Friday, April 1, 2005
Joe Bant
Let me just say, I’ll never be a North Carolina fan.
I throw up in my mouth a little bit every time I see powder blue and white put together, and when I see a kid wearing UNC gear around campus, my first impulse is to punch him in the back of the head. I rooted for Duke in both of its match-ups with North Carolina this year. I stood up and cheered every time Blue Devil senior J.J. Redick hit a three-pointer, even though I felt dirty and confused about it afterward.
I chucked beer cozies at the TV for every Dickie V. diatribe about the unparalleled greatness of Roy Williams and the ’Heels and Tobacco Road, and at the beginning of this year’s tourney, when I saw Kansas and North Carolina both placed in the Syracuse regional, I fantasized about the Jayhawks whooping the Tar Heels in the Elite Eight.
But Bucknell killed those fantasies before they had a chance to be realized, and North Carolina kept on winning. Somewhere amidst all this, I had a revelation: North Carolina, or more specifically, Roy Williams, deserves a National Championship, and it’s time to stop hating the Tar Heels.
It’s been two years since Roy Williams bolted back home to North Carolina, leaving a heartbroken Lawrence and a crushed-like-a-dove Al Bohl in his wake. Two years since he revealed that he did, in fact, give a shit about his alma mater after all. That’s more than enough time to get over the bitterness and sense of betrayal and remember the 15 years, 418 wins and four Final Fours he gave Kansas, the achingly close calls, the tearful press conferences, the daggummits and all the rest.
He took a probationary program and made it shine with class. He was National Coach of the Year four times. He won at least 20 games in each of his last 14 seasons. He’s just too good for his legacy to be his departure.
And yet, walk around Lawrence and the University of Kansas campus and you’ll be hard pressed to find much love for Roy.
“But he lied,” the common argument goes. “In 2000, he said he was staying, but then a couple years later, he just ups and leaves.”
Jeez, you’d think it was Missouri he ran off to — not North Carolina, not his home state and his alma mater and his wife and kids’ alma mater. Sure, he could turn down his dream job once, but twice? No way, especially considering the turmoil the program was experiencing: two consecutive years with no NCAA Tournament invitation and Matt Doherty ousted after only three seasons.
Be realistic. And come on, be forgiving.
Kansas junior guard Jeff Hawkins is. “He’s a good, loyal guy,” Hawkins said of his former coach. “He did a lot for the University, and fans shouldn’t forget that. He was faced with a tough decision; fans should respect that.” Surely if anyone has a right to still be mad at Williams for leaving, it’s the players he left. If Hawkins is big enough to root for Roy, fans should be too.
You know those annoying exes that keep on hating you like three years after they should have moved on, the ones that cut you out of photos and grill all the gifts you gave them into charred stuffed-animal steaks? Well, I hate to say it, Kansas fans, but that’s us. Roy dumped us, and it sucked. But it’s time to get over it, and it time to get over hating the ’Heels.
Bant is a Colorado Springs, Colo., senior in journalism.
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