When Wayne Ellington took his recruiting trip to North Carolina, one of the first things he did was look up to the rafters and dream about having his No. 22 hanging amongst the honored jerseys. “When you’re a kid, you dream about stuff like that,’’ said the Minnesota Timberwolves’ rookie.
Two Wolves players were spotted at their old college arenas on Saturday, with NBA players off for the All-Star break. Wolves rookie guard Wayne Ellington was at the Smith Center in Chapel Hill, N.C., along with Ty Lawson, the Wolves draft pick traded to the Denver Nuggets on draft night. North Carolina hung Ellington’s No. 22 and Lawson’s No. 5 in the rafters Saturday during the Tar Heels’ victory over North Carolina State. Those two numbers are among the 38 that the Tar Heels program has hung up but not officially retired. Ellington was the Most Outstanding Player at last year’s Final Four, when North Carolina won the national championship. Meanwhile, Wolves forward Alando Tucker was at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wis., with New York Knicks rookie Marcus Landry, watching Wisconsin dismantle Indiana.

From Jerry Zgoda/Star Tribune: The Wolves boss touched on Al Jefferson, Ricky Rubio and everyone in between during a recent media session.
STAR TRIBUNE’S STAR OF THE WEEK

Wayne Ellington, guard: Al Jefferson can’t win this every week, so let’s go with the rookie guard who averaged 14.5 points in the week’s two games on 60 percent shooting (12-for-20). He scored a team-high 16 Tuesday in his first game as a pro back home in Philadelphia.

The Timberwolves’ Kevin Love comes up with a rebound every 157 seconds of a game. If the second-year forward had enough games played to qualify, he would be second in the NBA in rebounds per 48 minutes with 18.3, behind only the Los Angeles Clippers’ Marcus Camby at 18.5.