Roy Williams: I Want To Win Another Title
August 6, 2009 – 12:00 pm by Tas Melas
Roy Williams is enjoying his summer, although he’s not extremely content with his golf game. The man is a perfectionist, I suppose. And, I suppose that is why he’s such an accomplished NCAA coach. Roy Williams wins. Although, he didn’t win a spot on The Sporting News’ top 50 coaches of all-time. Do coaches carry a chip on their shoulder? ‘Cause if so, Roy Williams has got his, not that he really needed one. Williams joined WFNZ to discuss the recruiting process for the coming season, his reaction to the top 50 list, and his drive to win.
On if the recruiting process is going well:
“I think it is. It’s like farming, you can do everything you want to do, but until the crops come in, you don’t know what’s gonna happen. We have a couple of commitments from the next class, the five freshmen that we have, that just finished last week I guess it was, second session of summer school, really did a nice job. But, we have two commitments in the next class, we’d like to get one more for sure. Nowadays, gosh, you gotta start recruiting these kids early, or really looking at ‘em in ninth grade, ’cause kids wanna make decisions so fast.”
Do you still have the drive to win championships?
“I’ve got cold chills now that I say that ’cause I really do, I’d like to win another one. I keep trying to figure out how I’m supposed to act after the doggone thing’s over with (laughs). With the kids coming in, it’s a new group, it’s a new challenge to try to talk to them about being on the stage when they play ‘One Shining Moment.’ That’s the greatest moment that you can possibly have as a college basketball coach and a college basketball player. My deal is that I love what I’m doing, I enjoy having really, really good kids to be around, that I’m gonna enjoy being around every day. And, one of the most satisfying things about this past year’s club was from the families to the friends to the people around them, everybody wanted to talk to those kids about getting ready for the NBA. Every one of those kids, not one single day, and I’m not lying, not one single day did I ever have to bring anybody in to get them to focus on our team as opposed to how they’re doing individually.”
On his reaction to not to not being on The Sporting News’ list of the 50 best all-time coaches:
“Well, I was one of the voters, I didn’t vote for myself either. I had a couple reporters ask me to see my vote, my ballot, and I told them no, but I was not on my own list. I did see the list… I looked down the list and there are so many great coaches; Gregg Popovich is at number 49 and Pop’s won like three NBA championships, and I’ve worked with him so I know how great a coach he is. My list was pretty heavily weighed with basketball coaches but I had Joe Torre, Sparky Anderson, those kind of guys in baseball. I did have Pat Summit ’cause she’s one of my heroes, how many NCAA championships has she won? … I didn’t even know till today that I was number 51.”
Listen to Roy Williams on WFNZ
Tags: Basketball, College Basketball, NCAA, North Carolina Tar Heels, Roy Williams
