{"id":7733,"date":"2014-11-19T20:18:16","date_gmt":"2014-11-20T01:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/?p=7733"},"modified":"2015-07-21T11:31:08","modified_gmt":"2015-07-21T15:31:08","slug":"defiant-williams-intends-to-coach-unc-for-6-10-more-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/?p=7733","title":{"rendered":"Defiant Williams intends to coach UNC for 6-10 more years"},"content":{"rendered":"

UNC coach Roy Williams brushed aside a question from the media about the possibility of losing his job and told the Raleigh Sports Club Wednesday that he intends to remain the Tar Heels coach for years to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a thrill to be here,\u201d Williams told the group. \u201cIt\u2019s not a thrill to walk in and see the nice people in the media doing their job, and the first question asked is \u2018do you think you\u2019re going to lose your job?\u2019 That\u2019s not the nicest thing that has ever happened to me but that\u2019s the world we live in right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams said that even after years in Kansas, he always knew he\u2019d end up back in his home state of North Carolina. \u201cHopefully I\u2019m going to last another six to 10 years regardless of what some people in the media say,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Roy<\/a>
Roy Williams.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Williams has been on the hot seat from those who believe he knew about the academic transgressions involving his players, that he was in on it or that he suspected but didn\u2019t want to find out.<\/p>\n

While not admitting to any of those things, Williams conceded that mistakes were made at Carolina.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe screwed it up,\u201d he said, speaking in general terms about the University. \u201cWe made some mistakes, there\u2019s no question about that. Things happened that are so sad and that hurt. It\u2019s unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the school is taking actions to correct the errors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had over 20 people lose their jobs,\u201d Williams said. \u201cWe\u2019ve made more changes than you can ever imagine.\u201d<\/p>\n

He indicated that change isn\u2019t easy. \u201cNow when I decide where I\u2019m going to take the team for a pre-game meal, I check with 12 different committees and all 12 disciples of the Lord,\u201d Williams said. \u201cBut change is good sometimes too. We needed to make some changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he\u2019s proud of the University of North Carolina. \u201cI\u2019m not happy about what happened,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI\u2019m very sad, very mad about what happened. But I have a wonderful degree from there, as do some of you. I worked for mine and most of our guys did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Williams<\/a>
Williams cut out to get to practice and no doubt avoid media after WTVD’s Tamara Gibbs “ambushed” him on the way in to speak to the Raleigh Sports Club.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He said he doesn\u2019t know everything that went on but \u201cwe\u2019re going to keep fighting.\u201d A Western movie fan, Williams said he could have used John Wayne and Clint Eastwood fighting on his team over the last couple of months.<\/p>\n

He related a scene from Rio Bravo where a character played by actor Jack Elam is being criticized by John Wayne in the middle of a gunfight for the weapon he\u2019s using. \u201cYou know what Jack Elam said?\u201d Williams asked. \u201cHe looked up at him and said, \u2018don\u2019t mind if I shoot do ya?\u2019 That\u2019s what the dickens I\u2019m gonna do – if you don\u2019t mind I\u2019m gonna coach my butt off for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

While defiant, he admits to this being a very difficult time for him. On top of the academic revelations, his wife has had a couple of recent surgeries and a good friend is battling pancreatic cancer. Plus, with the criticisms aimed at his character, he felt the need to address the situation with his children.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been the most difficult time for me by far,\u201d he said. \u201cUntil recently, I\u2019ve never really had to talk to my children and tell them, \u2018your dad is the same dad he\u2019s always been. He\u2019s got the same values he\u2019s always had and that\u2019s never going to change.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Raleigh Sports Club meeting was packed to hear UNC coach Roy Williams.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UNC coach Roy Williams brushed aside a question from the media about the possibility of losing his job and told the Raleigh Sports Club Wednesday…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-stories","category-north-carolina-tar-heels","wpcat-79-id","wpcat-80-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7733"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18653,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7733\/revisions\/18653"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}