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Lawson Doesn't Practice, Status Uncertain For Duke

By Gregg Found

Feb 5, 2008

When Roy Williams walked into the Smith Center training room this morning, he was greeted with the sight of Ty Lawson on crutches.

“I think it’s awfully difficult to be on crutches one day and play against Duke the next day,” Williams said in his press conference on Tuesday afternoon.

The coach said Lawson is doubtful for Wednesday night’s game against Duke, but said that he’s never quite sure with the playful Lawson.

“You’re talking about Dennis the Menace too, he may have skipped rope all the way down here,” Williams said.

Lawson did some light shooting in practice and no team drills, a UNC spokesman said. His status for Wednesday's game is uncertain.

His teammates are preparing to be without him.

“Right now, everybody has the mindset that Ty’s not going to play,” said Danny Green, who rooms with Lawson.

However, Lawson won’t miss the court because of a lack of trying.

“He’s been taking care of his body really well, better than I’ve ever seen him,” Green said. “He’s been icing up, really trying to get ready.”

To Wayne Ellington, it’s within reason that Lawson could hit the floor on Wednesday.

“I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he sucked it up and came out to play,” Ellington said.

If Lawson doesn’t play, Quentin Thomas will get heavy minutes at the point for the Heels, with swingman Marcus Ginyard taking over when Thomas needs a break.

Williams said the turnaround from a game on Sunday to a game on Wednesday was too quick to try to drastically change anything about the UNC game plan, but he added that with Duke’s pressure defense, “We’ll have to be a little creative to just get the ball across the ten-second line.”

Ginyard himself is battling an injury – a case of turf toe – and wore a walking boot around campus yesterday while trying to heal.

Williams said he would get Ginyard extra repetitions at point guard during today’s practice, but that he didn’t want to overwhelm the players with too many new adjustments.

“We’ll change things a little bit, but not change them so much that they have to constantly think about it,” Williams said.

As for the blood that boiled so hotly after Gerald Henderson’s hard foul broke Tyler Hansbrough’s nose near the end of last season’s Duke-UNC game, Williams downplayed the idea that the incident caused a split between himself and Mike Krzyzewski.

But he didn’t say their were best pals, either.

“Mike is not my bosom buddy,” Williams said. “It’s hard for someone to be me bosom buddy if you don’t play golf.”

He said he’s seen Krzyzewski on the recruiting trail, at basketball camps, at the ACC media days and various other events since last year, and there hasn’t been much discussion about the foul.

“We haven’t talked about that,” Williams said. “But we have talked. There’s no cold shoulders going on.”

The Henderson-Hansbrough chronicle has taken a temporary back seat to the Lawson ankle saga, which is still very much an unknown, even to Williams.

“I don’t even know if he’s going to go on the floor (today in practice),” Williams said. “And I’m being honest guys. Somebody yelled at me and said, ‘Hey over in Durham, they think you’re trying to trick em,’ I said, ‘Yeah I held him out for the last 41 minutes of the game on Sunday. I tricked em.’”

Williams knew Lawson was done for good during Sunday’s game when he tested his ankle and couldn’t get any explosiveness from it.

“He got retaped and went back in the tunnel, and tried to jump a couple of times and couldn’t do it and then came back,” Williams said.

So the team will see what today’s practice brings for Lawson and prepare from there.

“I do not know if he’s going to shoot today at practice, if he’s going to go through dummy offense today at practice,” Williams said. “We’re going to have to wait to see what it feels like when he puts his shoe on and walks out there.”

The only thing Williams was sure about is that Lawson wouldn’t be jogging onto the practice court.

“Cause he hasn’t jogged out there his entire life,” the coach joked.