Four Corners honors Smith but leads to Williams rant against fans

Coach Roy Williams signals Four Corners.
Coach Roy Williams signals Four Corners.
Let’s be honest, holding the ball for 14 seconds before scoring isn’t exactly the Four Corners of old. But it was a nice gesture to begin North Carolina’s 89-60 victory over Georgia Tech.

Unfortunately, the Marcus Paige to Brice Johnson backdoor play in the Four Corners happened so quickly that I’m not sure everybody was keyed into it. As a result, it sounds as if Coach Roy Williams wasn’t real happy with the response from the crowd.

Based on the subdued crowd reaction, he thinks a lot of people didn’t recognize what he was doing.

While there are probably a lot of newcomers to Carolina basketball in the 18 years since Coach Smith retired, I tend to think that even those who recognized it were emotional themselves about it. It might have been more of a melancholy moment for them rather than a rah-rah moment.

Regardless, it did get Coach Williams on his soapbox about Carolina’s home crowd not being as loud and supportive as he’d like this season.

He says when he coaches on the road, his players have to read his lips but that they hear him fine at home.

He said “we’re in this together” and that the Tar Heels need some help from the home crowd. He thinks some fans are simply there to be entertained instead of being part of it all.

Frankly, Tar Heel fans are knowledgeable and they generally know when to be loud. Yelling for the sake of yelling and creating some imaginary chaos is often futile and annoying, and imitative of others.

Yes, the home crowd needs to be more engaged but I’d give them a pass on a day when they are paying tribute to Dean Smith – and beating a losing team by 30 points.

One thing is almost certain – the Tar Heel faithful will have the Smith Center rocking Tuesday night against rival NC State.

For more on the Georgia Tech game, please click here.

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