University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: UNC Basketball Notebook
November 27, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 27, 2007
By Adam Lucas
No news was, well, no news on the status of Ty Lawson Tuesday afternoon. Roy Williams had a regularly scheduled press conference but had no additional information on the status of his sophomore point guard. "I don't have anything different to add," the head coach said. "He did not practice yesterday and I haven't seen him yet today. He's on the practice plan listed as limited and that's wishful thinking on my part but I don't know if it's false." The Tar Heels will know more about Lawson's status after Tuesday afternoon's practice. The team leaves for Columbus tonight...Williams indicated Bobby Frasor would start in Lawson's place if the sophomore is unable to play...
The trip to Columbus will be part of the ACC/Big 10 Challenge--check it, the Big 10/ACC Challenge. After eight years of the ACC taking the lead on the formal name, the ninth incarnation has been reversed in the country. In an effort to force that slower tempo, the Buckeyes could employ some zone, especially if Carolina is Lawson-less. BYU played zone with some effectiveness when Lawson was injured in Las Vegas. "When they were in zone, we thought there were some openings inside and we didn't have anybody that could penetrate and get it in there," Williams said after the BYU game...
Ohio State and Carolina haven't crossed frequently on the recruiting trail, but the Tar Heels did express an interest in Buckeye seven-footer Kosta Koufos. "We loved Kosta to death," Williams said. "I told Thad (Matta) last year I thought he had the best freshman center prospect in the country with Greg (Oden), and I felt the same way with Kosta." Koufos is Ohio State's leading scorer (18.6 points per game) and rebounder (8.6 rebounds per game)...Matta has coached in three games against top-ranked teams and won all three. His Xavier team beat St. Joseph's in 2004, and the Buckeyes dethroned Illinois in 2005 and Wisconsin last season...The praise continues for Alex Stepheson, who played very well in Las Vegas. "He's a big spark off the bench," said fellow bench sparkplug Danny Green. "He's getting a lot of offensive rebounds, and he's moving his feet a lot better."...
Typically candid assessment of the importance of this week's power conference clash from Williams: "For us as coaches it's not the same kind of thing as it is in the ACC office or for our fans. It's a big-time deal, it really is, and we like to play in those big-time games. But some of us play in a lot of big-time games." Sadly, there was no repetition of the chocolate-nut sundae quote, one of the great Williams all-timers. In 2003, he memorably said, "I'll pull for the ACC schools but I'm not going to get up and have an extra chocolate nut sundae if we win seven games."...
Adding to the shakiness of the entire Las Vegas Invitational presentation, the Tar Heel coaches discovered several errors in the offical box scores (based on stats kept by on-site staff) after grading film. Marcus Ginyard picked up three unnoticed assists for the weekend after the review, and Danny Green and Deon Thompson each added a block against BYU.
Adam Lucas most recently collaborated on a behind-the-scenes look at Carolina Basketball with Wes Miller. The Road To Blue Heaven is available now. Lucas's other books on Carolina basketball include The Best Game Ever, which chronicles the 1957 national championship season, Going Home Again, which focuses on Roy Williams's return to Carolina, and Led By Their Dreams, a collaboration with Steve Kirschner and Matt Bowers on the 2005 championship team.
