Q&A with UNC's Ty Lawson

CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina point guard Ty Lawson spoke with reporters on Tuesday about what it's like to be ACC Player of the Year ("I'm ecstatic"), how swollen his right big toe has become ("it's real, real big"), and whether he'll be able to play in the ACC Tournament on Friday (he hopes so):

Q: What's your reaction to being ACC Player of the Year?

Lawson: I’m kind of surprised, because I thought Toney Douglas or Tyler [Hansbrough] was going to get it. I’m ecstatic.

Q: How’s your toe?

Lawson: It's sore. It's swollen. It's like real, real big right now. It's real big, and real sore.

Q: Does it feel worse that it did Saturday?

Lawson: Actually, it does. It feels like when I first did it. That's how big it is, and how much pain it is right now.

Q: Any worries about playing three consecutive cames down there [in Atlanta] if this team goes that far?

Lawson: I think so, because I couldn't play Sunday unless I had the [numbing] shot. I think playing on it, I think it's just going to keep getting bigger and bigger, and I'm going to keep needing the shot, which is not good.

I'm not worried about it; right now, I’m going to keep resting it, icing it and see how far it takes me.

Q: How do you balance wanting to win the ACC tournament, and wanting to play in the ACC tournament, with the bigger picture of wanting to play the next four weeks and be your best?

Lawson: I'm real competitive, so of course I want to win the ACC tournament. But our big goal right now is the NCAA tournament, so I really want to be 100 percent going into it. So we'll see how things go this next week, and see what I'm going to do.

Q: If Coach Williams came to you and said, 'Ty, we think our chances of winning the national championship would be better off if you sit this whole weekend,' would you understand that?

Lawson: It would be tough, but I'd be able to live with it. Our team goal is to get to a national championship, so I'll do that if coach says that.

Q: Is it frustrating that of all things, a toe is slowing you down?

Lawson: Yeah. The whole year … and it happens in practice. I hate that it happened in practice, because it could have been prevented or things like that. But that’s the main thing I’m mad about, that it happened in practice. It’s my big toe – I wish it would have been my whole foot, just not my … big toe.

Q: What have they told you it actually is?

Lawson: They told me a bunch of things. They looked at the X-rays, and there’s a bone chipped off it. And they said I broke it earlier [and it healed], and the bone is like in my ligaments or something like that, and it's jammed.

There’s a lot of stuff, I don’t really know exactly the one thing that’s wrong with it, so you've got to ask the doctors for that.

[Note: The head trainer declined through a team spokesman to talk about specifics, citing privacy concerns.

Q: How have they been treating it?

Lawson: Ice, and elevating it. And now they gave me some cream to rub on it to help the swelling go down. Unfortunately, right now, my toe is still real big, so I don’t know what we’re going to do in the future.

Q: Can you talk about this year, and becoming ACC Player of the Year?

Lawson: This year, I’ve just been playing to my full potential out there, just being more aggressive, the kinds of things I should have done in the past year. So coach has been on me to shoot more, to do more on offense in the game this year. So that’s probably why it translated so well this year for me to be Player of the Year this year.

Q: On Sunday, after the game, you said you weren’t worried about the toe; what’s changed?

Lawson: On Sunday, I wasn’t worried about it, because I couldn’t feel it at all. Right after the game, when they were doing the [senior] speeches, the pain came all back; it was just throbbing, and it was just throbbing every since.

I actually think it's worse than when I did it; it's swelled up way more, I can barely walk on it. It's going to get better in probably one or two weeks. We just need to keep icing it, and it will get better.

Q: Is it of any importance to you to play in the ACC Tournament, or do you want to save yourself for the NCAAs?

Lawson: "If I can play in the ACC Tournament, I definitely will play if there's only a little bit of pain,'' Lawson said. "But the big picture right now is the NCAA Tournament, because that's where our goals are as a team. We'll just wait and see how it is, and make a decision from there."

Q: When you come into the season playing with a guy who is National Player of the Year, does it even cross your mind that you could be ACC Player of the Year?

Lawson: Honestly, I didn't even think of being any type of Player of the Year, [with] having Tyler on the team – considering how good he is, and what he does for the team. So it was a real surprise to me.

Q: Should maybe you have sat out the Duke game?

Lawson: It was too important. It was for the seniors … for them to go out right, it was for the ACC championship, so I didn't want to sit out there. But I also didn't know the consequences would be for my foot to be this big and things like that. It was well worth it, playing the Duke game, because we beat Duke.