Yardbarker: Ty Lawson

UNC PG Larry Drew: 'I'm going to go out and prove people wrong'

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:42:44 -0500

No one said replacing Ty Lawson as point guard at North Carolina was going to be easy, and it was anything but that for sophomore Larry Drew on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden. He missed four three throws in the final 49 seconds, but managed to make his final two as the Tar Heels held off a furious rally to defeat Ohio State 77-73. After scoring 11 points and handing out a team-high eight assists, Drew told Sporting News' Bill Eichenberger that the doubts about him only make him ...

Ty Lawson: I should have left after my freshman year

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:43:12 -0500

A reader sent me this quote from a Denver Post article about Ty Lawson:

“After my freshman year, I really should have left,” Lawson said. “I just got scared of being in the NBA, and I was only 19 years old. I probably would have learned a lot more if I would have left my first year. But I learned a lot of things under Roy Williams. I matured a lot.”

Interesting. I am not sure what to make of that unless what Lawson said came out the wrong way. He could simply be stating a fact that had he left after his freshman year he be in his 3rd year as a pro and learned more about playing in the NBA which would make him a better player. However staying in school was not a loss since he matured and learned things from Roy Williams. I would like to think he is not being ungrateful or poo-pooing his time at UNC as being inferior to being in the NBA. I just think he said it the wrong way.

That being said it was never a big secret that Lawson wanted out as soon as his draft stock could support it. That would have been in 2008 had he not been clipped by Chapel Hill Police for drinking underage and driving. Regardless, 850 the Buzz’s Joe Ovies makes an excellent point: “The important part for Tar Heels fans is that they put pro agendas aside and came together for a title run.

Well said.

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The Ty Lawson Report

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:14:57 -0500

Why Ty It's been more than a month now since I first floated Ty Lawson's name as a potential Blazers draft target. Going back further to the night of the draft lottery I had Lawson as the third most desirable name for the Blazers, behind only RIcky Rubio and Steph Curry. The biggest gap between Lawson and Rubio/Curry is ceiling. In 10 years, both of those guys could end up multiple-time All Stars; I'm not sure Lawson ever makes it to that stage. &...

Wisconsin Recruit Decommits Because of Message Boards

Tue, 26 May 2009 13:53:59 -0500

Interesting read from Gary Parrish last week. It seems Wisconsin commit Vander Blue decided to re-open his recruitment after fans on the Badgers’ message boards bashed Blue for everything from his attitude to his academics:

Vander Blue decommitted from Wisconsin earlier this week.

It was not national news.

He is not John Wall.

But what made it a national story — and perhaps a lesson for the uncivilized world of message boards, if we’re lucky — is that the decommitment was prefaced by a story about the Madison native’s alleged academic woes, which led to some Wisconsin fans spending their days publicly bashing the Class of 2010 standout on the Internet. They questioned his attitude, character and intelligence. And guess what? Vander Blue read it and it bothered him.

He is 16 years old, by the way.

“I felt like I was in a corner, trapped and I couldn’t get out,” Blue told the Milwaukee paper. “I just felt like it was so unnecessary. I don’t think I’m that worse of a guy. Sometimes I might be tired and have a little attitude, [but] I don’t think I’m a horrible person.

“Forty year-old adults talking about somebody who don’t got their license yet; I just felt it was so unnecessary,” Blue added. “Picture yourself in my position. Rumors going around, you’re just keeping quiet. And you read the article and 1,000 people [are] throwing you under the bus.”

Like American Express, anonymity on the internet has its privileges. You can wrap yourself up in it nicely and fire all sorts of shots at people left and right without any regard reprecussions because there simply none to be had. One of the reasons it gets so out of control is sheer volume. At THF, the comment traffic is still at a level that I can reasonably watch most items that pass by and crack down on folks when they cross lines. That is not the case on larger sites where hundreds comments pass over the ether on multiple threads at once. I made it abundantly clear after the loss to Wake Forest that abject negavitity and destructive criticisms leveled out UNC players would not be tolerated. The same would be true of a commit as well though this theory has not been put to the test since all of Roy’s recruits have been of fairly high character. The closest I have come to possibly crossing the line was with my commentary of Danny Green’s and Ty Lawson’s respective situations last summer. In the case of the latter, Lawson openly commented about the way he was being treated by the message boards and you sort of wonder whether Lawson was ready to make the jump just for that reason alone.

The common rule is that a person should never write something online they would not be willing to say to a person’s face. I probably do not follow this as closely as I would like but at the end of the day the THF community should be commended for largely keeping the vitrol to a minimal. The discussion here is both well thought and very civil. Please continue to keep it that way.

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Michigan State tops 2009 preseason rankings

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:37:28 -0500

College basketball in the post-Tyler Hansbrough Era: less shot-putting, more uncertainty. There will be no clear-cut No. 1 entering next season, as there was when Hansbrough and teammates Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington opted to return to North Carolina to chase a national title.Source: Sports Illustrated Submitted By: hiltigger Direct Link

Your 2009 National Champion: North Carolina

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 01:12:33 -0500

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Ty Lawson Wins $250 at Detroit Casino

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 02:01:30 -0500

It is good to be Ty Lawson right now. Especially after he won $250 at a Detroit casino. Lawson has led his North Carolina Tar Heels into the Final Four for the second straight year. Earlier this week, he was named to the All-American team. He is also a Wooden award finalist. He also won the Bob Cousy Award for the best point guard in the nation. That goes with his ACC Player of the Year award that he earned last month. All that has come while he has become the darling of the 2009 NCAA T...

UNC/Duke Advance To Sweet 16 - Game Times Announced

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 07:09:48 -0500

With two wins over the weekend, UNC and Duke advanced to the 2nd weekend of the NCAA tournament. The two teams are two wins away from playing each other in the Final Four and a third matchup of the season. Duke will play Villanova at 9:57 ET on Thursday night and UNC will play Gonzaga at the same time on Friday night.

UNC took care of Radford over the weekend with ease as Ty Lawson rested his sore toe. On Saturday, Lawson put on his Superman cape and scored 23 points against LSU despite being in obvious pain. Other than Lawson's return, the factor of the game for UNC against LSU was rebounding. LSU owned the offensive glass for most of the game, but the Heels slowed the Tigers down late and it led to the victory.

The Blue Devils also took care of business on Thursday night against Binghamton. Duke is at their best when they have an offensive balance and are not relying too heavily upon their big three of Singler, Scheyer, and Henderson. On Thursday night it saw the Blue Devils with six players in double-figures. On Saturday, Duke fought hard with a Texas team that boasted a big man in the middle that all of the analyst said would be Duke's downfall. Duke did get beat on the boards but only by a slight margin despite most of their big men in foul trouble. The factor of the game was turnover percentage where Duke owned the Longhorns.

The rest of the ACC floppeed miserably over the weekend as Maryland was the only other team to make it out of the first round. The Terps then ran into a Memphis team that couldn't miss from behind the arc. The ACC is now the joke of the tournament in many respects and will be fighting for bids again next season after not showing up this year.

Lots of Brackets, Not Enough Time To Analyze the Matchups? Let BracketBrains Help You Win Your Bracket Contest!

Roy Williams & Timeouts

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 06:43:37 -0500

It should be noted Roy Williams broke with his normal policy on timeouts and called one to stem a 13-3 run by LSU in the 2nd half. Probably more interesting than the timeout was what Roy said during it when he basically challenged the manhood of the seniors:

“Hey,” he said. “If you guys want to end your careers tonight, keep playing like you’re playing.”

Needless to say it worked as did the fact Ty Lawson got extremely vocal following two made threes. Lawson, not known for showing emotions beat his chest with his fist and yelled at his teammates. That kind of outburst is exactly the kind of leadership the Heels need in the NCAA Tournament and coming from the guy playing on the bad toe, it carried a lot of weight.

Speaking of timeouts, I mentioned after the games on Thursday that LSU’s Trent Johnson would call timeout then move out to near the lane and talk with his assistants before going into the huddle. He did the same thing versus UNC and during one timeout he stayed out there talking to his assistants for so long that by the time he sat down with the team the first horn signaling the end of the timeout sounded. At most Johnson got maybe 30 seconds with his team. Is it me or does that seem odd? In fact I wonder how much confidence you can have as a player in your coach when he does not seem ready to address the team when the timeout is called. I thought it was bizarre, especially leaving the team on the bench that long with no one on the coaching staff talking to them.

This article was originally published at http://tarheelfanblog.com. If you are interested in sharing your website's content with SCACCHoops.com, Contact Us.Lots of Brackets, Not Enough Time To Analyze the Matchups? Let BracketBrains Help You Win Your Bracket Contest!

March Madness Viewers Guide: Second Round - Saturday Games

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 19:05:58 -0500

Get ready for the second round of the NCAA Tournament with the TV schedule, point spreads, and over-under lines for the Saturday games: Purdue-Washington, Maryland-Memphis, Villanova-UCLA, North Carolina-LSU, Oklahoma-Michigan, UConn-Texas A&M, Duke-Texas, and Gonzaga-Western Kentucky.

Ty Lawson Unlikely For Virginia Tech

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 21:16:42 -0500

Via ACC Now:

“We don’t think he’ll play, but we don’t want to rule it out completely until we see how he does in the morning,” spokesman Steve Kirschner said in a message.

Lawson did the stationary bike and shot free throws. I cannot imagine his condition changing enough between now and tomorrow morning for him to play. By extension if he is not ready for Friday I cannot imagine he will be ready at any point this weekend. Wait and see I guess.

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Ty Lawson Injures Toe In Practice

Sat, 07 Mar 2009 08:35:02 -0500

According to WRAL:

North Carolina point guard Ty Lawson left practice early on Friday after injuring his left, big toe. He was given a crutch to take the pressure off of the injury and taken for x-rays. The x-rays were negative and showed no break.

UNC sports information director Steve Kirschner confirmed the injury to WRAL and said Lawson ” is expected to practice tomorrow.”

But it’s not known how much, if any, Lawson will be limited because of the injury.

Well that figures. I am taking the statement that he is expected to practice to mean this is not a big deal.

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Ty Lawson Makes Wise Life Decision, Will Return to UNC

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 07:32:42 -0500

Good decision, Ty. Once you get the basics down, a world of possibility reveals itself. Check out the one minute mark of this video. 70/40?!?!?!?!?! Apparently Ty has a difficult time with addition, percentages, fractions, hell, maybe Math in general. Probably not a good gambler, although he is pretty proficient at DUI's. To his credit, the triple digits can be quite discouraging, so maybe a return to elementary school is in order. Then again, perhaps this was just Ty's way of telling us that when he did make up his mind, as he did yesterday, he would be 110% sure about it...

NBA Draft: Would Ty Lawson's Speed Help the Denver Nuggets?

Tue, 13 May 2008 21:24:51 -0500

Standing at 5'11" and weighing 200 lbs, Tywon Lawson is arguably the fastest player in college basketball, and also the most agile. After his sophomore year, Ty entered his name into the upcoming 2008 NBA Draft. In 2006, Tywon was a 2006 USA Today All America-Selection www.rawsportsblog.com

College Basketball: Duke vs North Carolina game is going to be a classic

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 09:49:46 -0500

Every year the college basketball game between the Duke Blue Devils and the North Carolina Tar Heels always has some sort of meaning, regardless of where the two teams are ranked.