Ty Lawson: The Key to UNC's Championship Hopes

Well the college hoops season has begun. All across the nation analyst are making their predictions about who will cut the nets down this year. North Carolina is on almost everyone's list to win it all this year. The Tarheels are loaded with talent including player of the year candidate Tyler Hansbrough. But the key to North Carolina winning it all is their point guard Ty Lawson. Without Lawson their will be no title in Carolina.

In now his second year as a heel, Lawson is the motor that runs this fast pace offense. The Tarheels have been near the top in scoring the last two year. They have had several games over one hundred and Lawson is a big part of the reason. He has amazing speed and can go from end to end of the court in a matter of seconds. I have seen several plays in which he actually starts behind all the players on the court, and then beats them all down the court to the other end. His ability to run the offense and find open players both in the fast break and in the half court came is what makes this team tick.

Most point guards are not known for their ability to score lots of points. Lawson has shown that he has the ability to do this. He has a very good outside shot which has gotten better over the last two years. Combined with his amazing speed this makes him a huge threat on the court. For only a second year player he has a great understanding of when to shoot the ball and when to look for his teammates. This is a skill matched by only a few in the college game.

It's hard to find a weakness in Lawson's game. Perhaps one weakness is his defense. This is an area that he will need to continue to work on and get better in as the season goes along. If his defense improves this will make him an extremely hard guy to play against. Another area to work on is focus throughout the entire game. In some games Lawson seems to not play quite as hard as others. For UNC to cut the nets down, he will have to play hard every game, every night.

The Tarheels have a couple of solid backup point guards. Both Bobby Frasor and Quentin Thomas could be starting point guards at a number of major schools across the country. As good as they are though, they are nowhere near as good as Lawson. Neither Thomas or Frasor have the speed that Lawson has. Also, even though they have more experience, neither Frasor nor Thomas seem to run the offense as well as Lawson.

If North Carolina is going to win the national championship this year, they must have a healthy and focus Ty Lawson. With his great speed he makes the heels break tough to stop. He has the ability to knock down the outside shot and he looks and finds his open teammates. Let's hope he doesn't get hurt, because with all the talent this team has, and it does have a lot, without Lawson they won't be good enough to win it all.