WRAL Sports Fan

North Carolina

Lawson unlikely to play Thursday

By Dane Huffman

Mar 18, 2009

North Carolina coach Roy Williams made it sound like point guard Ty Lawson is unlikely to play Thursday in the Tar Heels’ opening-round game in the NCAA Tournament.

Carolina plays Radford Thursday afternoon.

“There was a time this week I thought he could play tomorrow,” William said Wednesday at a news conference in Greensboro. “There’s a time, including right now, where I’ve said no.”

Williams has said he wanted Lawson to practice at least part of Tuesday and all of Wednesday.

“Yesterday, all he did was shoot the ball and go through some dummy offense things,” Williams said. “And that’s all he did today.”

Lawson jammed his toe severely on the Friday before the Duke game, but played that Sunday in Chapel Hill in UNC’s win. He did not play last weekend in the ACC Tournament.

Lawson has said he took a shot to numb the toe before the Duke game. Williams said Wednesday he has told Lawson not to take another shot to numb the toe before playing.