond Felton have the same decision to make — as does freshman Marvin Williams of Bremerton — after leading North Carolina to its first NCAA title since 1993.

"Winning a championship is great, but everybody wants to know if a guy can play or not," said Ryan Blake, the NBA's assistant scouting director. "You can look at poise and the way guys step up, but those are just other avenues for somebody to be evaluated."

May is adamant he is returning to North Carolina despite a marvelous individual run through the tournament. In those six consecutive victories, May averaged 22.3 points and 10.7 rebounds while shooting 67 percent from the field.

"To be honest, his stock will probably never be higher than it is right now," said Chris Monter, who publishes an NBA draft newsletter five times a year. "He had a great tournament. He has good, soft hands, and he really knows low-post positioning."

Forward Marvin Williams never started in his first season with the Tar Heels, but came off the bench to give them a dominating rotation of inside players. He averaged 11.3 points and 22.2 minutes, and had the go-ahead basket on a tip-in with 1:26 left in the NCAA title game against Illinois.

"I think Marvin is a very well-known player, even though he wasn't a starter," Monter said. "That one year really helped him."

Point guard Felton's quickness and court vision helped North Carolina lead Division I with 88 points a game.

"This could be a pretty deep draft at point guard, particularly if all the point guards from the ACC come out," Monter said. "He certainly would be one of the first ones taken."

Monter said if the four North Carolina underclassmen enter the draft, McCants would be the last one picked.

Hernandez to test value

Stanford guard Chris Hernandez plans to declare early for the NBA draft but will not immediately hire an agent, giving him the option to return for a final season with the Cardinal.

Hernandez will test his draft value in the coming months before making a final decision, a Pac-10 source said on condition of anonymity.

Notes

• Brigham Young promoted 47-year-old Dave Rose to coach, filling an opening created when Steve Cleveland left last week to take over at Fresno State. Rose had been Cleveland's associate head coach.

• West Virginia assistant Jeff Neubauer, 34, was hired as coach at Eastern Kentucky. He replaces Travis Ford, who left the Colonels last month to coach Massachusetts.

• Eastern Illinois hired coach Mike Miller, previously a Kansas State assistant. Eastern didn't renew coach Rick Samuels' contract.

• Orlando Early, an assistant at Alabama for the past four years, will coach Louisiana-Monroe. Early, 37, replaces Mike Vining, who resigned last month with a 401-302 record.

• Stephany Smith was hired to coach the Alabama women's team. Smith, who was 153-88 in eight seasons as Middle Tennessee State's coach, replaces Rick Moody, who retired after 16 seasons.