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. GAWolf 01/15/2010 at 4:28 PM #

    I used to like Roy okay. I no longer like Roy. He’s let the Carolina “mystique” cloud his judgment. He’s just another blowhard now.

  2. drizzlewolf 01/15/2010 at 4:40 PM #

    I just dont understand the state of BBall officiating these days. Who is responsible for policing the refs? i cant see why there isnt someone (group) who watches games on replay to see what was called incorrectly, missed, etc. i bet that if a referee’s paycheck was based on the accuracy of his calls then you wouldnt see this kind of disparity. i’m not saying call a game fairly, i’m saying call a game CORRECTLY! then no coach can complain.

  3. packof81 01/15/2010 at 4:55 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.”

    But that is typical.

    The first smeller is the very feller.
    He who smelt it, dealt it.
    The fox is the finder and the trail lays behind her.

  4. ncsukyle 01/15/2010 at 5:42 PM #

    Someone brought Roy’s coaching into question earlier, suggesting he’s more of a recruiter than an in-game strategist. This maybe a dumb question, but given the same talent could Sid out coach Roy?

  5. rtpack24 01/15/2010 at 6:32 PM #

    It is amazing that Roy can say this stuff with a straight face. College of Charleston shot 6 free throws for tha game while UNC shot 33 and UNC was behind the majority of the game. That was just a couple of weeks ago! Hansborough very seldom did the center jump at the beginning of the game but he did once and actually pushed off on the tip and of course it was not called.

  6. Wolfy__79 01/15/2010 at 6:45 PM #

    i’m not all that impressed with roy’s recruiting. matt donuts gave him his first championship team, his second team came off the the coat tails of the first. before his move to unc-ch, he didn’t have anything but final four appearances at kansas… also a good bball progarm. so, you know… it remains to be seen??.. well, i forgot.. sid won against roy year one. did we have equal talent, um no. have we had equal talent in the last decade? don’t think so. someone nailed it on the head with an earlier post, he’s prepping the officiating for the duke contest. an easier question to compare might be could roy duplicate sid’s results at NCSU?? i’m not sure. he’s had alot of teams giftwrapped thus far in his career. sid came into an NC State team full of herbs players, some who resented him from day one. anyway, roy probably could get the same amount of wins as sid has here.. but could he line the talent up that he has! granted we lost out on john wall, and all of the sudden when the final days of recruiting rolled around unc-ch media suggest that they were a front runner for wall.. i don’t see roy impressing any of the nations top recruits. i can’t name one of their players that would be a top ten pick. felton was pretty good, lawson will be okay… … ….

  7. bradleyb123 01/15/2010 at 7:42 PM #

    i don’t see roy impressing any of the nations top recruits.

    Wolfy__79, I don’t disagree with most of what you wrote. But Roy recently got a commitment from the top recruit in the nation, didn’t he? Harrison Barnes I think is his name. Well, I guess he was the top UNCOMMITTED recruit at the time.

    Sid is getting some quality recruits now, at least on paper and in the minds of the analysts. But Roy is bringing in highly-rated recruits, too.

  8. Wulfpack 01/15/2010 at 8:26 PM #

    Roy is a great recruiter. Anybody questioning that needs to take a closer look. His on-floor coaching is suspect. And these statements are just rediculous. He’s lost it.

  9. Ed89 01/15/2010 at 9:52 PM #

    While I agree that Duke and K helped ruin college hoops, I think the blame rests more with Shaq. He singlehandedly made basketball a full-time contact sport by backing down his defensive player and initiating contact EVERY time he touched the ball. The main problem now is that refs do NOT call fouls on offensive players who initiate contact (i.e. one Tyler Hansbro).

  10. Wolfy__79 01/15/2010 at 10:57 PM #

    unc-ch brings in the recruits. roy is only part of the equation. bout to check his recruits at kansas…

  11. Wolfy__79 01/15/2010 at 11:19 PM #

    okay, harrison barnes.. a nice addition. too bad that lineup is overstocked with forwards. i guess i’m simply not impressed. the only things that came up when i looked into his recruiting at ku was cluttered with jibjab about alumni giving “small” cash graduation gifts.. imo, he had been at ku for a long time, preceeded by larry brown? i’m sure the program wasn’t in shambles when he left. i just haven’t been impressed…

  12. racerx22 01/16/2010 at 5:20 AM #

    “Williams spent six years on the Rules Committee arguing that point.”

    There goes the hypocrite argument…

    And the answer to the question “Who runs like that?” (based on a snapshot taken in the midst of a celebration) is a national champion and player of the year…oh, why would you be able to recognize that…?

    And Roy’s lack of coaching ability is evident. I mean, anybody can win 600 games, have an 80% winning percentage, and win 2 national championships…dumb luck.

  13. gcpack 01/16/2010 at 11:57 AM #

    Hey wolfy79, its spelled rIdiculous, not rEdiculous.

  14. Wolfy__79 01/16/2010 at 12:01 PM #

    until roy came to unc-ch, his teams fizzled out in the final four time and time again. sure he is a celebrated coach but it is obvious to some that he struggles at times with in-game coaching. roy has also had the benefit of having blue chip jobs… i’m sorry, but unless you are complete moron, you can win easily at ku and unc-ch.. by hansbra being awarded the national player of the year, that merely dumbs down the award. if he were to play at any other university it would not have even been close to the same results. i admire his work ethic for sure, but he is the most akward bball player in the history of college hoops.. there’s an award he deserves.

  15. Wolf74 01/18/2010 at 8:01 AM #

    Actually, I have felt the rest of the basketball world (everyone except the ACC) has been playing physical basketball for many years – particularly the Big 10. In the ACC only two teams UNC-Ch and Duke have been allowed to play physical. The other teams were held to that looky no-touchy defense when playing Duke and UNC-Ch. That is why those two have had such a dismal record in the NCAAs considering, each season, they have come in with twice as much talent (when counting Mickey D’s) as their closest rival. Since the ACC was afraid to allow the other teams to bump and bang their blue darlings, Duke and UNC-Ch would go into the tournament with that superior than thou attitude and when the non-ACC refs allowed them to get pushed around they would lose it.

  16. 76wolf 01/18/2010 at 11:40 AM #

    Roy is just upset because he had to drive the car TH gave him when he left. A used caddy, yeah its a caddy but needs a tune-up. Isn’t it sad when the ression hits even the rich. Winners are the ones that can still compete even when the car is not the latest model (Coach Sid).

  17. Wolfy__79 01/19/2010 at 1:05 AM #

    haha, wait til they come to raleigh! should be a pretty physical contest. maybe that’s the game he’s trying to get their attn for! roy=overrated. stay at unc-ch as long as you like

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