NCAA Basketball

UNC Basketball Coach Roy Williams Vents At Angry Radio Show Callers

These aren’t quite the best of days for the storied North Carolina basketball program. They appear much improved this year (13-5, 3-1 ACC) over their tremendously disappointing 20-17 mark (5-11 ACC) from last season, but they’ve still been up-and-down, and up-and-down just doesn’t suit some of the team’s more demanding fans. After a recent loss to Georgia Tech, a few fans let coach Roy Williams know it…and after rebounding with a win over Clemson last night, Williams let the haters know what he thought of them.

USA Today said that fans “questioned [Williams'] defensive tactics and starting lineup,” according to the coach. After the Clemson game, it was Williams’ turn:

“My radio call [show] last night stunk; everybody was talking about how they were Carolina fans for 9 million years and how bad we are; I don’t give a [darn] how long you’re a Carolina fans, those are kids in the locker room, and they played their buns off tonight.

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Don’t call me next week and say how good we are; keep your [darn] phone calls to yourself.”

We’d say that it would be interesting to see if Williams would get his wish (our guess: not only would he not have, he’d receive even more angry calls from fans, this time about his attitude). However, perhaps sensing that he’d let his emotions get the best of him (and also that one would have to expect fans to be upset after a 20-point blowout loss), Williams reversed course, admitting, according to USA Today’s Tim Gardner, that “he was taking out his frustrations with the wrong people.”

Williams is the total package as a coach/recruiter/program manager, but he does sometimes let a moment get the best of him. This appears to have been one such case, and if he can keep his Tar Heels winning, everyone will stay happy. Williams knows how the business works, especially when you’re in charge of a national power. This can’t be the first time he’s heard it from fans – and it probably won’t be the last either – but at the end of the day, we doubt UNC fans would want anyone else in charge, or that Williams would want to be anywhere else.

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