UNC's Roy Williams on ACC Tourney in Charlotte, square dancing, and his toughest player

“I don’t like what it’s turned into because it’s not name, image and likeness. You’re just paying guys to go to school. And so, maybe if we get a little more control it’ll get back to name, image and likeness, where a young man or a young woman should be able to get some of that. And I have zero problems. But right now, the toothpaste is out of the tube, and it’s hard to get it back in there.”

Here are the rest of the highlights of Williams’ appearance in Charlotte.

Williams on Berry, square dancing and the suit he couldn’t clean

— Williams still remembers checking on point guard Joel Berry the night before the 2017 national championship game and seeing Berry’s swollen ankles and thinking to himself, there’s no way he can play tomorrow. Berry was among Friday’s crowd, and Williams pointed to him as he told this story.

“I’ve had a lot of really great players,” Williams said. “And I’ve had a lot of really good players who were really tough. But I’ve never had anybody in my life tougher — stand up big fella — than that guy right there.”

— Williams is still mad at Mike Gminski, Duke’s big man Williams coached against as an assistant. And he isn’t afraid to say it. He did so, after all, with a smile after he noticed Gminski in the ballroom crowd and recalled the 1979 game against Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

“We were down 7-0 at halftime,” he said. He added, “At halftime, we had to go right through that little trail. And they’re doing all this kind of stuff. Coach Smith was right in front of me. And somebody threw a rotten grapefruit at Coach Smith. And missed. It hit me, and I only had one suit at that time. ... I had to get that suit cleaned two or three times to be able to use it.”

— The first time Williams stepped foot in Cameron Indoor Stadium wasn’t as a coach, however. It wasn’t as a player, either, even though he was a point guard for UNC’s junior varsity team as an undergrad. In fact, it was as a member of the square dancing team when he was a senior at Roberson High School.

“The reason I was on the square dance team was because my girlfriend was on the square dance team,” he said. “She wanted me to be a square dancer. So I was a square dancer.”

Also … why no timeouts?

...continued

swipe to next page