Tar Heel Nation and college basketball analysts across the country (professionals as well as the sofa -in-the-den variety) have followed closely the problems with Ty Lawson's right toe. The speedy UNC point guard, who is the ACC men's player of the year, injured it March 6, two days before the Duke-UNC game in Chapel Hill. Snce then, there's been much written and said about the toe and how it will affect his play and therefore UNC's national championship hopes.

Some of the discussion has been in a humorous light. After all, Lawson is expected to fully recover -- eventually -- and there are more important things in the world than whether Carolina wins the national championship. (OK, some of you disagree with that but I am going to proceed anyway). At times we've teated the issue lightly. In our March 18 print edition, we published a cartoon by our Tim Lee of Coach Roy Williams studying a taped, throbbing red toe. Last week, Gov. Bev Perdue, a big UNC fan, visited our office. After a long discussion about budget cuts and education funding and prison capacity and other such weighty matters, I asked her what she knew about Lawson's toe. Perdue played along and said she would tape Lawson's toe herself if it would help. Read more at our Under the Dome blog.

But there also are substantial medical issues here and we've reported on them too. Before the Duke game, Lawson's toe was injected to numb the pain. Dr. Tim Taft, a surgeon and director of Sports Medicine at UNC, said he had injected athletes "maybe three times" in his 40 years at UNC. Read more about that here. In today's story, Taft said the injection did not make the injury worse but that he probably would not inject Lawson again. He said Lawson, his parents and the coaches participated in the original decision to inject the toe. Read more here.

--John Drescher