North Carolina guard Ty Lawson (left), is expected to miss the first round of the NCAA Tournament because of a toe injury.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Ty Lawson’s troublesome toe could keep North Carolina’s speedy point guard sidelined for the Tar Heels’ NCAA Tournament opener.
Coach Roy Williams says the Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year must practice Tuesday and Wednesday in order to play in Thursday’s NCAA matchup against Radford.
The school gave no update Tuesday night on if Lawson practiced Tuesday.
Lawson has been hobbled since injuring his right big toe before the regular-season finale against Duke, an injury that sidelined him at last weekend’s ACC tournament.
Williams says Lawson’s recovery is going slower than he had expected. Lawson said at the ACC tournament that he was feeling better after several days of rest.
The Tar Heels are the top seed in the South Region and open the tournament in Greensboro, N.C., about an hour from campus.
FSU’S Hamilton to get extension
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – After guiding Florida State to its best season in 16 years, Leonard Hamilton will be offered a contract extension that school officials said Tuesday would make him a “happy camper.”
Florida State president T.K. Wetherell and athletic director Randy Spetman acknowledged that they were working on an extension for Hamilton they hope to get signed after the season.
“I’m convinced Leonard will be back at Florida State and be a happy, happy, happy camper,” Wetherell said. “I don’t see Leonard going anywhere. I can see a number of people probably want him, but why would you want to leave what we’ve got here?”
They did not discuss specifics.
Although the Seminoles will lose star guard Toney Douglas and three-year starter Uche Echefu to graduation, Hamilton has three starters returning along with several key substitutes from the school’s most successful team since 1992-93.
The Seminoles have a 25-9 record going into NCAA Tournament play Friday against Wisconsin in a first-round game at Boise, Idaho.
Stephen F. Austin finally gets shot
MIAMI – From Nacogdoches to the NCAAs. It’s a long trip for Stephen F. Austin.
A really long trip, actually.
Only 86 years and 2,099 games after the program was born, the team from Texas’ oldest city – about equal distance from Dallas and Houston, not far from the Louisiana state line – is getting its first shot on college basketball’s biggest stage.
Seeded No. 14 in the South regional, the Lumberjacks (24-7) play third-seeded Syracuse (26-9) Friday in Miami.
A daunting challenge, for certain, but one Stephen F. Austin couldn’t be more thrilled about.
“It’s self-gratification beyond description,” Lumberjacks coach Danny Kaspar said Tuesday. “We are a band of brothers. That’s what the shirts we made at the beginning of the year say.
“It is just a great, great feeling to finally achieve all your goals and get to where you’ve strived, where you’ve worked so hard to get for all your life.”
In some college towns, getting to a first-round game is, well, ho-hum. After all, 61 of the 65 schools in this year’s field had been there before, and 54 of them have at least one win in an NCAA Tournament game.
Not so in Nacogdoches, Texas. For the town of about 35,000, just getting there is a very big deal.
“You drive down the main street here and you see all the marquees in front of businesses with ‘Best wishes ‘Jacks’ and ‘Good luck in the NCAAs,’ that type of thing,” said Rob Meyers, Stephen F. Austin’s assistant athletic director for business and the team’s play-by-play voice.
“Now, having cut down the nets, it’s really for real,” forward Josh Alexander said Sunday after the Lumberjacks beat Texas-San Antonio 68-57 for the Southland Conference title.