Roy Williams Upcoming Season Critical to His Legacy

The 2009-10 season is behind Roy Williams, head basketball coach of the University of North Carolina Tar Heels. It was a bad time for players and fans, but worse for Roy Williams. In fact, for those who remember the Matt Doherty years, there were some uncomfortable similarities to Roy's antics last season, and some that may have been worse.

Roy Williams is a successful Hall of Fame college coach. His teams have done some great things in the NCAA. The University of Kansas came close to winning a championship under Williams. They were consistently competitive. And they and Roy showed class throughout his tenure with the Jayhawks.

Last year prevented Williams from enjoying the same reputation at Carolina. In fact, it came close to undoing everything he has done since he arrived at UNC. Tarnishing his reputation, his Tar Heels were hardly competitive in many games. 

Unlike Duke's Krzyzewski, who he has bested regularly, Williams failed to be stoic about his team last year. In fact, he regularly berated the team, putting himself before his team blaming them for the losses. At least once or twice last season he said that he felt the team was uncoachable.

These are not the kind of words one expects from a coach of William's caliber, and they are the kind of words that loses team members; witness the transfer of the California Wear twins to UCLA.

So this year, with a lot of youth, one might expect Williams to have another difficult year. But his team is not as depleted as before, and with one of the best recruiting years in quite some time, Williams stands poised to have another of his traditional successful years coaching.

If he does not, the ill effects of his intemperate behavior last year could be blamed. 

Williams should be above attacking his team and its team members. The real truth is that if he repeats his behavior this season, his reputation could be in jeopardy.