University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Getting The Point
January 31, 2008 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 31, 2008
By Adam Lucas
It's easy to notice Ty Lawson when he's playing well.
It's more difficult, sometimes, when he's playing brilliantly.
When he's playing well, we see the penetration, the layups, the passes that arrive to exactly the right person at exactly the right time. He zips down the floor and there's an audible, "Oooohhh," from the crowd.
But Lawson hasn't merely been playing well the last two games. He's played brilliantly, to the tune of 20 assists and just one turnover.
Thursday night's performance in a 91-69 victory over Boston College--and pesky point guard Tyrese Rice--was one of his best.
"Nah, not my best. Maybe my second best," Lawson said, noting that he preferred last Wednesday's 23-point, 10-assist, 1-turnover effort at Miami. Lawson and Rice have a long history that stretches back through AAU, and Lawson almost seemed to discount his amazing showing--16 points, 10 assists, 0 turnovers, and 3 steals--because he was familiar with his Eagle opponent.
"We go way back," Lawson said.
But he's one of the best point guards in the ACC.
"Yeah, but I've been playing against him for a long time."
It still counts, Ty. What's most impressive is that he did it not just offensively, but defensively. Rice did end the game with a team-high 20 points, but thanks to sticky defense from Lawson and Marcus Ginyard, it took him 15 shots to do it.
"I was telling some of the guys the other day that we need to have the same cockiness on defense that we have on offense," said Quentin Thomas, who has quietly been a significant asset over the last two weeks. "On offense, we feel like we can score anytime we want to. We need to also feel like we can stop anybody anytime we want to."
Sometimes, because of Lawson's impressive talent, it's easy to think of him as a finished product. He's a gifted passer and scorer. But he's also just a sophomore, and how good he could be is astonishing. It's tempting to say he could play every night like he played on Thursday. That's probably not true--no one is perfect every night, and Lawson was close to perfect.
But that kind of effort and that kind of commitment on both ends of the court from its point guard takes Carolina from being pretty good to elite.
On Wednesday, Ginyard had made some pointed comments about the Rice-Lawson battle.
"I just hope Ty takes it as a personal challenge that these two are going to be going head-to-head a lot in this game," the Carolina junior said. "I hope he doesn't see it as just another matchup, because it's a very important matchup. It's one that he needs to win."
Read between the lines all you want, but the fact is that Ginyard was right. A little more than 24 hours later, what was his assessment of the impact Lawson had on the game?
"He really took it personally," he said. "Everyone saw his energy was up there tonight. He was getting out there in passing lanes and running all over the court. When you see him in fifth or sixth gear, you see how everything goes so much smoother and easier for this ballclub."
A dozen days ago, Lawson was beaten head-to-head by Maryland's Greivis Vasquez. After reviewing the tape, Lawson decided he'd been forcing things offensively and resolved to do a better job of surveying the entire floor on every possession. Since then, the results have been dazzling.
The irony is that when Lawson is playing so effectively, he almost fades into the background because he's creating so many opportunities for everyone else. Everyone saw Deon Thompson's career-high 17 points. But did you happen to notice that a bushel of those points came on passes from Lawson?
The best was on the second Boston College possession of the second half. Lawson had already nailed a floater for Carolina's first points of the second stanza. A few seconds later, Thompson swatted away a Rice pass intended for John Oates. The ball trickled into the backcourt and Oates jogged after it. But Lawson wasn't jogging, he was sprinting. He kept the ball alive just long enough for Thompson to gather it in and jam it through to make it a 20-point Tar Heel advantage.
"Last year, I probably would've let that one go," Lawson admitted. "But we needed some hustle right there."
Ten minutes later, the game was basically over. But there was just enough time remaining for Tyler Hansbrough to fill yet another highlight reel, as he jammed through his second 360-degree dunk of the season.
Everyone saw the dunk. While the Smith Center crowd was standing and roaring for Hansbrough, Roy Williams was on his feet pointing at his point guard. He'd seen it, even if no one else had. What ignited the play was Lawson swatting the ball away from Rice in the lane, knocking it away, and then diving headlong to tip the ball ahead to Hansbrough.
"Yeah," Lawson said with that impish grin, "Coach loves that kind of stuff."
What about it, Marcus? A little teammate motivation gets the credit for that performance?
"Nope," Ginyard said. "I didn't say anything to him. He did it all on his own."
He paused, just to make sure you caught the implication. Then, to make it crystal clear, he added one last comment.
"That's what makes it so exciting for this team."
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.
