Good Article

http://www.newsobserver.com/front/story/2440878p-2270228c.html
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Carolina now holds hot hand

By CAULTON TUDOR, Staff Writer


CHAPEL HILL--The price of poker just went up in ACC basketball. That's really what Roy Williams' arrival as North Carolina's head coach means, and it's not that Matt Doherty folded or fumbled away the hand he was dealt at the school.

Doherty left for Williams three aces (Raymond Felton, Rashad McCants and Sean May), a king (Jawad Williams) and several jacks.

Were it not for the fact that Mike Krzyzewski is still drawing a paycheck -- a hefty one at that -- from Duke, Williams' first team at UNC likely would go off as the conference favorite.

Suddenly, there's a new face and a lot less elbow room at the ACC table.

There is Krzyzewski, aka Captain March, whose lifelines quickly will be energized by the sight of Williams.

There is Williams The First, as in Gary at Maryland, who has been where Roy has not -- the national championship podium -- and is about as likely to be intimidated by a fellow namesake in the conference as an eagle would be by a hawk.

At Wake Forest, Skip Prosser is staying to coach a team that will be without Josh Howard but with nine of the top 10 players.

At N.C. State, Herb Sendek has some momentum going with two straight NCAA bids and a team that loses only one of its top eight players.

So far, Chris Bosh is still talking about coming back at Georgia Tech, where he would join Jarrett Jack, B.J. Elder, Ed Nelson and almost everyone else from a team that will challenge for the national top 20.

Clemson has upgraded in the coaching chair -- Oliver Purnell for Larry Shyatt -- and Florida State almost certainly will be better in Leonard Hamilton's second season than his first, which was hardly a wipeout (just ask Duke).

Thus is the Tobacco Road to which Roy Williams will return. When a coach next says any conference win should be deemed a treasure, you can actually believe him for the first time in a while. It won't be the usual lip service.

"It's not going to be easy to win in the league, but it never has been," said Steve Robinson, a Williams aide and former head coach at Florida State.

"We didn't talk a lot about how it's going to be [in the ACC]. The biggest thing is how Roy coaches a team and what he can get from the players."

And at day's end, that was what Monday was all about at Carolina.

"You will work very hard, but we will win," Williams said, looking at his new cast of players as they gathered in the Smith Center for the announcement.

The players Williams saw looked a good deal more businesslike than they did for the announcement of Doherty's exit in the same building on April 1. That night, the Tar Heels showed up in jeans, T-shirts, gym shoes and baseball caps.

On Monday, they arrived in suits or sport jackets. Several wore neckties. All sat alert. They looked like a team right out of Dean Smith's scrapbook.

That's the long-range game plan, too. Williams isn't likely to match Smith's two national titles. He almost certainly won't equal Krzyzewski's three. But Carolina did its best to go back to the future with this hire. Williams already has won enough to command respect, and he was granted some by his new team.

It wasn't that Doherty was a bad coach. He may have had a personality clash with his players, but he also brought back wins over Duke, Williams' Kansas team, Stanford, NIT champ St. John's, Connecticut and Maryland.

But for the near and foreseeable future, Doherty didn't have the presence or potential of Williams. In order to keep up, Carolina had to ante up. Williams was an expensive move, but one the Tar Heels felt they had to make.

It was the smart move, the percentage move, and it'll work. Williams will win enough to restore dignity to the program. More important, he'll win with style and substance simply because he will accept nothing less.

Carolina basketball got better Monday night, and so did the ACC.

Columnist Caulton Tudor can be reached at 829-8946 or [email protected]

 

Last 2 paragraphs tell it all. Good article Brain.

 

Why the fuck can't he? I know that all you can do is to put your team in a position to win, and that it still takes a little luck to get the championship, but Roy will definitely have the Heels in the position to make a run every year, and eventually that little bit of luck will break his way.

 

quote:
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Williams isn't likely to match Smith's two national titles. He almost certainly won't equal Krzyzewski's three.




I agree this is a pretty asinine comment. K was at dook 11 years before he won his first - and won 3 in 8 years.

took Dean 20 to win his first and had been coaching 30 years when he won his second.

Knight won his 3 over a 13 year stretch. Roy has at least another 15 years of career left.

Nobody said it would be easy for Williams but he has the skills and the school to win 2 or 3 before he retires

 

I agree with you there... just felt the article as a whole was good... I think Roy does have the CHANCE to win titles here... he's a top coach at one of the top schools... those always bring in the good recruits... you get the good recruits you get a shot at the title... simple as that

 

Wossa made some sense with this one...

 

That's why it's called March Madness fellas! All the other games aside, it's tough as hell to go 6-0 in March.