University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heel Basketball Notebook
January 5, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 5, 2007
By Lauren Brownlow and Adam Lucas
After hurting his wrist on a hard foul against Dayton on Sunday, Ty Lawson has been bothered by a sore wrist ever since. The wrist took a few whacks against Penn that seemed to make it worse. Lawson was limited to dummy offensive drills in Thursday's practice and was limited again Friday. His play could be limited come Sunday because of the injury, but he is expected to play. Bobby Frasor and Quentin Thomas are also limited in practice, but have not experienced any more pain and will play on Sunday ... It's a good thing Carolina's Atlantic Coast Conference season starts Sunday, because otherwise there wouldn't be anything to talk about now that the Bobby Frasor Foot Watch is over. "I expected some soreness (after Wednesday's game) but there wasn't any," Frasor said Friday. "I went through a full practice yesterday."...
Because classes don't start until January 10, tickets for the Florida State game are available from the ticket office...
With the point guard stable returning to health, it also signals a return to the conundrum of late October and most of November: the Tar Heels have three point guards but only one basketball. In the absence of Frasor and Thomas, Wes Miller also proved to be a capable backup at the point guard position (Miller currently has a 3.00 assist/turnover ratio), which would give Carolina a point guard quartet. In effect, the Tar Heels are two months into the season but haven't yet had to establish a definitive rotation with their full roster. The immediate consequence is likely to be a decrease in minutes for Lawson, who averaged 24 minutes per game with Frasor out--and that number was reduced by the blowout nature of some of those games--but just 20 minutes per game with the Illinois sophomore in the starting lineup. "Minutes for some guys are going to be down," Frasor said. "But the guy on the court is going to be even more fresh. That gives us more legs and more ability to run, trap, go faster and play at the pace Coach Williams wants to play."...
Prior to the 2005-06 season, Roy Williams went hard after Florida State's Uche Echefu to add some much-needed depth. Echefu decided to go to Florida State, making it one of the first times at Carolina that Roy Williams went after a recruit that hard and did not get him.
"I'm pleased with the way it turned out. Coach Smith said a long time ago, `You lose somebody, that means you're going to get somebody else.' That's the way I look at it. It's very disappointing when you lose a recruit, especially as much as I put into it personally, it's really disappointing, but you've got to go on," Williams said...
Williams is not satisfied with this team on offense as it heads into conference play, in large part because of their struggles running a freelance offense.
"Set plays, once you get into conference play the opposing teams scout those and tend to take you out of those and get you into a situation where you're broken down. The more confident you are with the freelance style, the better off you are," Williams said...
Reyshawn Terry has not always been a big part of the offense this year, but after Williams pulled the senior early in the second half to give Terry a piece of his mind, his response was immediate. Terry has graded out as the best defender four times this season, and twice in the last four games.
"I feel like if I bring the energy to the team in the game early on and get everybody into it, I think it definitely raises our team intensity," Terry said. "I just try to go out there and do that every night, even if that means not scoring, and do my part on the defensive end of the floor."...
While you're marveling at Wayne Ellington's hot start (at 45.1% from the 3-point line, he'd rank second in the league in three-point accuracy if he qualified in that category--the minimum is 2.5 made trifectas per game and he's made 2.3 per game), consider this: he also graded out as one of the team's best defenders against Penn...Check back Saturday morning for the FSU Game Guide.
