March 4, 2008

Chris Nee
Warchant.com

Florida State travels to Chapel Hill (NC) tonight night to match-up with No. 1 ranked North Carolina at the Dean E. Smith Center. While the Seminoles (17-12, 6-8 ACC) enter the game heavy underdogs, they are riding a three-game winning streak in ACC play.

"Our team seems to continue to be getting better with each outing," Florida State head coach Leonard Hamilton said during his Monday teleconference. "The last couple weeks we have kind of evolved into a pretty good rotation and learned how to play within ourselves."

During the recent winning streak, FSU has held their last three opponents to 63 points or less. It marks the first time since joining the ACC in the 1991-92 season that the 'Noles have limited three consecutive opponents to 65 points or less.

"Our defense has gotten better as of late," Hamilton said. "That is one reason we have gotten off to good starts."

Despite winning three ACC games in February for the first time in 15 years, the Seminoles are preparing to face a Tar Heel (27-2, 12-2 ACC) team that is riding their own six-game winning streak.

"The challenge is extremely great," Hamilton said. "We are going to have to be at our very best."

The challenge only increases with Tywon Lawson back in the Tar Heel lineup. The sophomore point guard returned to action on Saturday helping UNC in a victory over Boston College. Lawson, who is averaging 13.6 points and 5.7 assists per game, played 21 minutes against the Eagles. Whether or not he plays that many minutes against the Seminoles remains to be seen.

"It depends on how he reacts," North Carolina head coach Roy Williams said during his Monday teleconference. "I'm hopeful to start out with the idea for him to go 15, 16, or 17 minutes again tomorrow night, unless we have a scenario where things are working and we have some timeouts during his stretch then perhaps you can increase it a little bit."

While Lawson will be available, it doesn't look like he will be in the starting line-up.

"Quentin (Thomas is) going to start, and we'll continue him starting and normally getting him more minutes until Ty gets closer to 100 percent," Williams said. "We've got to be careful and make sure that we don't rush him in there and try to get 30 minutes (for him) too quickly."

For the Seminoles, Toney Douglas doesn't care who he is matched up with. The junior point guard is just looking forward to the challenge of playing the top-ranked team in the country.

"I love these types of challenges," Douglas said. "I like guarding the best players and the ACC is a guard league."

But Lawson will present a special challenge for Douglas. The All-ACC Preseason Team selection is arguably the fastest player in the country and uses that speed to generate quick, easy points for Carolina.

"He is a big challenge," Douglas said. "He just gets them into transition when he gets the ball in his hands. He just runs, attracts attention, kicks out, and creates points. He creates eight to 10 points just from his ability to get them into their attack so quickly. You have to stop that. I know it is real important for us to get back."

While Lawson will create unique problems for the Seminoles, the biggest challenge tonight will come in the form of junior forward Tyler Hansbrough. In the match-up between the two teams earlier this season, where North Carolina won 84-73 in overtime, Hansbrough turned in a dominating 22-point and 21-rebound effort.

"He is just so active," sophomore center Ryan Reid said. "You just have to keep a body on him. ... You just have to match his energy.

"I have to get the job done on him. For us to win, I just have to limit his touches in the post and when he does get it limit his chances to score."

The Seminoles are hoping to earn their first victory in Chapel Hill since 1996 and improve any shot they have at ending a decade long NCAA Tournament drought. Even though North Carolina's tournament ticket is already punched, the game remains very important for them as well.

"It is a game that is very, very important to them as they try to win the regular season conference (title)," Hamilton said. "It is very, very important to us as we try to keep our post-season hopes alive. Mathematically we still feel we have a chance. Obviously we need to be successful in the remainder of our games this year to make that a reality."

The game will be televised on Raycom Sports Television.

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