UNC basketball treasure Ty Lawson hadn’t posted on X since September. But on Saturday afternoon, the 2009 Tar Heel national champion point guard surfaced with excitement about his alma mater’s pre-Christmas showdown against the No. 18-ranked UCLA Bruins at the CBS Sports Classic in Madison Square Garden.
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And roughly an hour before tipoff, the 37-year-old Lawson delivered a guarantee to his followers:
“We gettin this dub! Book it. I’m hype.”
Of course, the Tar Heels did exactly that. Freshman guard Ian Jackson and graduate guard RJ Davis fueled the remarkable comeback from a 59-43 deficit with under 13 minutes to play, pulling off a 76-74 win to ensure UNC’s first positive outcome against a ranked-at-the-time opponent in five tries this season.
Around the time the prolific UNC basketball rally began, Ty Lawson, who became the 2008-09 ACC Player of the Year as a junior before enjoying a seven-year NBA career, suggested via the following post that the only thing missing from UNC’s roster is a floor general matching the abilities of himself or the program’s 2012-16 backcourt sensation, Marcus Paige:
Gimmie Macrus Paige (or me) with this squad and you got a natty!
— Ty Lawson (@TyLawson3) December 21, 2024
Lawson never expanded on that observation. Perhaps the late takeover by Ian Jackson and RJ Davis convinced him that Hubert Davis and his staff may have championship-caliber firepower on the perimeter after all.
The Tar Heels (7-5, 1-0 ACC) don’t play again until they complete their non-conference slate by hosting the Campbell Fighting Camels (5-7, 0-0 CAA) in the Dean E. Smith Center next Sunday at 8 p.m. ET (ACC Network).
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