Roy let's it fly

And I can't believe the Greensboro News & Record actually printed his quote!

Angry KU coach still won't talk about UNC
By Rob Daniels, Staff Writer, Greensboro News & Record

NEW ORLEANS -- Daggum it, Roy Williams is tired of answering The Carolina Question.

Pressed twice by CBS reporter Bonnie Bernstein about whether he's going to take the vacant job at his alma mater, the dignified native of Asheville and coach of the Kansas Jayhawks lost it after his team lost a game Monday night.

"I couldn't give a shit about North Carolina," the Kansas coach told CBS after Monday's 81-78 NCAA championship loss to Syracuse. "I care about those 13 kids in the locker room."

The profanity didn't get bleeped. It presumably surprised a nation as Clark Gable did when he said something similar but tamer in "Gone With The Wind" some 60 years ago.

Whether Williams will be gone with the wind from the plains of middle America to the shadows of The Old Well at the University of North Carolina is still an open question. All he knows is that he has coached Jayhawks seniors Kirk Hinrich and Nick Collison for the last time.

The biggest Tar Heel of them all also had a visceral reaction earlier at the Superdome. Dean Smith wouldn't say if he was on a mission from, well, Dean Smith. Those who asked were gently rebuked like mischievous 6-year-olds.

"You know better than that," he chided.

The legendary coach who won two NCAA championships in the building was in the Louisiana Superdome on Monday night to see an old friend chase the title one more time. And he just may have been there to try to bring Williams back home.

After his Jayhawks' late surge on Syracuse fell short, Williams was consoled by Smith, his mentor from playing and assistant coaching days at North Carolina. Was an offer to fill the vacant UNC job tendered? Was it accepted? It looks like two anxious nations of devoted fans, separated by 1,000 miles but bound tightly by history, will have to wait it out.

Williams said he will accompany the team back to Lawrence, Kan., today.

Thirty minutes after the outburst, he was asked again about UNC but was calmer.

"I said it (Sunday) and I told the truth," he said. "I haven't spent one second thinking about that. I haven't spent one second yet thinking about that.

"And I do realize that the journalistic side of you has to ask those questions, but there is a side of human behavior or human decency or human sensitivity. I made the statement on the air because I thought the question was being pursued deeper than it should have been. I said, 'I don't give a blankety-blank about North Carolina; I care about those 13 kids in the locker room.'

"Coach Smith will be disappointed in the blankety-blank, but he understands."

In the end, there was Kirk Hinrich's desperate, buzzer-beating heave with three Syracuse guys in his face. The ball had no chance. Williams frowned, took two steps onto the floor in protest of a no-call and realized the officials never call a foul when the shooter is falling out of bounds.

"I'm never one to like moral victories, and I don't like this one," Williams said, "but I love the competitiveness of my kids. We didn't play our best game of the year by any means, but if you ever have the chance to work with somebody and care about somebody as much as I have with these kids, you'll be a really lucky person. I'm in the wrong locker room, but I feel I'm a really lucky person."

Hinrich knows he has played his final game for Williams, and he hopes future Jayhawks will have the opportunity.

"I think any kid in high school in the country needs to look at Kansas because you're not going to play for a better man," Hinrich said. "I wouldn't give a million dollars to be on Syracuse's team. They have a ring, but my experiences here have been unbelievable. I've played for the best man in college basketball. We could have played in the NIT and I would have felt the same way."

 

Wait a minute??? A college coach cussed? You don't say.

 

yep..I wonder if the UNC parents will even interview Williams now?

 

That my friend is classic!

 

First Doh cries, now Roy?

 

I'm gonna be SO pissed if the reporters are the reason Roy doesn't come to UNC... they should have a LITTLE cooth(sp?) when dealing with situations like this... 2-3 days AFTER the championship game is one thing, but they wouldn't let him leave the court... very, VERY tacky... I'm just afraid this is the kinda thing that will sour him on the UNC job.

 

Along with all the other downsides....

 

If Roy Williams doesnt go to UNC because of some reporters then he is not the guy for the job anyway. You say some dumb shit Brain.

 

Fuck You Dave

 

Then the producers are stupid asses... question, given the situation, when is that type question ever given a serious response? If just doesn't happen.