Williams deserves Coach of the Year

With college basketball entering the final week of the regular season, perhaps it is time to recognize the coach who deserves the ACC Coach of the Year. This year’s award features two hall-of-fame coaches in UNC’s Roy Williams and Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski vying for the top accolade.

Some might argue that Seth Greenberg of Virginia Tech is making a late push, but all too often it seems as though the Coach of the Year title is a sympathy award that goes to a coach who manages to string together a decent season despite less than stellar talent. For example, Greenberg won Coach of the Year during the 2004-2005 basketball season when his team limped to a 16-14 overall record.

During the same season, Roy Williams’ UNC team won in Blacksburg by 34 points on its way to a 26-3 (14-2) regular season record and a National Championship.

The 2004-2005 UNC team featured a talent-laden roster compared to Greenberg’s club. Nevertheless, assembling a talented team should not disqualify a coach for Coach of the Year honors.

In the seven full seasons since Williams was named head coach at UNC, his teams have won the regular season ACC title four times. Despite this astonishing feat, Williams has only been recognized as Coach of the Year once during his ACC tenure.

Williams’ Duke counterpart, Krzyzewski, has been similarly snubbed in Coach of the Year voting. Krzyzewski, who has won half of the regular season ACC titles of the past decade, has failed to garner a single ACC Coach of the Year award since the turn of the century.

If not for UNC’s performance this season, Krzyzewski might be in line for the honor. However, Krzyzewski was blessed with the return of two senior All-Americans from a national championship team. Coaching a talented team may not disqualify someone for coach of the year, but benefiting from senior leaders can ease a coach’s job. There’s not as much improvement needed.

In stark contrast, UNC lost six major contributors from last season’s team that finished 5-11 in the ACC. The starting lineup is now littered with freshmen and sophomores.

Williams also had to overcome the unexpected departures of David and Travis Wear, senior leader Will Graves and the shocking loss of Larry Drew II.

The Tar Heels are 10-1 since Williams made the bold move to insert Kendall Marshall into the starting lineup. Williams’ coaching effort this season is best exemplified in his team’s ability to adapt and win games in various fashions.

The Heels have uncharacteristically won contests reminiscent of grueling trench-wars, such as UNC’s 48-46 victory over Boston College in Chapel Hill.

On-court results are scrutinized heavily, but managing dynamic personalities and egos is a severely underappreciated aspect of coaching. During the season, Williams lamented, “I’ve got half of the guys on my team that their mom and dad and their friends and everything think that they’re going to make $88 million. They could give a flip whether we win a game or not.”

Roy Williams should be acknowledged for the brilliant job that he has done this season.

Sam Ellis is a guest columnist for the Daily Tar Heel. He is a senior economics and exercise and sports science major from Chapel Hill. Contact him at swellis@email.Unc.Edu.