Sports Radio Interviews

Roy Williams: Are the expectations too high for UNC this season?

Roy Williams is coming off a national championship and his second in five years at his alma mater North Carolina.  After winning their second national title the Tar Heels find themselves in a similar situation to the year after their last title defense. Carolina has lost their top four players. After losing the all-time leading scorer in ACC history in Tyler Hansbrough, ACC Player of the Year Ty Lawson, shooting wizard Wayne Ellington, and Mr. What Do You Need from Me Know, Danny Green, the Heels return one senior who played anything but garbage time last season. However, this time around the Heels are ready for a real title defense. They have a good mix of experience and very good young talent.

The Tar Heels enter the 2009-2010 season in most experts’ predictions as one of the top two teams in the powerful ACC Conference despite losing so much to the NBA.  Roy Williamsjoine 99.9 the Fan in Raleigh and talked about this upcoming season, the expectations, the loss of talent to the NBA and the returning players he has on the roster.

Asked what he needs to do to win the National Championship:

“Ty Lawson, Tyler Hansbrough, Wayne Ellington, those guys to come back to school. And then we still might not do it, because it changes so much every year.  We are excited, we enjoy the kids, and we got a great group of kids.  In seven practices, they have done a nice job.  They don’t know what which end of the court they are on; they think defense is that thing you build around your yard.  It’s a lot of that stuff going on.  Up front we have tremendous amount of depth, I feel very comfortable up there as long as everyone stays healthy.  In the back court we have less depth then I have ever had and less experience then I ever had.  We do need to be able to shoot the ball from the outside.  Those are two main question areas.”

Asked if was comfortable with year in and year out expectation of winning a national championship:

“I am comfortable with it, you know last year the expectations of  the best team ever, and going undefeated were unrealistic.  This year I am a little surprised the expectations since we lost four starters.  I am a fan like a lot of people, I get those magazines and I think I am right in they picked the top 25 players in each position.  So my math is good, five times five is 25, we had two guys and then you turn a couple of pages and we are picked 5^th in the country.  That’s a little unusual.

Asked about the depth of the frontcourt on this year’s team:

“Every coach talks about size, size, size, but every coach is more comfortable with guards.  With Ed Davis and Deon Thompson, they were there in crunch time last year.  Tyler Zeller got his feet wet.  The Wear twins are very fundamentally sound players.  John Henson is 6’10, 190lbs; we are trying to make him a perimeter player.  Those guys have some ability and with Davis and Deon, they have some experience, it’s a fun time thinking about what we can do up there.”

Listen to Roy Williams on 99.9 the Fan in Raleigh

Tags: ACC, Danny Green, Deon Thompson, Ed Davis, John Henson, NBA, North Carolina, Roy Williams, Ty Lawson, Tyler Hansborough, Tyler Zeller, UNC, Wayne Ellington