That was what Ty Lawson told UNC Associate AD Steve Kirschner and members of the media standing in the tunnel after Lawson came off the court from doing initials warmups. Kirschner called in to 850 the Buzz this morning to clarify how it all went down:
- On Saturday, Lawson could not hit the front of the rim on a free throw. That was how painful the injury was to the point he could not push off to even make a 15 foot standing shot.
- On Sunday, Lawson came out for the early warm-ups. Kirschner indicated Lawson never comes out then, he preps in the locker room then comes out with the team for layup line. Lawson did not come out for those fueling speculation that he would not play. Near the end of those warmups Lawson came out and got about 30 seconds before the Senior Day pre-game activities started.
- To make Lawson's toe as comfortable as possible, he was given a size 12.5 shoe(he normally wears an 11.5) The foot was wrapped, extra layers of socks were used and a steel plate was put into the shoe to protect the toe.
- Lawson told Woody Durham he was given a shot to kill the pain and said it felt like he only had four toes on that foot. Just so you know Lawson beat Duke with only nine toes.
- Roy Williams said Lawson was not the same as he has been but in my opinion he was better than he was last season after the ankle injury.
Last season when Lawson was injured there was all sorts of speculation about the nature of the injury. The longer it went on the more frustrated Roy got with being asked about. Also as it continued toughness questions were raised concerning Lawson. Roy said that Lawson had to be 90% to play and that is about how he looked. Still for Lawson to say he did not know 30 minutes prior to the game then go out there and play 36 minutes, score 13 points, dish out nine assists and pull out boards en route to making the key offensive play of the game puts to an end any questions about Lawson's toughness.