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Opinion - Has UNC’s Roy Williams Lost It?

By The Raleigh Telegram

Week Of Thursday, February 11, 2010

CHAPEL HILL - Roy Williams has made plenty of controversial comments over the past year, leaving at least one reader to wonder in a letter to the editor why the normally classy coach has been saying things that he normally wouldn’t say.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

Dear Editor:

I am somewhat ashamed to write this letter, as I am a UNC graduate and of course, therefore a Carolina fan. As we sing after every game, “I'm a Tar Heel born, I'm a Tar Heel bred.” You know the rest.

What concerns me is not that Carolina is losing this year in mens basketball after their stunning NCAA National Championship last year.

Winning is not everything and in the ebbs and flows of life, you have to expect some ups and downs. Into every life a little rain must fall.

No, what I am concerned about is quite simply Roy Williams. There is no one who would question his dedication and hard work for Carolina and of course, his winning percentage and national titles speak for themselves. You don’t get to be head coach of UNC without drive, determination, and a great mind. Roy has it all.

What concerns me about Coach Williams is that I am wondering if he is having some problems due to the pressures of his job. He is a good man but he also represents Carolina and I wonder if someone like Dean Smith could take him aside and have a talk with him or perhaps he needs some stress relief or anger management classes.

Quite simply, I am concerned that he has tripped over his tongue a few too many times.

At what point will he -- at least for the sake of not embarrassing the university yet again -- think about what he says before he says it?

In the past year, he has said the word “F**k” at a press conference, told a Presbyterian College fan to “shut up” and had him thrown out of the game for yelling “miss it” during a free throw, and most recently, insensitively compared the Haiti earthquake to UNC’s disastrous basketball season. In terms of overall composure, has he simply lost it?

We can all agree that if any other coach had said these things, they would certainly not have been given as much leeway as Roy Williams.

People that are calling for Williams’ head over these recent Haiti comparisons are going way too far. It was just a comment that he didn’t think about before he said it.

People that are defending Williams’ statements carte blanche and treating him as if he were above any criticism are also going way too far. They’re are drinking the Carolina Kool Aid a little too much.

I mean we all know Roy Williams is a man who is full of emotion and raw nerves at times and that he’s willing to give us the unvarnished version of what’s on his mind. We got a taste of that before UNC hired him when CBS’ Bonnie Bernstein asked Williams if he was leaving Kansas for Carolina.

He famously told her on live TV “I don't give a s*** about Carolina right now.”

So what is my point? My point is that most Carolina fans are understanding that Roy and the team are having a rough year. We can take that and when you look at ACC basketball with a long enough lens, you can see that Carolina wasn’t always expected to be the best every season.

There were students who literally hung Dean Smith in effigy when he had a rough patch during one of his first seasons at Carolina. And maybe I just can’t remember, but I don’t seem to recall Dean Smith ever losing his cool the way that Roy Williams has done recently. The words “class” and “Dean Smith” were synonymous.

We can take the taunts from Duke, NCSU, or whoever. Anyone who was a Carolina fan when Mack Brown first coached football at UNC knows how bad things can really get.

But what Carolina fans should not have to put up with are statements from Roy Williams, the most prominent staff member at the University of North Carolina and its ambassador to the world, that are quite simply, embarrassing to the Carolina name.

The criticism that his statements generate are a distraction for his team to say the least. They are also a direct contradiction to the class act that people associate with Carolina basketball.

Roy deserves better than that, the university deserves better than that, and Carolina fans deserve better than that.

We all love Roy and his hard work. But please, Roy, just think about what you have to say before you say it.

If you’re not sure about something, then just ask yourself, WWDSS: What Would Dean Smith Say?, and you’ll be okay.

Signed,

A. Carolina Fan

(name withheld at reader request)

EDITOR’S NOTE: The opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of The Raleigh Telegram or its management.

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