UNC Basketball: Should UNC Think About Roy Williams’ Heir Apparent?

Best wishes to UNC’s men’s basketball coach, Roy Williams. On this past Thursday, Roy Williams underwent surgery on his kidney to remove a tumor. Before I delve into this column, I want to say that I love having Roy Williams as the coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels. When he became UNC’s head coach before the beginning of the 2004-2005 basketball season, I felt like Carolina Basketball was waking from a bad coma. No disrespect to coaches Bill Gutheridge or Matt Doherty.

Mar 15, 2012; Greensboro, NC, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Roy Williams is greeted by fans before practice before the second round of the 2012 NCAA men

Both men deserve the utmost respect, despite any mistakes they made as UNC’s head coach. Gutheridge was one of Dean Smith’s assistant coaches for over 30 years. He has invested almost half of his lifetime to developing Carolina Basketball. Matt Doherty was a starter on the 1982 NCAA championship team, and a key component on UNC’s 1984 team, which is hailed as one of the best Carolina teams ever; although they did not win a championship. Plus, we cannot forget that Doherty recruited Raymond Felton, Rashad McCants, Jackie Manuel, Sean May, David Noel, Melvin Scott, and Jawad Williams.  Yes, you got it. Doherty recruited much of the 2005 NCAA Champion team.

The premise of this post is to ponder who will take over the reigns after Roy steps down. Like many of my fellow Tar Heels, I hope that we do not have to worry about this anytime soon. In fact, I would like to be Roy’s age when we think about getting a new coach. Let’s be honest. Things happen. Sometimes our health can interfere with our careers.

I hope this does not happen with Roy, but realistically speaking, it has occurred with others. Jim Calhoun represents a prime example. Calhoun basically built the basketball program at UConn. After winning three championships with the Huskies and building the basketball program, Calhoun retired after last season. Now, UConn has turned over the program to Kevin Ollie, a former UConn basketball player who played several years in the NBA.

When I think of likely candidates to replace Roy Williams, these are the names that come to mind: Hubert Davis, Jeff Lebo, Wes Miller, Buzz Peterson, King Rice, Steve Robinson, and Pat Sullivan. Robinson is the only individual who was not a former UNC basketball player. I will discuss what each of these individuals bring to the table in a separate column. For now, Tar Heel Nation should enjoy the great coach that we have in Roy Williams. When I heard that Dean’s last season of coaching was going to be 1997, I almost felt like crying. I literally grew up watching Carolina basketball games where Dean was the coach.

I also watched Dean Smith’s Basketball Show on Sunday mornings; that is, when I was “helping” my father prepare dinner during church service (hint hint). One day, I am going to have to experience this all over. Since 2003, I have gotten accustomed to Roy’s facial expressions, dancing (rather attempts to dance) at the “Late Night w/Roy” practices, and numerous victories. Roy, if you are reading this, thank you for bringing Carolina basketball back to being one of the top programs in the nation; arguably the top basketball program. I think that I can speak for all Tar Heels when I say that we are not ready for you to step down from being Carolina’s coach. Whatever you need, you have over one million assistant coaches (including myself) who are willing to pitch in and help. We ride together, and we win games together……….Tar Heels for Life!