A five-hour crapshoot known as the NBA Draft will start at 7 p.m. today in New York and determine the immediate futures of at least seven ACC players and one of the top players in Southern Conference history.

Guard Jeff Teague and forward James Johnson of Wake Forest will await selection after deciding to leave school two years early. Coach Dino Gaudio of Wake Forest is confident that both players will be selected in the first round, but by which teams is anyone's guess.

"It's literally just all over the board," Gaudio said.

Looks at four projected drafts yesterday backed Gaudio's contention. The same holds true for four North Carolina players, including Tyler Hansbrough, and Duke's Gerald Henderson. However, Davidson's Stephen Curry seems to have a solid position among the top 10.

Projections for Teague's selection were 17th, 19th, 22nd and 24th. Johnson's were 16th (twice), 19th and 20th.

"I've had contact with numerous guys from every team," Gaudio said. "I've talked to Philly, and they say that if Jeff Teague is available at whatever they have (pick No. 17) that they're going to take him.

"Then I talked to somebody (selecting) in the 20's last night, and they think that both kids might fall to them. I don't know for sure, but the conversations I've had lately are the late teens for both of those kids."

Gaudio would rather see players spend at least three seasons in college before moving to the NBA, but he understands that Teague and Johnson left to fulfill long-standing professional dreams.

"I told Jeff Teague when I went into his home on Sunday night, the 14th of June, I said, 'Jeff, whatever you decide, to stay in the draft or come back to Wake Forest, I will support you 100 percent,"' Gaudio said.

"I told him, 'I love you, I'm always going to be your coach five years from now or 10 years from now or 20 years from now. I want you to be sure if something comes up and you need advice or direction or just want to talk, pick up the phone and call me. I support you completely.'"

The first player taken from an in-state school could be Curry, a sharpshooting guard who left school a year early. Two projections had him as the No. 6 pick, and two others had him at No. 7.

The first ACC player taken could be Henderson, who also left school a year early. Three projections have him as the No. 12 pick, which is owned by the Charlotte Bobcats, but Henderson might not be their choice.

The Bobcats are also looking at Terrence Williams of Louisville. Team officials have said that the pick could be traded. Henderson is projected at No. 17 by one mock draft, which would send him to his hometown team in Philadelphia.

Hansbrough will be joined in the draft by former teammates Danny Green, Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington. Green, a forward, was a four-year player at UNC. Guards Lawson and Ellington gave up their final college seasons.

Most draft projections have Hansbrough and Lawson as certain first-round picks. Ellington's situation is less clear. Green is not projected as a first-round selection.

Coach Roy Williams of UNC said that all of his talks with NBA personnel have indicated that Hansbrough, Lawson and Ellington will be first-round selections.

"I'll be the most stunned guy in the world if all three of those guys aren't No. 1 draft choices," Williams said.

Projections for Hansbrough range from No. 12 to No. 20 (twice) to No. 25. Williams said that NBA teams have discovered in Hansbrough's workouts that he is a better athlete than they thought and that he's slightly taller.

Williams said that Hansbrough's vertical jump was measured higher than Ellington's and Henderson's. He is surprised that critics are still trying to poke holes in Hansbrough's style after his four seasons at UNC, his selection as the 2008 consensus national college player of the year and UNC's NCAA Tournament championship this past season.

"It's funny, it's demeaning, it's ridiculous," Williams said. "What he did for us is he went inside, and he did all the dirty work. He looked like a bull in a china shop. He looked uncoordinated, he looked spastic, whatever you want to color it.

"It's hard to look like a great athlete with two guys hanging on you and a referee pinching you on your arm and everything else that he had to put up with."

Lawson's projections ranged from No. 13 to No. 14 to No. 17, and Ellington's from No. 25, No. 26, No. 28 and out of the first round. Williams is not sure that Lawson is being undervalued by NBA personnel but is hoping that the team that picks Lawson will recognize that his best trait is setting a blazing tempo.

"To me, those people that have Ty listed below some of those other point guards, I'm sure that some of it is that they want to have an opportunity to play more halfcourt," Williams said. "And there's nothing wrong with that.

"I've told (NBA personnel), 'If you are not going to run, do not draft him. But if you're going to run, you're really going to run if you get him because you have no idea what you're getting.'"