The most significant event of the 2008-2009 college basketball season went down on June 16, when North Carolina’s Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Danny Green each announced their intentions to return to school. Therefore, the Tar Heels are now the overwhelming favorites (2/1 at Sportsbook.com) to win the national title and a given to be everybody’s pre-season No. 1.

Tyler Hansbrough, the consensus National Player of the Year last season, had previously passed up a chance to turn pro early. UNC, which lost to eventual champ Kansas in the Final Four, will bring back nearly its entire nucleus.

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Arizona also received good news on deadline day when Chase Budinger opted to return to school even though he almost assuredly would’ve been a first-round choice. The same can be said for UAB, as Robert Vaden elected to come back, and Texas, which gets back A.J. Abrams, who was brilliant in last year’s NCAA Tournament.

On the other hand, it was a tough day in Tuscaloosa. Richard Hendrix, who is a second-round pick in most mock drafts, will remain in the draft rather than return to Mark Gottfried’s program.

After missing back-to-back Tournaments, Gottfried’s job is likely in jeopardy if the Crimson Tide don’t get back to the Big Dance this year. With Hendrix, ‘Bama would probably be the favorite to win the SEC West. Without him, the Tide has a chance to be good, but that probably depends on Ronald Steele’s bad knees that have caused him to miss most of the last two seasons.

Count Mississippi State among the other losers to the draft. Jamont Gordon, who isn’t expected to go in the first round, will not be returning to Starkville. Couple that with the loss of senior power forward Charles Rhodes and the transfer of Ben Hansbrough (to Notre Dame), and Rick Stansbury might lose some sleep tonight.

In other news, former Kentucky guard Derrick Jasper has announced that he’ll transfer to UNLV.

As for the Gators, they lost Marreese Speights to the draft and Jonathan Mitchell transferred to Rutgers due to a lack of playing time. On the bright side, former Georgetown forward Vernon Macklin will have two years of eligibility at Florida after sitting out the ’08-’09 campaign.

Whose next on the futures board following UNC? UCLA has 12/1 odds, while Duke, Pittsburgh and UConn have a 15/1 number at Sportsbook.com.

Brian Edwards can be reached at briane@vegasinsider.com.