Roy Williams used the postgame news conference Tuesday to rip Carolina fans who asked questions about the team. And he used his radio show Monday to rip his players, who he feels doesn’t hustle as much as he would like.
Williams, no question, is a demanding coach with a strong sense of what he wants from his program. But there is little question the team didn’t perform well at Georgia Tech Sunday, and when you read the quotes from the radio program on InsideCarolina.com, it’s jarring how sharp Williams is in his criticism.
When a caller asked about defending shooters and said, “It’s painful watching those guys hit wide open 3-pointers,” Williams shot back, “You think it’s painful for you? What the [heck] do you think about our staff? We don’t enjoy that stuff, either.”
And in discussing the nature of today’s athletes, Williams made a long, and interesting, point.
"And you know the old stories about people shoveling snow so that they could play on an asphalt court? I did that. You’ve heard the story – I used to break into the gym so much and the policeman got so concerned that I was going to break my neck, he got the principal to give me the dadgum key. I get frustrated when I feel like my team doesn’t invest enough or cares about it enough or loses itself in the team,” he said, according to the InsideCarolina.com transcript. "And in today’s culture, it’s hard. I’ve got half of the guys on my team that their mom and dad and their friends and everything think that they’re going to make $88 million. They could give a flip whether we win a game or not. They want their guy to get 37 shots and play 50 minutes in a 40-minute game. The culture is hard on kids nowadays, and I understand that, but it makes coaching harder…
"It’s something that I’ve told many teams – if you cared one-tenth about it as much as I do, [gosh] it would be a lot of fun.”
After the Clemson win, he was still miffed about those radio questions.
"My radio call in show last night stunk," Williams told reporters. "Everybody's talking about there being Carolina fans for nine million years and how bad we were. I don’t give a damn how long they've been Carolina fans. …"So don’t call me next week saying how good we are. Keep your damn phone calls to yourself.”
Needless to say, we can’t wait for next week’s radio show. But all those comments continue a trend in which Williams is rarely wrong. Fans are wrong to question the program … players don’t show the hustle of the past.
This prompted Mark Armstrong of WTVD to make a smart comment on his Twitter account: “The meta-question re Roy's annoyance is whether it drives him into early retirement. Wonder if he's getting much joy out of his job.”
Interesting point. But regardless of what fans say on call-in shows - and the view here is fans have a right to their opinion - is the coaches are ultimately responsible for how their teams perform.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
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News & Observer and Charlotte Observer columnist/writer wrote:
ReplyDelete"Williams is the head coach. But the team is not exclusively his. It belongs to all the men and women that pass their love for Tar Heel basketball from generation to generation the way other families pass heirlooms and jewelry.
"Williams' comments after North Carolina's 10-point victory against Clemson Tuesday were unfortunate and absurd."
That is all true but in defense of Williams, I think to him it was more about taking up for his players who he thought were being unduly and harshly criticized. Again, though, the shooting was the worst of any game since 1955 so you have to expect some criticism.