On Jan. 14, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill took on Florida State University in a basketball game that displayed not only a poor UNC score but poor behavior from the team’s coach Roy Williams. To put it nicely, the Tarheels were not performing at their usual, famed caliber.
Throughout the entire game, Florida State was consistently embarrassing the then–ranked No. 3 team in the nation. However, UNC was not noted for its humiliating performance but rather for the horrific faux pas that its coach committed.
After subbing in five bench players to face Florida State’s best, Williams led the rest of his team off the court with 14.2 seconds left in the game. It seemed as though the 33-point lead Florida State had over UNC was reason enough for Williams to parade his star players and crippled ego off the court, leaving the five scrubs on the court disconcertingly coachless.
Williams claims that this debacle was all a misunderstanding, as he concluded it was safer to get his players off the court before FSU students rushed the floor. Needless to say, he forgot five very important assets — the scrubs who still remained in the game.
Williams says it wasn’t until he watched the game on tape that he realized he had left the bench players on the floor. He says he has even criticized other coaches for doing the same thing, according to Larry Brown Sports.
Was this all really just a misunderstanding? I feel it would be extremely difficult to ignore the fact that an ending buzzer had not yet resounded and even more difficult to ignore the fact there were still players engaged in a game.
I suppose Williams’ education, obtained at UNC Chapel Hill, was not enough to aid him in the realization that, lo and behold, there was still a basketball game being played.
There are the few loyal Tarheel fans who will defend Williams to the end, tenaciously insisting that his mistake was just that — a mistake. As for the remaining Tarheels, discouraged not only by the loss but by their beloved coach’s actions as well?
I’m certain they do not look at the idolized coach as adoringly as they have in the past. Williams’ actions are demonstrative of a lesson that all sports fans should note:
Their venerated and well-respected coaches and players are capable of doing wrong. That should be evident in extreme cases, like Tiger Woods’ disappointing past actions. However, it is almost more disheartening to watch a coach abandon his own players, choosing to fix his own battered ego instead of that of the team.
After a few dismissive apologies and pats on the back, I hope Williams will do some re-evaluating, not only of his playbook but of his behavior as well. I am hopeful he will be able to get past a few tough losses and look at the bigger picture: that his players deserve his support, no matter how they perform.
