great little article on Roy this morning.
http://www.cbssports.com/college-ba...his-due-but-hes-outdoing-even-himself-at-unc/
http://www.cbssports.com/college-ba...his-due-but-hes-outdoing-even-himself-at-unc/
Appreciating Roy
- Thread starter jah420
- Start date
I saw Roy as a very good coach prior to his coming back to UNC and really up to his winning that last Natty, not sure I saw him as a great coach if I am being honest. Hall of fame worthy for sure, no one I would have rather seen as our coach other than Phil Ford, for sure. But5 there just seemed to be something missing, just couldn't put my finger on it, could have said with all those jayhawk teams he had that he should have had a natty but since winning 2 of those being back at UNC that does not exactly apply.
I think it is was I saw him as a guy that could bring in great recruits but that relied more on out talenting by out recruiting other teams than developing players and teams in to being great teams. I do think most coaches can fall in to that, being able to rely on greater talent than their opposition and find themselves not having to coach like they did when they first started out. I kinda felt/feel like that applied to Roy and not just to my perception but kinda the same feeling nationally with the media and the talking heads.
But then John Henson's freshman class came in, the injuries began to happen, one after another after another. Starters lost for the year, Henson was not a wing, Dex was a bit over billed, Lord knows what happened with the Wears, ended up in the NIT, made a deep run to the NIT title game but what a disappointing season. Maybe it was just me but with all the disappointed of that great season falling apart, one thing struck me, that may have been Roy's greatest season of actually coaching up till then.
Not like he had much choice but when the coach does not know who will play from one game to the next, when you have such total devastation from injury then you either hunkier down and coach your tail off or the program is embarrassed. Roy Williams coached his tail off that season folks, I was amazed we had anything close to a competitive team and yet we should have been invited to the NCAAT, a claim that any team making it to the NIT finals should be able to make.
And we all know way to well all that has transpired since then, the NCAA stuff, PG gate, Creighton taking kendal out, the passing of Dean, Gut, and Roy's best buddy. WE have all watched this once great recruiter not be able to get anything near the talent we used to get as that talent went to Ky, duke, and Roy's old program in the mid west. Folks, Roy has been under fire from both friend and foe, he has had health issues that he has had to deal with in the midst of all of this.
Yet Roy has hunkered down and got back to his roots of coaching his kids, developing them as both individual players and as a team. Yeah, he has had to deal with the likes of the Wears, Drew2, hard headed PJ & Lmac along with recruits bringin up the NCAA nonsense before telling him they don't care to even visit. All Roy has done is coach his kids, develop them as teams, win 8 out of the last 13 ACC regular season crowns and lead his team to the Natty last season and is looking at a NCAAT #1 seeding again this season. Thru all of it I think Roy has changed, he had to change, he wasn't getting the ready made big time talents, he had to make the guys he got in to that, he has.
Yes I do, I do think Roy is a better coach now than he was when he came back to UNC, adversity forces such things upon us, you know those things that do not kill us only make us stronger kinda deal. I can say today that I do not believe there is a better coach in the business today than Roy and frankly, I could not have said that and be honest until after Roy won that last natty, actually the year after but I can say that now. He ain't perfect, goodness knows there are some things I would love to see him do different but there were fans that wanted Dean to do things differently and in my opinion Dean was the best to ever walk the sidelines of college basketball, you can bet from above looking down Dean is proud of his student and his friend, his program is in good hands.
I think it is was I saw him as a guy that could bring in great recruits but that relied more on out talenting by out recruiting other teams than developing players and teams in to being great teams. I do think most coaches can fall in to that, being able to rely on greater talent than their opposition and find themselves not having to coach like they did when they first started out. I kinda felt/feel like that applied to Roy and not just to my perception but kinda the same feeling nationally with the media and the talking heads.
But then John Henson's freshman class came in, the injuries began to happen, one after another after another. Starters lost for the year, Henson was not a wing, Dex was a bit over billed, Lord knows what happened with the Wears, ended up in the NIT, made a deep run to the NIT title game but what a disappointing season. Maybe it was just me but with all the disappointed of that great season falling apart, one thing struck me, that may have been Roy's greatest season of actually coaching up till then.
Not like he had much choice but when the coach does not know who will play from one game to the next, when you have such total devastation from injury then you either hunkier down and coach your tail off or the program is embarrassed. Roy Williams coached his tail off that season folks, I was amazed we had anything close to a competitive team and yet we should have been invited to the NCAAT, a claim that any team making it to the NIT finals should be able to make.
And we all know way to well all that has transpired since then, the NCAA stuff, PG gate, Creighton taking kendal out, the passing of Dean, Gut, and Roy's best buddy. WE have all watched this once great recruiter not be able to get anything near the talent we used to get as that talent went to Ky, duke, and Roy's old program in the mid west. Folks, Roy has been under fire from both friend and foe, he has had health issues that he has had to deal with in the midst of all of this.
Yet Roy has hunkered down and got back to his roots of coaching his kids, developing them as both individual players and as a team. Yeah, he has had to deal with the likes of the Wears, Drew2, hard headed PJ & Lmac along with recruits bringin up the NCAA nonsense before telling him they don't care to even visit. All Roy has done is coach his kids, develop them as teams, win 8 out of the last 13 ACC regular season crowns and lead his team to the Natty last season and is looking at a NCAAT #1 seeding again this season. Thru all of it I think Roy has changed, he had to change, he wasn't getting the ready made big time talents, he had to make the guys he got in to that, he has.
Yes I do, I do think Roy is a better coach now than he was when he came back to UNC, adversity forces such things upon us, you know those things that do not kill us only make us stronger kinda deal. I can say today that I do not believe there is a better coach in the business today than Roy and frankly, I could not have said that and be honest until after Roy won that last natty, actually the year after but I can say that now. He ain't perfect, goodness knows there are some things I would love to see him do different but there were fans that wanted Dean to do things differently and in my opinion Dean was the best to ever walk the sidelines of college basketball, you can bet from above looking down Dean is proud of his student and his friend, his program is in good hands.
I'm gonna take some exception here on a couple of points whilst agreeing in general. When Roy went to KU with no previous college HC experience, he proved himself immediately to be an excellent system coach, i.e., he brought his favorite aspects of Dean's system and taught it and ran it like a machine. Dean himself even remarked that he wished our guys ran it like that. So right off the bat Roy showed himself to be a superb teacher and developer. Where he would need to grow would be in game management and adjustment. Still his immediate success was remarkable, especially given the mess he inherited from Larry Brown's shenanigans.
He did indeed then blossom as a recruiter, but to be fair it's not like he was "selecting" or anything. Bottom line at KU then was that, like his mentor, Roy was very much a "system" coach... but did not yet have the resource of the encyclopedic X-and-O repertoire stored in Dean:'s memory banks. And honestly, some of the incidents of him coming up just short of glory at KU mirrored Dean's only Achilles heel --- his reluctance to adjust from certain nuances of the system when opponents were trying to use that very thing against him.
That being said --- and here's where IMO Roy has taken the step to greatness ---- it was at UNC where he developed his identity. He began to coach differently here. Maybe it was having to mold the underutilized talent he inherited, or maybe it was just being back home where he belonged, Roy almost immediately showed a resolve to coach to his personality with true belief. He had his personal version of the Dean Smith system confidently developed, and almost as important, he asserted his own 2.0 mods to key aspects of Dean's stuff, especially the Secondary Break and half-court offenses, and as always, his attention to detail and demands of precision of execution were there.
Now I'll readily admit I'm among those who wish Roy would be more multiple on defense --- still do --- but a coach has to feel it, and he knows where his wheelhouse is.
And that's where I'm going with this. When Roy came to UNC he took the next step in his evolution. He became a somewhat different but better coach than he was at KU. He'll likely never admit that but it's true, and it's a compliment. Dean himself took a subtle step himself in the 80s, where he went from mad scientist/inventor/innovator to another level. He always said he retired too soon and I think he had a couple more Nattys in him... and then maybe Roy would have succeeded him without the ugly Doh interlude
.Bottom line is that while Roy will always be perceived by some as just a Dean disciple plugging and playing, that is an unfair characterization. He has become a truly great basketball coach in his own right
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Roy is a Great Coach in many many ways. I doubt more than 1 or 2 other coaches could have won as well and handled things as well as Roy has throughout the entire ncaa investigation debacle. If that many. Coach Williams has done an AMAZING job steering UNC thru this garbage with class, and with top flight teams, a near impossible feat. With even close to decent refs, Roy would have had ncaa Championship number 3 last season.
He must be doing something right if UNC isn't getting the big-name recruits every year and yet they seem to be in contention for everything, every season.
I just wonder what he could have done with Ingram on the team last season. Or, if he'd gotten any of the players that chose to go to dook, KY or wherever because of whatever dissuaded them from UNC. He is obviously developing talent he has and winning games with the talent he has.
I just wonder what he could have done with Ingram on the team last season. Or, if he'd gotten any of the players that chose to go to dook, KY or wherever because of whatever dissuaded them from UNC. He is obviously developing talent he has and winning games with the talent he has.
I Loves me some Coach Williams . . hardest working coach in the business.
Good article. Thanks for the share . .
Good article. Thanks for the share . .
...and may he continue to do so for years to come.
NCAA basketball coaches' salaries as of March, 2016. And I realize this may not include all the perks, but just look at some of the guys that are making significantly more than Roy. He is a steal, when compared to most of these guys.
Mike Krzyzewski Duke $7,299,666
John Calipari Kentucky $6,580,000
Rick Pitino Louisville $6,004,529
Bill Self Kansas $4,748,776
Sean Miller Arizona $4,535,664
Tom Izzo Michigan St $3,525,359
Thad Matta Ohio St $3,372,000
Bob Huggins West Virginia $3,325,000
Jamie Dixon Pittsburgh $3,234,437
Tom Crean Indiana $3,152,867
Kevin Ollie UConn $3,100,000
Gregg Marshall Wichita State $3,000,000
Lon Kruger Oklahoma $2,850,000
John Thompson III Georgetown $2,838,271
Shaka Smart Texas $2,800,000
John Beilein Michigan $2,760,833
Josh Pastner Memphis $2,650,000
Steve Alford UCLA $2,630,000
Travis Ford Oklahoma St $2,625,000
Larry Krystkowiak Utah $2,575,000
Scott Drew Baylor $2,502,491
Jay Wright Villanova $2,477,245
Matt Painter Purdue $2,428,795
Mark Turgeon Maryland $2,360,121
Rick Barnes Tennessee $2,250,000
Mike Anderson Arkansas $2,239,588
Mick Cronin Cincinnati $2,201,305
Tony Bennett Virginia $2,100,000
Mark Gottfried North Carolina State $2,060,000
Chris Mullin St John’s $2,000,000
Dana Altman Oregon $2,000,000
Fran McCaffery Iowa $2,000,000
Roy Williams North Carolina $1,998,169
Larry Brown Southern Methodist $1,911,894
Andy Kennedy Mississippi $1,808,814
Mark Fox Georgia $1,700,000
Ed Cooley Providence $1,656,099
Johnny Jones LSU $1,500,000
Steve Prohm Iowa St $1,500,000
Mark Few Gonzaga $1,374,811
Bobby Hurley Arizona State $1,200,000
Chris Mack Xavier $1,186,661
Mike Brey Notre Dame $992,264
Mike Krzyzewski Duke $7,299,666
John Calipari Kentucky $6,580,000
Rick Pitino Louisville $6,004,529
Bill Self Kansas $4,748,776
Sean Miller Arizona $4,535,664
Tom Izzo Michigan St $3,525,359
Thad Matta Ohio St $3,372,000
Bob Huggins West Virginia $3,325,000
Jamie Dixon Pittsburgh $3,234,437
Tom Crean Indiana $3,152,867
Kevin Ollie UConn $3,100,000
Gregg Marshall Wichita State $3,000,000
Lon Kruger Oklahoma $2,850,000
John Thompson III Georgetown $2,838,271
Shaka Smart Texas $2,800,000
John Beilein Michigan $2,760,833
Josh Pastner Memphis $2,650,000
Steve Alford UCLA $2,630,000
Travis Ford Oklahoma St $2,625,000
Larry Krystkowiak Utah $2,575,000
Scott Drew Baylor $2,502,491
Jay Wright Villanova $2,477,245
Matt Painter Purdue $2,428,795
Mark Turgeon Maryland $2,360,121
Rick Barnes Tennessee $2,250,000
Mike Anderson Arkansas $2,239,588
Mick Cronin Cincinnati $2,201,305
Tony Bennett Virginia $2,100,000
Mark Gottfried North Carolina State $2,060,000
Chris Mullin St John’s $2,000,000
Dana Altman Oregon $2,000,000
Fran McCaffery Iowa $2,000,000
Roy Williams North Carolina $1,998,169
Larry Brown Southern Methodist $1,911,894
Andy Kennedy Mississippi $1,808,814
Mark Fox Georgia $1,700,000
Ed Cooley Providence $1,656,099
Johnny Jones LSU $1,500,000
Steve Prohm Iowa St $1,500,000
Mark Few Gonzaga $1,374,811
Bobby Hurley Arizona State $1,200,000
Chris Mack Xavier $1,186,661
Mike Brey Notre Dame $992,264
To be fair, Roy is more than fairly compensated by his other financial streams. And his low salary is a carryover from the DES days when they both wanted to make sure to structure their contracts to be as favorable to the U as possible. It is ridiculous how much some of those coaches make though, especially when you consider how little they have achieved!
Back then, two ACC coaches at or near Roy's salary.... you could argue one was worth it, the other was overpaid by around $2mil
Any math genius out there who can figure what a paycheck would look like making that kind of $. Monthly or weekly.
I was an English major so certainly not a math genius but if you divide that over 12 months and figure around half of it for take-home pay (after tax withholdings, retirement contributions, etc.) it would still be more than $80k/month. I think I could manage.
