The most curious thing about Roy Williams’ head coaching career is that he started at the top and did his job at the bottom – in terms of public perception – even though he had more success, more honors and more with each day since July 8 Earned more money. , 1988.
Williams’ work as head coach in Kansas in his first season was widely praised, and when he reached the NCAA Tournament National Championship game at the end of his third season, he was seen as an emerging superstar Gone. And yet somehow, after reaching four final fours and another national title game in Kansas, and returning home to become the coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels, he reached a chorus against Illinois in the 2005 title game “Talent vs. Team.”
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His heels were not the “team” in that equation.
Seems that he did not pay attention. He was too polite to say anything publicly, but he had every reason to be upset.
And almost certainly he felt slighted again in 2012, when he was named the nation’s “Most Overrated Coach” in an anonymous poll of college basketball coaches conducted by CBSSports.com staff and published on his website . Williams had two NCAA championships and seven final fours on his resume at the time, and it was still not close. He received 23 percent of the vote.
What’s tricky here: Although Williams hasn’t praised those who rejected him, he would never want anyone to elevate him above the late Dean Smith, who coached him at Carolina, who hired him to the Tar Heels staff , Who recommended for the late Bob Frederick in Kansas that he became the Jayvucks’ coach to appoint Williams in 1988, even though Roy was 0–0 at the time. So we will not do that.
We’ll let the numbers do it for themselves: Williams, 70, retired from college coaching on Thursday with more career wins (903), more NCAA championships (three), more NCAA tournament appearances (30), NCAA tournament wins (79) and the regular season conference championship (18).
To honor Roy’s wish, we would say that North Carolina would never have a statement to make than to have more basketball coaches.
Williams’ win is the fourth overall in the history of the game after Mike Krazyvski, Jim Boehm and Jim Calhoun. He is ranked nine last in fourth place behind Krazyज़ski, John Wooden and Smith. His three titles lie in fourth place, behind Wooden, Krazyvski and Adolf Rupp and tie with Kelhon and Bob Knight.
You see the names Williams has kept company with, and it’s a pity that no one has ever insulted Williams the way he did, many times, especially since his return to Chapel Hill Was.
The most obvious example is the preface to the 2005 title game. Creating “talent vs. team” was ubiquitous, so much so that the Associated Press referred to it in the distributed sports story after the Ter Heels’ 75–70 victory over the Illini.
To say that they were not a proper team was a lazy construction. Williams and his staff worked hard to make it. Williams had to convince Marvin Williams, who would accept the role of a sixth man, to be the No. 2 pick in that June’s NBA Draft, as he did not want to bench Javad Williams, a talented, productive senior. He had to get the volatile wing Rashad McCants to play his role in offense and defense, and by no means. He had to build an offense around center Sean May’s extremely low scoring score, when that approach was rarely the central feature of his teams in Kansas.
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Williams won two more titles, in 2009 and 2017, with teams that differed in style and personality to reach two more final fours that did not result in a championship. In 2019, his Tar Heels earned another ACC regular season title and another No. 1 seed, but were eliminated in the Sweet 16 by Auburn. His final game was in the first round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament as the No. 8 seed, who the Heels lost to Wisconsin by 23 points.
Williams cried after that game, as he often followed the final game of a season. Most were losing, as it is the nature of the game, but the champion has to finish with one win, and he did what he most had.
“The last game is highly emotional,” Williams later told reporters. “I have been very lucky; I’ve been in the locker room four times – one as an assistant, three as a head coach, where the last game of the year was really emotional in a good way.
“My club, I did not do a very good job. It has been a difficult year. But everyone had problems with COVID that we have. Every other day has been a hard year to push and pull, push and pull to try to get something. But how can you be any luckier than Roy Williams’ basketball? “
You can be one of us, watching him do it. Is she lucky who’s to say? Maybe the end of his career, however, would convince those who didn’t really appreciate him to understand it: Roy Williams goes, the damned closest was in this game.
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