Is Roy On the Hot Seat?
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He’s one of our era’s most successful coaches. We idolized him for 15 seasons in Lawrence. He broke our hearts, but we may have been better off for it in the long run. He broke our hearts again by winning not once, but twice. What coulda been I remember thinking at the time.
Now he’s gone from the 2nd championship to the NIT, back to a strong team in 12 that missed it’s point guard in our elite 8 game, to an 8 seed and we dispatched them easily to this years early loss to undermanned Iowa State, not to mention some embarrassing regular season losses.
There seems to be a slippage in the Carolina allure. Type in variations of fire Roy Williams and it will appear in the results. Top recruits are starting to look elsewhere. He’s 64 years old, and frankly, appears old suddenly.
What I don’t want to see happen to Roy is what happened to Joe Paterno. (I’m not referring to the horrible scandal) He won a title in '86. Had some decent seasons thereafter, but I always had the impression he could no longer recruit the nations best because he was frankly, an old man. Why would an 18 year old from Miami or Texas go to the middle of Pennsylvania to play for an 80 year old man? I’d imagine there’s some regrets in State College they didn’t figure out a way to gracefully show him the door 20 years ago.
I don’t follow UNC closely enough to know if they’ll be knocking on the door again in short time. One new poll for next year I saw had them in the top 10. But their downward trend since their last championship seems to be saying no to that.
I will always appreciate Roy Williams. He won a heck of a lot of games here. We had entertaining high scoring teams. We, through no fault of his own, should have won a championship. They couldn’t make some FT’s, that wasn’t his fault! I hope he gets his mojo back.
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I was a big fan of Roy’s and we should have won a NCAA title when he was here. I also think HCBS should have won two at KU by now.
I’m not going to put a title 100% on a coach or a player. Do you see how many games are coming down to one or two possessions these days. Some games come down to the bounce off a rim. There is a lot of parity these days.
I love our program, but we are under performing in NCAA titles since 1988. That doesn’t mean I want another coach. I don’t.
As for Roy, I think he gets to stay and UNC for as long as he wants to. Just my humble opinion.
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@wissoxfan83
It just seems like most coaches have kind of a life span within their current schools. They get hot and go far in the tournament, maybe win their conference… fans and administration are happy. The future looks bright. Then they go through a dry spell… and eventually many fans turn, maybe some administration and before you know it the magic is gone.
Self recently said something about being happy here, as long as fans are willing to put up with him. It’s one of his semi-dark jokes, I guess.
Many of us have harped on some of Self’s moves this year. I’m pretty sure we would have made less noise had we, say, reached the Final Four.
It’s really a role of the dice now. What if we get taken out of the tourney next year in the first weekend by another dud team? Just because it happened this year, doesn’t mean it won’t happen next year. It’s kind of like thinking you predict heads or tails by what you just flipped. The odds are still the same.
I think most of us still have faith in Coach Self. I just think many of us make statements, hoping they reach him, and he gets more motivated to make the fan base happy next year. Self, at times, has proven to be stubborn, but he has also adapted several aspects of his style over recent years, and I think that shows a willingness to try new things and be hungry for growth.
I’m hoping next year ends better and we start building back more momentum in the program and with the fans!
Rock Chalk!
Concerning Roy… Roy isn’t near the diplomat Bill is. He has always made remarks and done things that tick off his fan base. He wouldn’t recruit back east while at KU in respect to Smith at UNC… then… went to UNC and immediately started recruiting back in the Midwest. Stuff like that pisses off fans. I know, over his years at UNC, he has made several PR mistakes with his fan base… like when he was insensitive to the cheerleader that got hurt.
All those things ad up, just like Self has quite a bit of leeway with his fan base because he’s walked a pretty narrow path… he has kept his yard tidy!
But Roy is still held in high regards at UNC… and with most of the country… even here at Kansas!
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It’s crazy to even think that Roy might be on the hot seat. Consider Dean Smith coached for 36 years, the arena at UNC is named for him, he retired with the most wins in NCAA history (currently 4th), he is a HOFer and if you asked fans to name the top 5 NCAA coaches of all-time, his name would probably come out of a lot of mouths. Yet how many titles did he win? Two. Two titles in 36 years. One with arguably the best player of all time (Jordan), and one against the Fab 5 which was aided by the Webber time out gaff. Smith was selected to coach the olympic team in 1976, before winning any national championships.
However, this is a new era. A “what have you done for me lately” era. With social media, expanded tournament coverage, hundreds of “expert” analysts on dozens of television & internet outlets. Every decision second guessed. Recruiting implications magnified. If Dean Smith were to have been transplanted to this era to start his coaching career, it is unlikely he would have ever gotten a second contract at a blue blood institution given his very pedestrian first 5 years at UNC.
So while Roy being under fire at UNC is still a bit unfathomable to me, anything is possible! Another lackluster season or two, who knows?
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I wish he would hurry up and retire and stop recruiting against us, so I could start liking him again.
But until that time comes, well, hell yes, he is on the hot seat and I hope every recruit out there that he is trying to steal from us realizes that Roy could be fired at any minute.
