When Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Danny Green announced on Monday that they were going to return to play another year at UNC rather than remain eligible for the pro draft, next year’s Tar Heels instantly became the deepest, most talented and most experienced team in America.

Those three and the other returning players, including consensus national player of the year Tyler Hansbrough, will give Carolina an old-fashioned team. In the age of one-and-done players just breezing through town, coach Roy Williams will have what we used to see as a regular occurrence in college basketball: a team built around juniors and seniors.

The three freshmen – Ed Davis, Tyler Zeller and Larry Drew – all will have the luxury of learning from a remarkable collection of young men who have seen and done everything there is to do in college basketball … except win the national championship.

These guys have won consecutive ACC championships. They’ve been to the round of eight in the NCAA Tournament and the Final Four.

Last season, they lost their starting and backup point guards, in addition to weathering a host of other injuries — and the Heels still lost just three games all year. From Williams to the last player on the bench, it was one of the most amazing performances anyone who has watched college ball has seen.

Barring unforeseen incidents this summer or at the start of school, this next team should be healthy and eager to take care of business.

But, (and isn’t there always a “but?”) there are potential issues.

Start with the injuries. For two straight years Carolina has suffered an extraordinary number of injuries at point guard. Luckily for Roy Williams, he had three point guards, plus Marcus Ginyard, to get through it all.

In the backs of all the kids’ and coaches’ minds, they must have been thinking how nice it would be if this exceptional group could get through an entire season with relatively few injuries, and none of the serious variety.

The other “but,” is just as important, if not more so. This one is the human element.

The bodies in those uniforms are human beings, people with all the emotions and desires any of the rest of us possess, except many of them also have the expectations of playing professional basketball and making a boatload of money.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Personally, I want to see every one of those kids and their families get all they can. Why should any of us wish anything else for them?

The possible issue is whether they will enter this season understanding that the best way to get that money is to stick together, play as a team and win the national championship.

Look at the 2005 Carolina team that won the title, or this year’s championship Kansas team. The 2005 draft was loaded with Tar Heels, and this year’s is sure to have plenty of Jayhawks.

There is no better marketing tool for a college basketball player than making a run to the national title. The entire team must play well for it to happen, but all the kids will get to highlight their skills before the nation, as well as all the National Basketball Association scouts and general mangers.

If this team decides, from the beginning, there will be no room for jealousy and selfishness, and that individual goals will be earned through team accomplishments, these kids will have the rare opportunity to achieve something they will cherish for a lifetime. Survey the other Carolina basketball players who own a national championship ring, and the overwhelming majority will tell you it means as much to them as any accomplishment in sport.

They will be loved and revered by UNC fans for the rest of their lives, and the ones who truly have the talent will be rewarded in next year’s pro draft. The ones still perceived as lacking enough talent will still get another chance to prove everyone wrong, and, given what we’ve seen through the years, even if they do not play in the NBA, the opportunity to make money — a lot of it — playing ball somewhere else in the world is a realistic proposition.

But, and there is that word again, they will have to put team first and put their individual dreams on the backburner. They must understand that, if they listen to Williams and execute all they have learned in their time under this Hall of Fame coach, they will be limited only by their willingness to work, execute and sacrifice for the team.

In the end, that is what Carolina basketball is really supposed to be about anyway.

Eddy Landreth can be reached at chnsports@nando.com.