Coach K vs. Roy Williams

Both are awesome........that about covers it. Taking too much from either just shows a supreme ignorance.

LOL. What purpose does this article serve? There are fans who hate K and there are fans who hate Roy. The thing about that is, neither one of them cares. They run two of the best programs in college basketball and have had all kinds of success over the years. They haven't achieved that success by worrying about how people truly perceive them. The author should take a page out of K and Roy's book and just not worry about it.

As a Carolina fan, I respect Coach K but I dislike him. Why? Because he coaches by team's biggest rival. I also respect Roy Williams, and while I might not agree with everything he says or does, I still love it that he's the coach at Carolina and wouldn't trade him for anyone. I'm sure Duke fans feel the same way about K. If you read Carolina and Duke forums, you can see the dislike for K and Roy from each opposing fanbase. It's just part of the rivalry...no need for this particular Dukie to whine about it.

I lol'd when I heard that Roy kicked out that fan, how can a coach be such a d-bag. He is a great coach but that was one of the dumbest things I have ever heard of in my life.

The fan had a UNC given ticket. Not a public sale ticket and was talking bad about his team.

When I was at the Cleveland St in 04, I had seats in the row directly behind the CSU bench, got them from a CSU player. Anyway, I got into a good convo with the usher for that section/row. She commented on my Carolina gear and said just to keep it down and not cheer too loud or against CSU. And told me about an incident where a Duke player got a ticket for his buddy, who happened to be a Carolina fan. The guy came in wearing all UNC stuff and the Duke bench(I think she said it was Wojo especially) made him basically strip down to a plain white t shirt if he was going to keep his seat.

Basically, what I'm saying is I really don't think Roy was out of line. I understand it was Presbyterian and not Duke, but still.

Here's an excerpt from a recent interview with Roy regarding the fan who was removed from the game. Roy begins by talking about comments made to his team while they were playing in NYC and how some parents who were sitting behind the UNC bench were offended. He then discusses why he took offense to the comments by the fan who was removed from the Dean Dome. I'm not saying that the guy should have been removed, but I can see where Roy is coming from.


“A couple of guys about 10 feet from our bench screamed and yelled at us all night long. Yelled at our players and would say, ‘Deon Thompson – you stink.’ But they didn’t use the word ‘stink.’ Or ‘Dexter Strickland – you stink,’ but they didn’t use the word ‘stink.’ We had to listen to that garbage all night long and we had two different parents that sort of got a little disappointed, a little upset, could have gotten into a confrontation. The security guards did absolutely nothing and it really ticked me off. So I said, ‘I know we have to put up with that on the road, let’s just go.’ We didn’t say anything. Joe Holladay was sitting two or three feet from the guy, but we didn’t say anything whatsoever.

“Saturday night, all of a sudden, some guy stands up and starts yelling at Deon and it came from behind our bench. And you know how when some things happen, you instantly think of something? My first thought was, ‘Now our parents are having to listen to somebody else, and it’s in our own building.’ And so I turned around and I said, ‘Who said that?’ And about 40-50-60-70-80 people started pointing up at this guy. The guy gets up and starts gyrating with his arms and everything like, ‘Yeah, it was me,’ and that kind of thing. And it really did tick me off. I turned and said something to the ushers behind the bench and they started up through there, and I turned around and coached the game. I have no idea what happened. I never turned around to the guy again.

“But my feeling was immediately that our parents who sit right behind our bench have to put up with that stuff again in our own building. So that was it. And after the game, they told me that they had escorted the young man out. Supposedly what had happened was they had asked him for his ticket and he didn’t have a ticket or wasn’t supposed to be sitting in that seat. Supposedly, and I want to emphasis the word supposedly, he didn’t cooperate as much as they wanted, and they chose to take him out.

“Am I disappointed in the whole thing? Yeah, I’m disappointed that it happened. I’m disappointed that I even reacted to it. But again, in our own building, I don’t think that parents ought to have to listen to somebody chastising their son. And whether that’s right or wrong, that’s the way I am. If it’s wrong, it’s wrong. I hate that it happened. I wish that it never happened. Evidently, people have been getting after us all day [on Monday] or getting after me all day. But I tell you what, if that’s the only thing they’ve got to get after me about, I’m a happy young man… If I’m wrong, then that’s good, but I’m not apologizing.”

WRAL said the guy was a Presbyterian alum and that was his given seat. Also he was thrown out on suspicion of intoxication. No word yet if those claims were substantiated.

Irregardless, this kind of thing happens quite frequently. I bet some people in Detroit were wishing they had kicked out a couple drunken fans a few years back, maybe then Ron Artest wouldn't have went WWE on row 3.

swamisez wrote: WRAL said the guy was a Presbyterian alum and that was his given seat.

I read somewhere that the guy was sitting with a couple friends who were UNC grads. They gave him a seat, which is what wildcats20 is saying.

Not sure what to believe though. I've seen so many different stories in the last few days, that there's bound to be a ton of misinformation out there. Roy should have just ignored the guy, but he didn't, and now it's some type of huge story. I can see why Roy reacted, but he probably overreacted.

So what does he do when Duke fans heckle his players? Or what about neutral fans in a tournament game?

Duke fans more than likely won't have seats 6 rows behind the carolina bench at Dean's house.

of course I am dying to test that, if I can find a way down there for the game in February I will do my best to get tossed late in the 2nd half.

Leonardo wrote: So what does he do when Duke fans heckle his players? Or what about neutral fans in a tournament game?

Wins 2 national titles in 4 years.

^^^^ Haha, good stuff

ironman02 wrote: LOL. What purpose does this article serve? There are fans who hate K and there are fans who hate Roy. The thing about that is, neither one of them cares. They run two of the best programs in college basketball and have had all kinds of success over the years. They haven't achieved that success by worrying about how people truly perceive them. The author should take a page out of K and Roy's book and just not worry about it.

As a Carolina fan, I respect Coach K but I dislike him. Why? Because he coaches by team's biggest rival. I also respect Roy Williams, and while I might not agree with everything he says or does, I still love it that he's the coach at Carolina and wouldn't trade him for anyone. I'm sure Duke fans feel the same way about K. If you read Carolina and Duke forums, you can see the dislike for K and Roy from each opposing fanbase. It's just part of the rivalry...no need for this particular Dukie to whine about it.

I think the point the author was making is why are there no non-Duke fans that dislike Roy. Yes, obviously Duke fans are going to dislike Roy just as Carolina fans are going to dislike K. However, outside of the rivalry it certainly seems like K gets a lot more flak from the rest of the country than Roy. I would say that thinking is valid, but I think it mostly has to do with K being around a lot longer than Roy in terms of the rivalry. In another 10 years it could be that outsiders dislike Roy just as much as they do K now. Winning will do that.

As for the fan incident, I think it was completely ridiculous on Roy's part, no getting around it. If his argument really is that he doesn't want the parents to hear those things, then he'd better just ban opposing fans from Dean Dome games the rest of the season. There are always going to be vocal fans that make their way into the road arena, I would figure that's just something you deal with. Apparently not at UNC.

The incident with the Presbyterian fan is getting blown WAY out of proportion. Roy has come out and publicly said that he did not ask security to remove the fan. Just simply asked them to find out what was going on. Security got rid of the fan because he had been drinking; not because Roy asked them too.

It's possible that the national media scrutinizes Coach K more than Roy, but it seems to me that fans of many other Carolina opponents dislike Roy just as much as they do Coach K. I could be wrong, but from my experience, many schools' fans share the same sentiments as Duke fans with regard to Roy and are pretty vocal about it also. Read a Kentucky, Michigan State, NC State, etc. forum when they're playing Carolina and you'll see what I mean. That's just my opinion though.

I've said that I think tossing that fan out of the game was a bad move. However, I'm not sure if Roy actually knew the guy was from Presbyterian because he was sitting pretty close to Carolina's bench, in a seat that's usually occupied by a Carolina fan. I guess I'm trying to say that I don't think he singled the guy out simply because he knew he was supporting another school, but more because of the rude comments to players in such close proximity to the bench. When I look at the situation from Roy's point of view, I can see the rationale behind what he did, but that still doesn't make it right. Like I said before, he probably overreacted and he obviously regrets that it happened. He was "protecting" one of his players, but he took it a little too far. Players take verbal abuse at every venue across the nation. It's just something that you have to ignore as a player or coach, which is what Roy should have done.

***Edited to say that wildcats20 is correct also. Roy brought the fan to the attention of the security guards, but he didn't actually request that he be removed. He kind of got the ball rolling, but again, I don't believe his intention was to make sure an opposing fan was kicked out of the game.

I could buy it, it could be that other fans dislike Roy just as much. I haven't been on any other team's message boards so I'll take your word for it. But yeah I thought the author of that piece made some good points about the media at large, in particular about the commercials.

As for the fan situation, Roy can say that he didn't request for the fan to be removed, but what do you think the ushers are going to do when the COACH singles out a fan for doing something? Of course they're going to kick them out, and I would think Roy would know that. I understand what he's saying concerning the situation, but in the end I think it's something he doesn't really need to concern himself with. Also, in the grand scheme of things I don't think he deserves to be raked over the coals about the situation, I just thought, and I think a lot of people just see it as kind of stupid on his part.