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UNC will face test tonight
Heels' Williams unsure if Hansbrough will play against Spartans
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Published: December 3, 2008
North Carolina today will make what it hopes will be the first of two trips to Detroit's Ford Field this season to play in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge series.
North Carolina will play Michigan State at 9:15 p.m. Ford Field will also be the site of this season's Final Four, but Coach Roy Williams said he wasn't sure that a game there will be helpful at all to his team in returning to the Final Four for a second consecutive season.
Williams said he's only concerned with stopping the Spartans and remaining unbeaten while two of his top players, Tyler Hansbrough and Marcus Ginyard, recover from injuries.
In 2006, the Tar Heels were in Atlanta, the site of that season's Final Four, for a game at Georgia Tech. Williams pointed out the Georgia Dome, the site of the tournament, to his team on a bus ride to Georgia Tech but the Tar Heels didn't advance there in March.
"I'm never showing them an arena again," Williams said. "I would say most of my players know that that's where the Final Four is going to be, but I would bet that some of them don't know. I would be shocked if everybody on my team knew that the Final Four was going to be in the same building."
The Tar Heels are 7-0 and the Spartans are 4-1. The programs have played each other twice in nine previous challenge series seasons and the Spartans have won both times.
Williams said early yesterday afternoon that he was uncertain whether Hansbrough, a 6-9 center, will be able to play for only the fourth time this season. Hans-brough sat out Sunday's win in Chapel Hill over UNC Asheville after starting three times while the team was on a West Coast and Hawaii swing.
Hansbrough didn't practice on Monday. He's experiencing stiffness in an ankle that was injured in his first game back, at Cal-Santa Barbara on Nov. 21. His right shin, which suffered a stress reaction late in October, isn't fully recovered but is not now the chief source of his discomfort.
Williams wanted to see if Hansbrough could practice yesterday and how much stiffness he will have today at the team's afternoon shootaround before making a decision on his playing status.
"I'm not hiding (anything)," Williams said. "I'm just telling you: I do not know."
Ty Lawson, a junior point guard, has taken control of the team in Hansbrough's absence. Lawson is averaging 16 points a game and is shooting 55.6 percent from the field and 52.6 percent on 3-point attempts. He has 47 assists, nine turnovers and 17 steals.
Williams said he's confident that Lawson is attacking defenses as well as he was last season before suffering a severely sprained ankle last February. Williams has encouraged Lawson to shoot more in Hansbrough's absence.
Lawson said that becoming more of a scoring and shooting threat this season is making him into a better all-around player.
"In high school I was a scorer; that's what I mostly did," Lawson said. "I felt like I was running the team more last year. Now I feel like I can play the way I want to."
Coach Tom Izzo of Michigan State said that North Carolina might be the best team that his program has played in his 14 seasons on the job. He said he expects Hansbrough to play and that he's worried about Lawson.
Michigan State has a fast point guard of its own in Kalin Lucas. Michigan State is running the fast break a little more often this season than in past seasons, but Izzo said he doesn't want Lawson controlling the pace.
The Spartans are averaging 78.2 points per game. They are allowing opponents an average of 67.4 points a game. The Tar Heels are averaging 96.9 points and scored 116 in their last game. They have scored at least 98 points in each of their past four games.
Izzo said that he is not averse to using Lucas, Travis Walton, forwards Delvon Roe and Raymar Morgan and any other player in the top rotation to defend Lawson.
"The guy isn't the greatest basketball player we've ever played against, I don't think, but he is exceptional," Izzo said. "He's the best at getting the ball from one end to the other by far that I've ever seen.
"He can do it with strength. He's not afraid of contact. He can do it with speed. And he can do it being at warp speed but somewhat under control."
Michigan State could be without Goran Suton, a 6-10 center who is recovering from a sprained left knee. Suton has missed Michigan State's past three games, including an 80-62 loss to Maryland in a Thanksgiving holiday tournament.
"I think the biggest thing is making them understand you can win a game like this," Izzo said. "There's been bigger upsets than this.
"At the same time we're not playing right now as in sync as I think we could have been or would like to be. We can throw it all out on the floor and don't have to worry about it. I think that's a good position to be in."
■ Bill Cole can be reached at bcole@wsjournal.com.
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