Top Ten Things Roy Williams Wishes He Would Have Done
By Matt Hamm
Another top ten list yes, I haven’t broke one out in a while and I thought I’d dust it off. Any season that doesn’t end in cutting down the nets as national champions and your left with the would’a, should’a, could’as. Keeping It Heel is not one to argue with traditions. So in the honor of being good Tar Heel citizens let’s break out a little too little too late, unfair criticism.
1) Recruited another Point Guard. Carolina had an extra scholarship at the end of the 2011 recruiting class. Roy Williams gave it to preferred walk on Jackson Simmons on a 1 year basis. Looking back that last scholarship should have went to a PG. It’s hard to criticize Roy here much. He already had Marcus Paige committed for 2012 and had a good beat on eventual commit Nate Britt in 2013. With Kendall Marshall going into his sophomore season, you can’t load up too much. Still, going into the season with your starting shooting guard as your backup PG isn’t an ideal situation for a team trying to make a title run.
2) Went after Cody Zeller harder. Tylers little brother is anything but little on the court. Cody dominated in his freshman season for Indiana and took the team from an unranked afterthought before the season to national prominence this year. Cody has a very bright future and be end up being the best Zeller of them all when all is said and done. His style fits perfectly with what the Tar Heels do, great at running the floor, rebounding, he can hit the mid range jumper, face up and attack the basket and already has a nice post game. Anytime I watch Cody play I can’t help but closing my eyes and imagining him in Carolina blue.
3) Took away PJ Hairstons license to shoot. Roy always said he was never upset with a player for missing a shot unless it was a bad shot. Hairston took all kinds of those and missed plenty of the good variety this season also. After a nice start to his freshman season, Hairston fell into a miserable slump that lasted the rest of the season in which he shot below 30% from beyond the arc.
4) Played Stillman White more during the regular season. I guess Roy never really thought Kendall Marshall would get hurt. But he did, and when he did, his backup was averaging a whopping six minutes per game. I’m not suggesting that Roy should have saw the future and gave him 15+ mins a night in anticipation of his Sweet 16 and Elite 8 starts. But how about 10 or so per game? Roy continued to hide White on the bench despite his solid all around, safe play that would have better prepared the freshman for the extended play he got in the postseason.
5) Taught his players how to break their falls….without breaking their wrists at the same time. Do I need to explain?
6) Banned his players from playing in the Pro-Am circuits before one of your best players injured himself for the season playing in one. The Tar Heels lost SG Leslie McDonald for the year after tearing his ACL in a North Carolina area Summer Pro-Am game. Promptly after, coach Roy Williams banned his players from participating in such events.
7) Challenged Kendall Marshall to shoot the ball more, sooner. In the month of March it was like a switch was flipped in Kendall Marshall. The old Marshall would go an entire game without putting up more than a few shots. Suddenly, Marshall was attacking the rim, taking the jumper and becoming a dual threat PG. All without seeing a dip whatsoever in his assists, in fact, his assists per game slightly improved in the month. Roy Williams often said he wanted Marshall to be more aggressive in the offense. Something tells me it was the coaching staff that started pushing Kendall hard to score. Something triggered it, and whatever it was it should have been done sooner. A player with the ability to continue to rack up assists like that AND score consistently. That ability shouldn’t have been missed, if it was recognized, it should have been brought out of him before his final month in college basketball.
8) Gave James Michael McAdoo a chance to shine sooner. Admitting that McAdoo looked like a lost puppy early in the season. Roy really couldn’t extend the freshman a ton of minutes. But as the season went on, McAdoo started to show glimpses and looked less and less clueless. This came before exploding the minute he was given extended minutes when John Henson went down in the ACC Tournament. McAdoo was a two time Virginia High School Player of the Year, a junior Olympic Team USA member, a top three recruit. Even with Tyler Zeller and John Henson in front of him, the Tar Heels should have found a way to get McAdoo on the court more often. Want more evidence? Re-watch the games he played 17 or more minutes in.
9) Went harder after Nerlens Noel. The top recruit in the 2012 class, center Nerlens Noel had Carolina among his final four teams. A visit was lined up, all seemed to be going well in the process. Then suddenly, visit cancelled, Tar Heels are off his list, the only team eliminated mind you. Then with Tyler Zeller graduating and John Henson leaving. The Tar Heels could really use a player like Nerlens Noel right now. Something tells me Roy doesn’t want him after confirming he’s more than likely a one and done player. Or Roy didn’t want to go deep into the recruiting season chasing him, he wanted an answer now. Whatever the reason is, Roy would be wise to get back into the game with Noel, if he can.
10) Recruited another Point Guard for 2012. See #1, with Marshall going pro the Heels enter the coming season with Marcus Paige, a freshman as the starting point guard. The top backup, Dexter Strickland, again. After that, only preferred walk on Luke Davis a transfer who sat out last year (who Keeping It Heel will take an extended look at soon). And that’s it at the point for Carolina right now. Roy would have been foolish to recruit another one not know that Marshall was going to leave. He had to assume he was going to have Marshall, Paige, Davis and Strickland on the team. Now, he needs to double back and see if he can get another, this year proved he needs one.
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