Roy Williams suddenly concerned about fouls AFTER Hansbrough graduates

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Oh my God.

I am honestly SO FLABBERGASTED by this that I cannot even begin to compose this blog entry for fear that my head will explode. This will be one of the most disjointed blog posts you will ever read on SFN as I cannot think straight right now. Just keep going and bear with me.

WRAL: UNC’s Williams says college basketball is ‘hand-to-hand combat’

Just watch a college basketball game now and you’ll see all the pushing and banging and physical play you need.

And that concerns North Carolina coach Roy Williams.

“There’s no question the game has gotten way too physical,” said Williams Monday. Williams spent six years on the Rules Committee arguing that point. He said “the easiest way” to reduce some of the physical play “is to call more fouls.”

“The game of basketball is supposed to be a finesse game,” Williams said.

I actually AGREE with the premise that college basketball is far too physical and there is not nearly enough fouls called ON CERTAIN TEAMS. What I can’t fathom is that a coach who just graduated a player that set the all-time college basketball record for shooting free throws is the one complaining. Not to mention the unofficial record that Hansbrough also owns – or is at least tied with Shane Battier – for number of fouls that were not called against him that should have been whistled.

This is a guy who was recently criticized by NBA players for being too rough and fouling too much. Think about that for a moment — professional basketball players!? But, Roy Williams didn’t ever seem to have a problem about contact in college basketball when Hansbrough was on his team.

celebrationbyrobertwillett.jpg Hell, Hansbrough was so accustomed to creating contact that he couldn’t help but push off and foul his own teammates even when he was celebrating!! Look at the picture on the left. Who runs like that? It is not even natural when you look at the positioning of his body. Compare his ‘running’ posture to that of every other player in the picture (and every other player in the world). Sheesh…he is friggin pushing-off and attempting to slow down the faster Wayne Ellington as the Tarheels storm the court to celebrate. Some things never change, eh? He was so accustomed to knocking around others that he literally cannot step onto the court – even in celebration – without creating some kind of contact with people around him. (We later learned that this contact resulted in Hansbrough shooting two extra free throws hours after the game.)

picture1 I could go on about Hansbrough and Roy Williams’ hypocrisy forever. To save us all the hassle, I strongly encourage you to click on this tag and do some serious web surfing – you will find some fun and frustrating items there that will be of interest to you. Items like poor Virginia Tech’s indoctrination into the ACC from last year’s ACC Tournament that is summed up by the chart on the left, by this video, and by the following comments from the N&O.

UNC finished the game with 21 attempts from the free-throw line (hitting 15), while VT finished 8 of 11. It’s not like VT took a ton of 3s and the totals were skewed by shot selection. UNC and VT each took 19 3s.

And don’t confuse me here, I’m not saying UNC won because of the officials. Hansbrough was great — actually it was one of his five best games — but the selective enforcement of the contact did affect Tech.

Vassallo’s second foul, about 22 feet from the basket on a touch foul defending Bobby Frasor, was questionable at best. Vassallo had to sit out the final 8:19 of the first half after that foul. That’s a long chunk of the game to go without your best player, especially on a team that’s a three-man show.

In closing, I offer that you can mostly thank Duke and Coach K for the current state of college basketball. The defensive style of play that evolved at Duke in the late 1980s and into the 1990s put so much pressure on officials that they simply could not call fouls on muplitple players every single possession. Add to that mix the public berating and flogging K would put on any official that called fouls on Duke and you had a recipe for what we have today – football without pads.

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42 Responses to Roy Williams suddenly concerned about fouls AFTER Hansbrough graduates

  1. ncsufan13 01/15/2010 at 1:48 PM #

    Best post I’ve read in a while. The analysis of Tyler Hansbrough is spot on and hilarious.

  2. lsutton5144 01/15/2010 at 1:58 PM #

    Thank God this is your blog, or Roy would have you tossed for disagreeing with him.

  3. newt 01/15/2010 at 1:59 PM #

    You are right about K. I will never forget Dunleavy’s explanation of how Duke was able to stop our offense in the 2002 ACC tournament final. The adjustment he cited was that they started grabbing us to prevent back door cuts.

  4. fullmoon1 01/15/2010 at 2:14 PM #

    Roy is the pot and K is the kettle. Good point about Duke being to blame for current sate of baskeball. I also agree that it should be a finesse game. UNC is one of the roughest teams ever and they contributed to the lack of finesse beginning with JR Reid. Hanswalker was one of the roughest players to ever see the floor in the acc. It is almost hard to believe Roy is serious with his claims. Roy is just an attention ho.

  5. bradleyb123 01/15/2010 at 2:25 PM #

    I’ve long thought that a timely foul or two called (or not called) could really influence the outcome of a game. They can slow or stop momentum, create momentum for the other team, you name it. The impact goes far beyond that particular free throw. One or two points aren’t that bigga deal. But if the mindset of your players becomes one of WE’RE getting called for touch fouls, and THEY’RE allowed to get away with bloody murder, then the refs have greatly influenced the game.

    I recall an 8-point possession by Carolina several years ago. We were up 7, I believe, with a few minutes left. It was not won yet, but we were gaining confidence and looking good — starting to pull away. Carolina hit a three, got the foul called, and before it was over, they had gotten a couple of foul calls, one or more technical fouls called on us, etc. When the dust settled they had gained 8 points on us. We never recovered from that.

    I also remember a Maryland game where we were up 12 with five minutes to play. Seems like they called a very unreasonable charge on Damon Thornton on a fast break, and I believe he responded to it, got a technical and fouled out. We never recovered from that one, either, and lost the game.

    Sometimes that ONE untimely bad or missed call changes EVERYTHING.

  6. wbnation 01/15/2010 at 2:28 PM #

    does this mean Roy has to sit out a game for bitching about the refs???

  7. bradleyb123 01/15/2010 at 2:28 PM #

    btw, great article. Spot on right. Funny how Roy didn’t say a word until the rough play stopped benefiting Carolina.

  8. Wolfy__79 01/15/2010 at 2:37 PM #

    yeah, his claims are hilarious. you can see physical play in every league, especially in the big east. florida state is pretty physical as well. hansbra, on the other hand is just a hack artist. can’t wait until his attempt on a ron artest/someone in the nba… followed by the beatdown he receives. it was absolutely rediculous watching that kid play. i admire his hustle and don’t really blame him… it really is an officiating problem from league to league. until there is more uniformity in this from league to league, i welcome the more physical play. the ACC sometimes gets hammered when the ncaa’s roll around b/c of the diff b/t our officiating and others. here of late, however, our officiating just plain sucks. in both major sports. there are many teams that are as “rough” as unc-ch, but they are one of the only ones who doesn’t get called on it. duke is pretty bad too, but b/t the two.. unc gets more of the share. roy is a dutch bag. they probably need him to take a year or two off for health reasons so matt doherty can recruit them another working team. they suck this year. how are they still ranked so high… you know, with the fouls and all?

  9. Wolfy__79 01/15/2010 at 2:41 PM #

    lol, wbnation, good point!

  10. Rochester 01/15/2010 at 2:45 PM #

    What’s a “dutch bag”?

  11. Texpack 01/15/2010 at 2:45 PM #

    Before our first round game with Duke in Lowe’s first year I posted that the most important factor in our chance to win the game was whether or not the refs would be willing to call all of the clutching and grabbing away from the ball. That is how Duke makes up for not being as quick as their opponents. I’m not a fan of mug fest basketball either. I suspect there will be a shift back towards less allowable contact before too much longer.

    Roy Williams is mainly trying to plant seeds for the Duke games. He knows he’s toast if Duke is allowed to bully his players so he’s simply starting to work the officials a few weeks early. Roy believes if the game is called his way at Afrin Center he has a chance. He knows his boys are going to get run out of Cameron already. We have showed more composure on the road to this point in the year than the Holes have.

  12. Sweet jumper 01/15/2010 at 2:46 PM #

    Roy learned hypocrisy well from his mentor Dean Smith!

  13. Wolfy__79 01/15/2010 at 2:50 PM #

    dutch=douche … my little play on words…

  14. Wolfy__79 01/15/2010 at 2:52 PM #

    yep, roy is planting seeds for the duke game. i don’t think they really stand a chance no matter what roy tries to pull. i don’t see unc-ch being much of a threat to the upper echelon ACC teams this year… well maybe va tech? i think they will continue to get worse….

  15. newt 01/15/2010 at 2:52 PM #

    Smart coaches know that officiating is a key factor and put emphasis on winning that battle just like turnovers, etc. In fact, a coach can probably do more to impact officiating than just about any other aspect of the game. Strategies to win the calls may be the number one thing a coach can do to help his team win.

  16. Wolfy__79 01/15/2010 at 2:55 PM #

    unfortunately i agree. especially if you are the coach at unc-ch. i would like to see more finesse come back to college hoops but i doubt it.

  17. Class of 2009 01/15/2010 at 3:01 PM #

    The graphic of Free Throws by VT, UNC, and Tyler has got to be one of the best StateFan images I’ve ever seen.

  18. Wolfy__79 01/15/2010 at 3:11 PM #

    priceless, i’ve never seen that clip of the replay and postgame interview. that is just plain rediculous. it would have been two missed calls before a jump ball could have been called. first was the foul on hansbra, then the travel, then the foul on hansbra???? i guess three missed calls. absolutely rediculous. if i were greenburg, i may have experienced chest pains…

  19. fullmoon1 01/15/2010 at 3:12 PM #

    i think a dutch bag is like a satchel(a la hangover) lol that has a nice ring. Roy is a Dutch Satchel and we all know it means douche bag.

  20. Akula Wolf 01/15/2010 at 3:14 PM #

    “Who runs like that?”

    A mentally-challenged horse?

  21. fullmoon1 01/15/2010 at 3:19 PM #

    Next thing you know Roy will be complaining about traveling violations.

  22. fullmoon1 01/15/2010 at 3:23 PM #

    No one opposes the point of view that b ball has gotten to rough but it’s just funny to be coming from one of the main causes of the problem. What a hypocryte.

  23. Broccoman 01/15/2010 at 3:23 PM #

    If you’re getting ticky-tacked touch to death, and the other team is getting away with murder, I’d get the last five guys off the bench, call them in, and tell them to thug it up for a while. You may lose the game, you may even get suspended, but you’ll get your point across.

    You hurt em, but you don’t injure em. The point is make them feel it the next few weeks, not keep them from playing.

  24. wolfpackbball 01/15/2010 at 3:23 PM #

    This brings back SO many bad memories. As I’m reading this, I’m wishing I had a Hansblow soundbyte. “WOW”

  25. graywolf 01/15/2010 at 3:52 PM #

    Roy’s concern stems from his lack of floor coaching ability. Now that they aren’t scoring as many points from the line it shows his lack of ability and they are not winning as much as they “think” they should.

    GREAT!

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