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©lj t oailg ©ar Uppi In Lucas, Lawson meets his match BY DAVID ELY SENIOR WRITER Many people would view a trip to Hawaii as a chance to lay low for a couple of days, kick back and relax. Not North Carolina point guard Ty Lawson. Instead, the junior used the Maui Invitational as his personal comeback show—repeatedly blow ing past any defender Chaminade, Oregon or Notre Dame threw in front of him. With each successfully execut ed one-man fast break, Lawson proved his once-injured right ankle is no longer an issue. The next team that will try to reign in Lawson and the high octane Tar Heel offense is Michigan State, at 9:15 p.m. tonight at Detroit’s Ford Field. But the Spartans have a defen sive weapon against Lawson that most other teams don’t: their own lightening-quick point guard, Kalin Lucas. “They’re two of the quickest guys in college basketball there’s no question,” coach Roy Williams said of Lawson and Lucas. “I think Ty and Kalin gotta be at that top level nobody’s above them, let’s put it that way —and I think it will be interesting to see how they attack each other.” Both guards average more than six assists per game, with Lucas at 6.2 and Lawson at 6.7 dimes apiece. And each has the ability to go coast to coast at a moment’s notice. Who can get out into the open court more often could go a long way toward determining which offense scores enough to win the game. “It’s going to be fun to play against another fast guard that’s like me,” Lawson said. It’s definitely hard to find many other guards in college basketball like the Clinton, Md.-native. In three years at UNC, Lawson has emerged as one of the fastest and most aggressive guards on the break that Williams has coached in his 20-year career. And that’s a group that includes quicksters such as Kansas’ Adonis Jordan, Jacque Vaughn, Kirk Hinrich and Aaron Miles and UNC’s Raymond Felton. “I believe that, from end to end with the ball, that "iy’s perhaps quicker than those guys, attacks 4' :■. • "4^lh Jb H| *|R 1 *■&£ jh ,i Jftp :jft mm ~v v '" -'. Bp JHI V *illf Hk / ft v JF i f V^ 1 ' i"t..%>^r r 4 ■>. BANKING $25,000 AT 2.99% APR. EXCLUSIVELY FOR ROTC. Tailae tthe ffirslt sfeeip iam IHhie dfiarecftnoini vrnUh) a Career Starter® Loan from USAA. Ray off student; loans. Efiminate credft card debt Inwesl in your Mure. At USAA. we know you’re focused cm your academic anndl mmHlary Hie mm, so we want: to you qjeft a jjump start <m your financial future. 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Both Member FDIC. © 2008 USAA. 87771-0808 Jfa DTH FILE PHOTO/DAVID ENARSON Ty Lawson will face a point guard with a similar style in Michigan State's Kalin Lucas they average 6.7 and 6.2 assists, respectively. DTH ONLINE: Visit dailytarheel.com tonight for full coverage from Detroit. you more than those guys did,” Williams said. “When you add both of them together, it does add a little bit more to the way we like to play.” Lawson’s knack for pushing the tempo is one of the main reasons UNC has lit up the scoreboards thus far. In seven games the Tar Heels have eclipsed 100 points three times and came within two points of doing so against Oregon. The Tar Heels might need a simi lar offensive showing in order to take down a hungry Spartan team play ing a semi-home game and looking to prove its surprising loss against Maryland was an aberration. If the Spartans want to neu tralize Lawson and upset North Carolina, they might want to take a page out of Georgetown’s play book. With their slowed-down style, the Hoyas knocked off the Tar Heels in the 2007 Elite 8 and are the only team Lawson said that kept him from breaking loose. “Other than that, there hasn’t been a team that I’ve found that could control me.” Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu. Sports Tar Heels prepare for Elite Eight matchup BY RACHEL ULLRICH SPORTS EDITOR Senior Ryan Adeleye was asked Monday if he noticed the men’s soccer team looking past its Elite Eight opponent Northwestern on Saturday after all, a trip to Dallas for the College Cup is at stake. Is it hard to keep some of the younger guys focused? Adeleye grinned and shrugged a little. “I’ll say yes and no,” he said. “Because, I mean, it is such an excit ing time, especially for the freshmen —but also for me, ’cause it’s my first time just as it is for them.” Maybe it’s hard to keep Adeleye, a senior who transferred to UNC after his sophomore year, focused, too. He laughed again. “So, yes. It’s a challenge.” The Tar Heels haven’t gotten to soccer’s version of the Final Four since 2001, when they won a national championship. And Adeleye of all people rec ognizes the importance of focusing on a defensively skilled, dominating Northwestern team that will be gun ning for an upset this weekend. “With all the excitement of the Final Four looming very near, it is a challenge,” Adeleye said. “But it’s one challenge we have to get over in order to get there first.” That’s the attitude senior cap tain Michael Callahan wants every one on the team to take —and he’s been here before. Callahan is the sole player on the team who started in the Tar Heels’ last Elite Eight game, in 2005 against Southern Methodist (senior Brian Shriver came in as a substitute and recorded an assist on one of UNC’s goals). North Carolina went down 2-0 before rallying to a tie in regulation, and then falling 3-2 in overtime. But at this point, the 2005 game isn’t the one motivating Callahan this weekend after all, there have been worse season finales since. “After a disappointing end to our last two seasons, my sophomore year and junior year I mean, junior year, not even making the tourna ment l’m just so happy that we’re still alive and playing and fortunate enough to get another home game.” The Tar Heels really weren’t expecting to be at home. But after unseeded Northwestern knocked out No. 5 Akron in the Round of 16, North Carolina, at No. 13, became the highest seed in the matchup and W*k 2 p.m., Saturday laotfNr Fetter Field HNfewww.tarheelblue.com •Carolina Fever event received home field advantage. “It’s wonderful that we can play at home again that we don’t have to travel to Chicago or Michigan State or places like that,” coach Elmar Bolowich said. “The bracketing has been very good, the games have gone a little bit in our favor, and hopefully this will continue on the weekend.” And if this weekend’s game starts out the way the 2005 matchup did, North Carolina might have a bit better mojo going in. Despite falling behind twice in Sunday’s Round of 16 matchup, UNC came out on the right side of a 3-2 overtime win against the University of Illinois at Chicago. “I was really happy about that,” Callahan said. “We kind of had that characteristic in the beginning up into the middle of the season we went down a couple times and still came back and won games. “I think really we’re starting to just get that belief that we can go all the way.” Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu. b ® © ® ©\® © © ® jj|j|||lg WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2008 DTH FILE/GRACE KOERBER Senior defender Ryan Adeleye will be playing Saturday in his first Elite Eight matchup for the Tar Heels after transferring from Davidson College. 7
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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