Lawson May Get Some Minutes Against BC

WRALSportsFan

Lawson May Get Some Minutes Against BC

By Gregg Found

Feb 28, 2008

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Saturday could be the first time in seven games that Ty Lawson sees the court, Roy Williams said during his regular press conference on Thursday.

But the final decision won’t be made until the morning of the game.

“Ty yesterday in practice went up and down the court in three on zero and five on zero situations,” Williams said. “Nothing where there was a defense. He did some shooting and that was it.”

Williams said Lawson would do the same thing during today’s practice, and that Friday, he would try to insert Lawson into some more live situations.

“If that goes well, we’ll perhaps try to play him for a few minutes against Boston College,” Williams said. “But that decision will not be made until Saturday morning.”

Lawson is still battling the high ankle sprain he suffered on Feb. 3 at Florida State. Many fans hoped he would be rushed back to health in time to play in UNC’s next game, Feb. 6 against Duke, but they proved to be overzealous. The injury has ended up being a month-long affair.

In Lawson’s stead, however, has blossomed a bright story – especially in Williams eyes.

The emergence of Quentin Thomas has helped steady the ship for the Tar Heels. UNC was 5-1 in the ACC at the time of Lawson's injury, and has gone 6-1 without him.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever felt as good and had as warm fuzzy feelings about something that’s going on with one of my players than I did with Quentin,” Williams said.

A similar process might be in the works for Alex Stepheson, who could get his first career start on Saturday if Deon Thompson can’t play.

Williams said Thompson is battling a combination of a leg and back injury that has held him out of much of the second halves of UNC’s recent games.

“If he is not considerably better today and tomorrow than he was yesterday, I might just hold him out completely,” Williams said.

Adding to the Tar Heels well-documented injury woes, Marcus Ginyard hasn’t practiced this week and wore a boot on his foot on Monday in Tuesday. Williams said he would likely only do dummy drills in practice today.

And even Thomas isn’t in top shape.

“Quentin Thomas on the injury report it said ‘watch closely,’” Williams said. “That’s what I do every day out there is watch everybody closely. So I don’t know what that means, but we’ve got to ‘watch him closely.’ I know that part.”

After running down his injury list, Williams then tackled the potential NCAA Tournament scenario where UNC could play their first two rounds in Raleigh and next two in Charlotte if they earn the top seed in the East Regional.

Just don’t tell Williams that.

“But you could ask Woody (Durham), on our TV show, I couldn’t even remember where the dadgum ACC tournament was,” Williams said. “I’m telling you guys, I don’t look at that stuff.”

To Williams, too much emphasis is placed on the potential tournament destinations rather than the team itself.

“I have no idea of that,” Williams said of the potential close-to-home path. “I knew that Tiger Woods played a heck of a golf round on Sunday, but I by God I didn’t know anything about that.”

“And I’m not being facetious, some people may really look at it and think it’s important. I try to focus on something I can have a little bit of say on and that’s how my team is playing.”

The Tar Heels were sent to freezing-cold Syracuse for the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight during their national championship run of 2005. And that was just fine.

“It’s the greatest place in the world because by golly we won and we went to the Final Four,” Williams said.

Most Recent Comments

Most tarheel men tend to sprain an ankle or take a header into a curb running away from women. Thanks to them for giving me a chance to be the only straight man in Chapel Hill on my weekend outings.

Duke is a great team no matter who goes against them. We'll see next Saturday!

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To Turheel:
Its how you look at it-he goes down before 1st meeting with Duke and comes back before second meeting. Or is it ironic? Dont know just sayin. Yall have done pretty well without him though. I think Thomas has done a decent job replacing Lawson for the time. Memory does not serve to well but it seems a few years ago State beat a team the first game then lost every game in between until we played them again and won.

No whats happening in the RBC/ESA Center is not comical. Its Keystone Cops Comical. Its a Comedy of Errors. Its Slapstick Comedy...Watching the FSU game and when with almost 12 or 11 minutes to in the 1st half we have only 6 points..ya get mad but at the same time you almost have to laugh. I mean FERGI was the leading scorer for the game. Now I don't care whom you pull for THATS FUNNY/Embarrassing??

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