Lawson's status still unclear

CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina coach Roy Williams reiterated that point guard Ty Lawson needs to be able to practice today and Wednesday in order to play in Thursday’s NCAA first round game against Radford.

But even if he does, the speedy junior won’t be 100 percent.

“I don't know if I'd say the rest of the tournament, but there's no way guys he's going to be 100 pct [Thursday],’’ Williams said.

“Absolutely no way. He hasn't played basketball ... in nine days. He hasn't broken a sweat in nine days. There's no way. It just does not happen. Guys can miss two or three days, Michael Jordan can have the flu, but nobody misses that amount of time and comes back 100 percent. ... His foot is not healthy. It's a pretty easy deal. It's frustrating for us to say the least.”

Lawson jammed his right big toe on March 6th, started the Duke game on March 8, then missed both games of the ACC tournament. The junior said then that he could have played had then been NCAA tournament games, but only if the toe was numbed. Lawson said Saturday he would “definitely” be ready to play Thursday, but Williams is not so sure.

“Maybe it's wishful thinking, but I really expected it to respond quicker than it has,’’ Williams said. “And after he had played against Duke, I didn't really expect … that much swelling to happen.

"That’s what really set everything backward. I guess I've been a little surprised at the severity of it. I've just been thinking it every day, ‘it's going to get better, it's going to get better,’ but I'm probably as discouraged right now at this moment as I have been since it happened. It's not coming as quickly as we'd like for it to come.”

A UNC spokesman said there would not be an update on Lawson after today’s practice.

— Robbi Pickeral