UNC star guard still hobbling

GREENSBORO, N.C., March 18 (UPI) -- North Carolina point guard Ty Lawson remains a question mark for the NCAA Tournament because of the ongoing toe injury on his right foot.

Lawson, a 5-foot-11-inch junior, the player of the year in the Atlantic Coast Conference, missed last week's ACC Tournament because the injury hadn't improved enough and required a walking boot.

He suffered the injury March 6 at practice, two days before the Tar Heels battled arch-rival Duke in their regular season final when he ran into a basket support. After the toe was injected with a local anesthetic to numb it, he played 36 minutes.

"Maybe it's wishful thinking, but I really expected it to respond quicker than it has," North Carolina Coach Roy Williams said at a news conference Tuesday. "(But) I'm probably as discouraged right now as I have been since it happened."

Wednesday, Williams told reporters that there is a "huge, huge probability Ty Lawson will not play when the third-ranked Tar Heels, the No. 1 seed in the South Region, open the NCAA Tournament Thursday against 16th-seeded Radford at Greensboro, N.C.

"I can deal with it,"Lawson said. "But cutting back and forth, that's when the most pain comes."