Roy Williams’ Catharsis
Apr 11th 2008eCollege Basketball
A lot has been made about Roy Williams’ rabid Jayhawk cheerleading on Monday night. Even given Williams’ Kansas background, it was surprising to see him so enthusiastic about the team which had just broken the hearts of his players. Many UNC faithful are not too pleased with their coach—-this article sums it up nicely—so why exactly did Williams do it?
The answer can be found five years ago when Williams decided to leave Kansas and Jayhawks fans around the world called him every dirty name they could think of. It’s clear that Williams never got over the hurt from the vitriol spewed his way. For the last five years he’s wanted Kansas fans to know how much the school meant to him, how much he cared for those Kansas players, and how difficult it was for him to leave. Unfortunately, he never really got a chance to show it.
On Monday night Williams got that chance, and he decided to take it regardless of the consequences. He knew his Kansas sticker would anger people at UNC—but he also knew that anger would likely be short lived. In his mind that was a small price to pay for an opportunity to reclaim 15 years of good feelings and do away with five years of bad ones.
1 Comment »
Faye on 13 Apr 2008 at 11:32 pm #
So he thinks the TarHeel’s anger is gonna be short-lived? He doesn’t know this TarHeel! Will I support UNC basketball in the future? Absolutely! Will I ever feel the same about Roy Williams? Absolutely not! Maybe he put the sticker on to deflect attention from the worst coached game in Final Four history. Did anyone notice that when Hansbrough received the Naismith Award it was never mentioned on the TarHeel’s web site? And when Hansbrough received the Wooden Award this week not one word of congratulations came from Roy Williams. What is really going on between this coach and this UNC team?