Roy Williams will turn 70 years old on Aug. 1st, but North Carolina’s Hall-of-Fame head coach isn’t anxious to slow down his life any time soon.
Not after last season.
Not after going 14-19 and posting a losing record for the first time in his career.
“This may be hard to believe, but I’m about 100 times more motivated than I’ve been,” Williams said Monday on the College Hoops Today Podcast. “Last season leaves a bad taste in our mouth. It’s not where our program wants to be.”
Injuries, poor outside shooting, and a lack of quality depth never allowed North Carolina to gain any type of rhythm or chemistry last season. The Tar Heels were also just 3-8 in games that were decided by six points or less.
“The injuries were a factor, but that’s an excuse,” Williams said. “You’ve got to step up and play on game night. Another reason we struggled is I didn’t do as good a job of coaching as I needed to. I’ve always gotten guys to play to their potential and I didn’t do that. I didn’t do as good of a job as I’ve done. I don’t have one thing to put my finger one. I’ve got about a thousand and I’m going to try and change those thousand things before we start practice this upcoming year.”
North Carolina loses a cornerstone piece to the NBA in Cole Anthony, but Williams has reloaded with six consensus top-150 prospects — Caleb Love, R.J. Davis, Walker Kessler, Day’Ron Sharpe, Puff Johnson, and Kerwin Walton — that should add quality depth around the veteran nucleus of Garrison Brooks, Leaky Black, Armando Bacot, Anthony Harris, and Andrew Platek.
Williams is especially bullish on Love and Davis, two freshmen guards that will take over the ball handling responsibilities from Anthony.
“I look for them to have great years,” Williams said of Love and Davis. “Our best team is going to be if one of those guys or both of those guys takes it and goes with it. I think Caleb at 6-4 is athletic and can take the ball to the basket and shoot the ball. R.J. is a tremendous scorer both outside and inside. Then you’ve got Leaky Black that we played at the point guard some last year, but we really need those two freshmen guards to step up and be big time players.”
The Tar Heels likely won’t be picked to finish at the top of the ACC in the preseason with Duke and Virginia, but — at least on paper — the overall talent base in North Carolina’s program appears to be significantly deeper than it was a year ago.
The Tar Heels are currently ranked 22nd in the ROTHSTEIN 45.
