NCAA Tournament North Carolina Favorites, Ty Lawson Doubtful: The wait is finally over! Today is the second biggest day of the year in college hoops, as the annual NCAA Tournament “March Madness” tips off with its preliminary round.
All the brackets are filled and the teams are hyped up to begin play, so let’ s not delay this any longer. The Sports Odds favorites to win the 2009 Men’s Basketball Championship is the North Carolina Tar Heels [3:1], according to NCAA Tournament experts at BodogLife.com. 
This afternoon, beginning at 2:50 PM ET (11:50 PM PT) the No.1 seeded North Carolina Tar Heels begin their South Regional play by taking on the 16th ranked Radford from Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro (NC). The biggest news out of Chapel Hill this week is the playing status of Ty Lawson. In this NCAA Tournament opener, the North Carolina Tar Heels [-25] remain Favorites against the Radford Highlanders [+25], despite Ty Lawson being listed as Doubtful.
On Wednesday, Lawson sat in the corner of North Carolina’s locker room, surrounded by cameras and reporters: “Hey Ty, how’s the toe?” they all asked. “I’m real frustrated,” Lawson stated. “It just keeps happening over and over. Everybody on campus, every person I walk by, just asks me how the toe is doing. I’m just ready for it to be better and concentrate on playing instead of working on my toe to get that better.” The OVER/UNDER for this NCAA Tournament: North Carolina Tar Heels vs. Radford Highlanders has been calculated at a combined total of 162 points.
Lawson has been troubled with a toe injury since two days before UNC’s game against Duke in the regular season clincher. Because of the toe, the Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year didn’t play in the Tar Heels’ ACC tournament games in Atlanta last weekend. “We’re still trying to wait and see,” North Carolina coach Roy Williams said. “He was not able to do the things that I want him to do in practice. Some things would have to change drastically before I would change my mind on that.”
