Roy Williams will take time out this weekend to enjoy his favorite TV sporting event: The Masters
Posted November 11, 2020 3:34 p.m. EST
UNC head coach Roy Williams is well aware of his team finishing last place in the ACC last year, even if it's hard for him to say it.
But the Tar Heels are going into the preseason ranked 16th in the AP preseason poll, picked to finish fourth in the ACC and certainly won't get any breaks when it comes to scheduling. UNC wasn't even supposed to be in this year's ACC-Big Ten Challenge because of that finish, and yet they'll play the team picked to finish first — No. 5 Iowa — at Iowa. They were supposed to play Ohio State in New York City, but that game has been moved to Cleveland.
The five talented freshmen are expected to help turn the tide, especially when coupled with a veteran group of returning players that showed plenty of promise.
But that promise has to translate, and the freshmen will have to adjust quickly.
"It's a difficult schedule for freshmen because they have no idea how tough the competition is today and oh my gosh, we've got to do this again tomorrow and oh my gosh, two days later, these guys are even better than those other guys we played," Williams said on The Adam Gold Show on Wednesday. "Playing in the backcourt, there's a lot of responsibilities and things that you have to take care of in addition to your own play. But I love these kids. They can mess it up a little bit but at the same time, they're going to get better and better as the season goes along."
Williams will lean on his veterans plenty, particularly Garrison Brooks, the lone bright spot last year in a season that didn't have many. He averaged nearly 17 points a game and 8.5 rebounds as a junior and has blossomed into a senior leader.
"He came in, he wasn't even a top-100 recruit and we liked him but we didn't have any idea of what he was going to be. We had hopes and dreams and goals and that kind of thing. But last year, he was a bright spot," Williams said. "We had some difficult things last year ... but Garrison was the brightest spot that we had. Cole Anthony was only healthy like nine games the whole year, but Garrison was a consistently bright spot.
"He's one of those guys that's like 6-8 1/2, so he's not the tallest post player. He doesn't go out to the 3-point line and shoot five 3s a game, but he can score around the basket. His facing jump shot has gotten much, much better. And every day he came to practice last year, he tried to get better and he was able to take it out onto the court and do it against our schedule last year. So he's the leader. He's the leader by his actions and he'll also say some things to them as well. I think we'll get great leadership from Garrison."
But having a better season won't be the only challenge.
The country and even the state of North Carolina continue to set new records for COVID-19 cases each day, and college football games nationwide are being canceled and postponed due to outbreaks.
"The biggest challenge is what's going on in our whole country. The (COVID-19) numbers are skyrocketing right now. It's the worst time period I've ever had in my life with the political mess we have, the racial inequalities that we have, the pandemic," Williams said. "I've lived a blessed life, I understand, but this has been a tough time. For us, you can do everything that you can possibly do and you still might make a mistake and catch the virus. You can't see it, smell it, hear it or anything like that and it can be transmitted so much easier than the things that we've had in the past.
"I heard one person say that if you do exactly what you're supposed to do all the time, you will not catch this. Well, that means you stay at home and you go from your TV to the bedroom and the bathroom and that's the only place you go. I don't believe that. I believe you can do everything you possibly can and still, you've got to get lucky. Traveling, and traveling with 18-22 year-old-kids — they think they're invincible. That's one of the biggest problems that we have. It's something that we're concerned about."
One welcome distraction for Williams will be this weekend, in a sporting event not remotely related to college basketball — The Masters.
Williams, an avid golfer, estimates he's played about 20 rounds at Augusta National. But the television spectacle of it, particularly the final round on Sunday, is something he does not miss if he can at all help it.
"I just absolutely love it down there, every experience. It's my favorite sporting event on TV is Sunday at the Masters. I change my schedule, I move things, I make sure that on Sunday on TV — and I've been there for the Tournament probably 3-4 times, but you can't see nearly as well at the Tournament," Williams said. "You can hear the roars better. You have no idea how loud they are on TV compared to what they are in person. But Sunday afternoon at the Master's is my favorite sporting event on TV."
Williams' best round, he says, was shooting a 77 in spite of a triple bogey on the seventh hole (his group began on the back nine). He's also shot an eagle on the 15th and 8th holes.
And Williams, of course, had a story of a memorable experience there — last spring, he said, when playing the course with his partner, former UNC legend Billy Cunningham, whose jersey hangs in the rafters. They were playing against another group.
On the 15th hole, a hole he'd eagled before, he decided to knock it on the green with a 3-wood. And he hit a beautiful shot, flying it right over the flag about 20 feet behind it.
"The flag is right side a little bit and a little front — not way down front, but a little front. So I've got an eagle putt and we're trying to beat these bad guys and Billy Cunningham said, 'Now, don't leave it short.' I said, 'I'm going to try to make the sucker.' The caddy said 'it's not that fast' and I hit the putt and it rolled and it looked like it was going to turn right into the hole and it kept rolling and kept rolling and rolled off the green, down the bank and in the pond," Williams said.
"So I just tell everybody I one-putted the sucker because I did. I only putted it one time and putted it in. But I had an eagle putt 20 feet behind the hole and I putted the dadgum thing down in the water."
When he watches this weekend, he'll be rooting for one of his favorites, Tiger Woods. He wants Woods to break Sam Snead's record. In spite of all the efforts he makes to clear his schedule, he was supposed to miss Woods' win last year but tornados in the Midwest meant he had to stay home.
The most memorable moment from Tiger's win? That's easy, Williams said.
The 18th.
And when Woods had a short putt that would lock up his win, but one that if he missed would send it to a playoff, Williams could hardly handle it.
"I was choking. I was glad I was not making that bogey putt to still win by one. But I said, 'He's got to make this. He's got to make it.' I kept telling myself, 'he is a professional, one of the greatest who's ever played the game.' But I'm telling you, I was choking myself so bad just watching him," Williams said.
"So that was a great moment, just seeing the celebration, seeing the way the fans went. The moment that I loved was him going to see his mom and his two children."
