Jack’s Blog

The story that hit the wire service yesterday was of the massage therapist at UNC saying to Roy Williams, no doubt to make him put his team’s current woes in perspective (Carolina had dropped seven of their last nine games, now eight of ten after last night’s home defeat versus Duke), “Coach, what’s going on in Haiti is a catastrophe, what you’re going through is a disappointment.”

Roy’s reply was, “Depends on which chair you’re sitting in.”

Wow!  The uproar from the bleeding hearts and the contrarians (and the Tar Heel haters) and, possibly a large majority of the nation was of astronomical proportions.  But before the entire civilized world burns Roy in effigy (and not for the losing streak), allow me to clarify what I believe he meant.

Here’s my explanation.  Roy Williams is probably a more caring individual than most college coaches.  I’ve known Roy since he was a high school coach in Asheville, NC in 1977.  He makes a ton of money, but isn’t as materialistic as many of his contemporaries.  In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if I were to find out he wrote a large check to the relief fund there.

Here are a couple of Roy’s most glaring traits.  One is he truly outworks the competition.  That’s an overused term in coaching, but in Roy’s case, there’s tangible evidence.  When they were both assistants to Dean Smith at Carolina, Eddie Fogler told me that Roy is incapable of sleeping on an airplane (until I got on these pain drugs, I had the identical problem).  When he would take the West-to-East Coast red eye, he’d be up all night writing notes to recruits, get to the Raleigh-Durham airport at six or so in the morning and go directly to the office.  He would take a shower and start his day, just as every other UNC employee who just had a full night’s sleep.

Another famous “Roy outwork the comp story” was when he was at Kansas and they were recruiting Raef LaFrentz, the best player (by far) in Iowa.  Naturally, there was tremendous pressure on LaFrentz to attend Iowa.  After he committed to KU, LaFrentz and his dad said how impressed they were that Roy attended the BCI tournament in Tempe, AZ in person to watch him play, while the Iowa head coach sent his assistant coaches to the event.  The excuse was that Iowa was in the middle of their basketball camp and the coach felt obligated to the campers to be there.  What was so impressive about Roy being there was that KU was in the middle of their camp as well.  Roy used a private plane to fly to Tempe after his camp session, watched Raef play (of course, making sure the LaFrentz’s knew he was there) and then flew back to Lawrence after the evening BCI games.

Another of Roy’s characteristics is that he might be the most competitive coach in the business.  Forget that “Aw shucks, Deputy Dawg, Ol’ Roy” facade.  Underneath it all beats the heart of a guy who is a fanatical, relentless game planner who would just as soon stop breathing as he would stop winning.

My take on Roy’s Haiti comment is that, while he sympathizes as much as the next person over the plight of those unfortunate people, what is it people want him to do?  If someone told him his presence in Haiti would cure the problem, my bet is he’d be on the next plane.  His comment was not meant to compare the problem in Haiti to the problems the Tar Heels are experiencing.  It was just to point out that, from the seat he’s in, as far as what he can control, for what he’s paid to do (and, since he has the highest winning percentage of any coach in the country, he apparently does it well), he - and his squad - are facing a catastrophe.  Of course not of the same proportions, but a catastrophe nonetheless.

Do his critics think he should call a team meeting and say to his guys, “Fellas, sure we’ve lost eight out of our last ten games - something that’s unacceptable in this program with all the tradition the players before you worked so hard to build - but it’s not a catastrophe?  What’s going on in Haiti is a catastrophe.”  Undoubtedly, there are readers right now who are shaking their in agreement with that past statement, but my question to you is, “How does that help North Carolina’s basketball team - or what’s going on in Haiti?” 

I wonder if the head shakers had a job in which they were graded (win or loss) at the end of certain days, and they lost eight out of ten of those (and their job security depended on having more W’s than L’s - a lot more), whether they’d feel better about their performance if they thought about the tragedy in Haiti.  

When I posed this question to Tark last night on The Jerry Tarkanian Show, he responded with a line that cut right to the heart of the matter.  His feeling was that Roy shouldn’t have said what he said - to the massage therapist.  Jerry’s thought was:

“That’s something you should only say to another coach because they would understand what you meant.”

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