WRAL Sports Fan

North Carolina

UNC's Frasor, Drew now feel confident they can keep Heels going until Lawson returns

By Jake Lloyd

Mar 18, 2009

Greensboro, N.C. — Bobby Frasor and Larry Drew II got thrown into the fire last weekend in Atlanta.

They had to play big minutes because of Ty Lawson’s big toe injury. They had to do so, in the league semifinals Saturday, against one of the country’s best point guards — Florida State’s Toney Douglas.

So while they’ll likely have to play without Lawson again when the No 1-seeded Tar Heels (28-4) take on No. 16 seed Radford (21-11) in the NCAA Tournament’s first round Thursday afternoon — coach Roy Williams said “that there is a huge, huge probability that Ty will not play tomorrow” — they’re confident that they can hold down the fort until their star guard returns.

“It’s different because when he’s playing I play more minutes at the two (guard position),” Frasor said. “When he’s not playing, I usually get the majority of my minutes at the one.

“I’m ready for it. It was nice to play some in the ACC Tournament like that. In practice I’m doing more reps as the one. I’ll be ready either way.”

While it would be very difficult for the Tar Heels to make a deep run in the tournament without their speedy point guard, the senior Frasor and freshman Drew proved they could lead their team serviceably last weekend.

In UNC’s 79-76 quarterfinal win over Virginia Tech, Frasor played a season-high 37 minutes and had three assists to one turnover. In 14 minutes, Drew had four assists, three rebounds and two turnovers.

In the Tar Heels’ 73-70 loss to Florida State and Douglas — the ACC defensive player of the year — Frasor was again efficient running the team, dishing out just one assist but also giving up the ball only once in 33 minutes. Drew had three assists and no turnovers in 17 minutes.

UNC’s offense wasn’t nearly as explosive without Lawson pushing the ball, which was reflected in the point totals well below the team’s season average of 90.2 points per game. But both players progressed.

“I think they did a pretty good job,” UNC guard Wayne Ellington said. “It was great for Larry to be able to get that kind of experience moving forward into this tournament. With him getting that experience, I think he’ll be a lot more confident, be a lot more relaxed out there.”

And both Drew  and Frasor won’t have to go against any point guards the caliber of Douglas. At least not, it seems, before Lawson’s big toe heals.

“They handled it pretty well,” Ellington said of playing against Douglas. “They got us in our sets, they got us in (place) where we need to be. They weren’t flustered at all, so I think they did a pretty good job as far as that.”

It’s been a trying first season for Drew, who has averaged just 10 minutes and 1.4 points per game. At times he has appeared unsure of how and when to use his speed, and he hasn’t scared anyone with his offensive skills.

But after helping lead the team in the ACC Tournament, he feels the most confident he has all year.

“I just try to go out there and play my game,” Drew said. “I knew that Ty was out, so I kind of put it up to myself to kind of be a steady influence on everybody else out there even though I’m a freshman.

“As the game(s) got going and the more I played, I get into a rhythm, I just got more comfortable when I was out there on the court.”

Both Frasor and Drew have heard all the reports all week — Ty is this, Ty is that. It’s probably one of the most talked about toes in the history of toes.

They haven’t let all the talk bother or distract them from the task at hand. They’ve even joked about it with other teammates, making fun of the often-goofy Lawson.

“There’s no situation, no story about a toe that I have heard more about than this one,” Frasor said.

As for Lawson’s health, Williams said that his junior jitterbug hasn’t been able to do the things he needs to in practice in order to play in a game. All Lawson has been able to do the past two days is “dummy stuff,” such as shooting.

Williams added that he doesn’t want Lawson to take another pain-killing shot like he took before playing in UNC’s 79-71, regular-season-ending win over Duke.

“I’m not going to do that to a youngster,” he said.

And until Lawson returns, it will be up to Frasor and Drew to run the high-powered Tar Heels offense as well as they can. At least this week, the team has prepared for this situation.

“Our challenge is to be more efficient offensively now without him and to do a better job running the ball without him, too,” Williams said. “We’ve had a couple of days practice to try to get better.

“You know, even going to Atlanta last week, in my mind I thought we’d have him in Atlanta. So it has been a little more planned this week than it was last week that we have emphasized to the other guys.”