Hoops notes: Lawson's injury hurts Tar Heels

The Super Bowl is over and the condition of Tom Brady’s ankle no longer ranks as priority No. 1 with the nation’s sports fans. To all those searching for another big-time event to ease the transition out of football season, the Duke-North Carolina game on Wednesday comes at the perfect time.

And just in case the game isn’t enough, the best rivalry in college basketball is delivering its own ankle of attention.

North Carolina point guard Ty Lawson sprained his left ankle four minutes into an 84-73 victory over Florida State Sunday and missed the remainder of the game. Lawson and FSU forward Ryan Reid became locked up while battling for a loose ball. They fell to the ground and Lawson, 5-11 and 195 pounds, got the worst of the tussle with Reid, who checks in at 6-9 and 230 pounds.

Lawson let out a scream that could be heard from Tallahassee to Chapel Hill. That was the first indication of how bad it might be. Later, when Carolina fans saw him on the bench with a big bag of ice wrapped high around the ankle, the level of concern had to increase.

“I don’t remember what happened,” Lawson told reporters after the game. “I think I blacked out for about 10 seconds. I guess he fell on me but I honestly don’t know.”

Perhaps the paparazzi don’t exist along Tobacco Road, but there are plenty of basketball writers who will try to sniff out an update on Lawson today. Coach Roy Williams and other North Carolina officials said Lawson’s status would not be known until Tuesday after practice.

“It could be the wimpiest ankle sprain in history or it could be the worst ankle sprain in history,” Williams said. “I haven’t got any idea right now.”

This is huge for North Carolina. If you were wondering why Williams was fretting so much in December when Bobby Frasor tore his ACL, this should explain everything in more precise terms. Frasor’s injury made the Tar Heels thin at the point. It shrunk the backcourt rotation and Williams certainly doesn’t like that.

Now Williams may not have the guy that triggers Carolina’s fastbreak. Lawson is all about offensive efficiency, starting with the ability to make good decisions. On top of that he averages 14.1 points and he has been playing more than 31 minutes a game during the ACC portion of the schedule.

Senior Quentin Thomas filled in for Lawson after the injury Sunday and played a career-high 36 minutes. Thomas finished with nine points, six assists and five rebounds. Nice numbers, but the Tar Heels missed Lawson’s presence.

The box score Sunday showed North Carolina had 21 turnovers and nine assists. Any observers of teams coached by Williams knows those numbers won’t produce many victories in his system.

Playing without Lawson is an exercise in survival for Carolina. Williams has to consider more than Wednesday’s Duke game when determining Lawson’s status. The Tar Heels can’t afford to have Lawson on the sideline for a long period of time. In addition, forward Marcus Ginyard, who missed two days of practice before the Florida State game with an injured left big toe, still isn’t 100 percent. Ginyard had flexibility problems Sunday and played 31 minutes even though he had difficulty pushing off.

Obviously, the timing of these injuries couldn’t be worse for the Tar Heels. Duke could open up a two-game lead over the Tar Heels in the ACC standings. And the regular-season champion will likely be rewarded with a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, opening in Raleigh and then moving on to Charlotte. That’s a pretty attractive path for two programs hoping to reach the Final Four in San Antonio.

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski may have more depth on this squad than any of his Final Four teams. The Blue Devils apply constant pressure on defense and spread the floor on offense. Together, those tactics can leave opponents exhausted and defeated – especially teams that lack depth. And suddenly, that’s a problem for North Carolina.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Rider’s Jason Thompson is on the midseason list of Wooden Award candidates and he showed why Saturday with 23 points, 21 rebounds, and five assists in an 89-75 victory at Siena. Thompson, a 6-11 senior forward, also had 23 points and 21 rebounds against Delaware on Nov. 17. Kansas State’s Michael Beasley, quite likely the No. 1 pick in the next NBA draft, is the only other Division I player this season to have two games with at least 20 points and 20 rebounds. Rider and K-State actually met on Nov. 25. The Wildcats won 82-69 but Thompson had 24 points and 13 rebounds, while Beasley was held to 13 points and 10 rebounds.

FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK

UCLA’s amazing winter of Love continued with victories over Arizona State and Arizona. Freshman center Kevin Love came up big in both games. In the 84-51 win over Arizona State, Love had 20 points, 10 rebounds, two assists, and was 9-for-11 from the field in 24 minutes. Love played four more minutes in the 82-60 win over Arizona and finished with 26 points and 11 rebounds. He hit 9 of 12 shots from the field.

GAMES OF THE WEEK

Monday, Feb. 4
Missouri at Kansas
The Border War comes to Big Monday. The Jayhawks had to appreciate Missouri’s victory over Kansas State Saturday but don’t expect them to roll out the red carpet at Allen Field House.

Gonzaga at St. Mary’s
McKeon Pavilion will be rocking for this one. The top teams in the West Coast Conference have a lot at stake in this game.

Tuesday, Feb. 5
Florida at Tennessee
The Vols can put some distance between themselves and Florida in the SEC East standings. The Gators are coming off a humbling 80-61 loss at Arkansas.

Wednesday, Feb. 6
Connecticut at Syracuse
Syracuse has been hit hard by injuries. UConn has been dealing with the suspensions of Doug Wiggins and Jerome Dyson. Somehow both teams are in the upper half of the Big East standings.

Duke at North Carolina
They meet again. Welcome back Dick Vitale.

Thursday, Feb. 7
Indiana at Illinois
The Fighting Illini fans have been waiting to greet Hoosiers Eric Gordon and Kelvin Sampson.

UCLA at Washington State
After Saturday’s overtime loss to Stanford, the Cougars really need to protect the home turf in this big Pac-10 game.

Saturday, Feb. 9
Georgetown at Louisville
Both of these two teams entered the season with Final Four aspirations. Can Louisville give the Hoyas a run for their money in the Big East race?

Baylor at Kansas
The Bears are a contender in the Big 12 but they still have something to prove when they go on the road.

Sunday, Feb. 10
Southern Illinois at Creighton
Drake may be running away with the Missouri Valley Conference but Creighton is still trying to build its resume for the NCAA Tournament.

Saint Joseph’s at Xavier
Dayton and Rhode Island got everyone hyped up about the Atlantic 10 in December. But Saint Joseph’s and Xavier begin this week tied for first in the conference standings.

THEY SAID IT:

“We’re going to give them a day off [Sunday] to root for the Patriots. Any kid who doesn’t root for the Patriots, there’s no big price, they just can’t come to Syracuse [for Wednesday’s game].” — UConn coach Jim Calhoun, sharing a little Super Bowl humor after his team’s 60-53 victory over Pittsburgh Saturday.

“It was crazy, I didn’t know they would do that. I didn’t know whether to run or what.” — Penn State’s Stanley Pringle, commenting on the fans rushing the court at the Jordan Center after the Nittany Lions upset Michigan State 85-76.

“It’s no fun. You understand how I feel about that guy.” — Arkansas coach John Pelphrey, speaking about his mentor, Billy Donovan, after the Razorbacks beat Florida 80-61.

“I’m proud of John. He’s done a terrific job with these guys here at Arkansas. This is a great opportunity for him.” — Florida coach Billy Donovan, on Pelphrey, after the Gators lost.

“He’s a big dude. You can’t miss him though. You’ve got to know where he is so you can block him out. He’s a physical player who goes after every board.” — Pitt forward DeJuan Blair, on Hasheem Thabeet, UConn’s 7-foot-3 center.

NOTES:

In this day and age, Division I independents don’t get much attention. It seems that might change Monday night, when the Longwood Lancers travel to the New Jersey Institute of Technology. The Lancers are 5-20. The NJIT Highlanders are 0-23 this season and own the longest losing streak in the nation at 27 games. The Highlanders lost to Utah Valley State 81-69 Saturday night. But playing Longwood might bring a bit of hope to NJIT. The last time the Highlanders won was Feb. 19 – a 78-74 victory over Longwood. NJIT is in its second season of Division I basketball.

Congratulations to Eddie Sutton. The long road to 800 wins finally ended Saturday night in Malibu, Calif. San Francisco rallied from a 19-point deficit in the second half to defeat Pepperdine 85-82 and Sutton became just the fifth coach in Division I history to win 800 games. The Dons have lost seven of nine games since Sutton took over as head coach but now he is on the short list along with Bob Knight, Dean Smith, Adolph Rupp and Jim Phelan. Now it will be interesting to see if that magic number changes the way Sutton is viewed by voters for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.

Cornell enjoyed a big weekend in the Ivy League, winning at Brown and at Yale. That moves the Big Red to 4-0 in conference play, a very good start toward ending the domination of Penn and Princeton in the Ivy. Cornell was the last team other than Princeton or Penn to represent the Ivy in the NCAA Tournament. But that was 20 years ago. Since Cornell won the Ivy in 1988, Penn and Princeton have either won or shared the Ivy title every season except 2001-02 when Princeton shared with Yale. Brown (2-2) may be Cornell’s biggest challenger this season. The two meet again Feb. 23 at Brown.

Tristan Blackwood, a senior guard at Central Connecticut, broke the Northeast Conference record for career three-pointers Saturday night when the Blue Devils upset conference leader Wagner 89-63. Blackwood had 18 points and hit five threes, giving him 304 for his career. The previous NEC record was 300, set by Chris McGuthrie of Mount St. Mary’s (1993-96). “It means a lot,” Blackwood told The Hartford Courant. “My time is almost over. I wanted to leave something behind and let people know I was here.”

Former Boston College and Ohio State coach Jim O’Brien is free to return to coaching effective March 10. O’Brien was fired by the Buckeyes in 2004 and banned from coaching by the NCAA until May 2009 for paying a recruit. But an appeals committee changed the date of sanctions last Thursday. O’Brien, who has worked as a broadcaster since losing his job, had previously won a lawsuit against Ohio State for wrongfully firing him.

We understand Kansas State’s 84-75 win over No. 2 Kansas Wednesday night was a big deal in Manhattan. The Wildcats ended a 24-year home-court losing streak to their rivals and temporarily moved into sole possession of first place in the Big 12 (until they lost at Missouri Saturday). But to merchandise the game with an Instant Classic DVD on the Kansas State official athletics website is just a little much, isn’t it? This was a regular season game, not the national championship.

Stat of the week: St. John’s suffered its worst Big East loss ever Wednesday night, falling to first-place Georgetown 74-42. The Red Storm lost their eighth game in nine tries primarily because of an incredibly poor shooting performance. St. John’s was 10-for-47 from the field. That’s 21.3 percent. But here’s the real kicker. That wasn’t even the worst shooting performance in the Big East on that night. West Virginia shot 20 percent, going 10-for-50 in a 62-39 loss to Cincinnati. That goes in the books as the worst shooting night in West Virginia history. And that’s a lot of bad shooting for one night.

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