Williams undergoes successful surgery

Dexter Strickland and the North Carolina basketball team heard the news not long before the rest of the nation did.

Coach Roy Williams called a surprise meeting at 10 p.m. Tuesday in the Smith Center locker room to announce he would be undergoing surgery Wednesday morning to remove a tumor from his right kidney.

By all accounts, that surgery was a successful one.

Surgeon Eric Wallen said in a UNC release that he fully expects Williams to be able to coach this season and beyond.

But despite that seemingly positive result, the news was still sobering for the Tar Heels.

“It was heartbreaking for me,” Strickland said. “Me being here for four years, and me and his relationship together, I look at him as a father figure, not just a coach.

“So him telling me the heartbreaking news was emotional for me. Last night, I prayed for him.”

Williams underwent a robotic partial nephrectomy to remove the tumor, and it is not yet known whether the tumor is cancerous.

Doctors discovered the tumor during a physical earlier this month, according to the release.

Wallen said Williams might also have a second surgery in October to remove a tumor from his left kidney, which could keep him from practice.

But the expectation is that Williams will be able to coach at the start of the season.

“I don’t think it’s going to be very disruptive at all,” assistant coach Steve Robinson said. “I think you go through an adjustment phase right now based on just the magnitude of what it is and the magnitude of Roy Williams and the University of North Carolina program.”

Robinson maintained that he and the rest of the coaching staff are confident in their abilities to run the team day-to-day in Williams’ absence.

But no one has been singled out as an interim leader.

“I think all of us are in charge,” Robinson said. “We’ve all got our duties and our responsibilities. I don’t think we have just one single person.

“You know who’s in charge? Roy Williams. That’s who’s in charge.”

This isn’t the first time the 62-year-old Williams has had surgery during his tenure at UNC.

Williams wore a sling during much of the 2009-10 season after tearing the labrum in his left shoulder. Williams continued to coach, but the Tar Heels had one of their worst seasons in recent memory, failing to reach the NCAA Tournament.

Redshirt junior guard Leslie McDonald was a freshman that season, and he said Williams reminded the Tar Heels of the obstacles they faced that year when he addressed them Tuesday.

“He told us that we’ve battled so much adversity as a team,” McDonald said. “Of course for me, my freshman year we had a losing season, and we had people leave the team … And he said this is another step that we have to get through.

“So he said just keep our heads up high, keep him in our prayers. Let’s get together, close together. Let’s get through it.”

Contact the desk editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.