Written by Matt Zemek at Bloguin
Mike Brey and Mark Few parked themselves in the Elite Eight for the first time in their respective careers. They proved something about themselves. You might have thought for many years that both coaches were really good, and of course, the NCAA tournament is the kind of distorting “small sample size” sporting events, one in which a coach as accomplished as John Chaney never made the Final Four. (Neither did Gene Keady or Ralph Miller.) Nevertheless, if your program owns an appreciable degree of stature and an accordingly aspirational quality, you should make a deep run at least once in a while. Brey and Few finally checked that box.
What follows is a short list of coaches who — in various situations — have a lot to prove this season. The first name on the list is clearly different from the others, perhaps to the point of being outrageous… but situations are what they are. Life, like college basketball, is hugely unpredictable.
5 – ROY WILLIAMS, NORTH CAROLINA
OH, COME ON! ROY WILLIAMS HAS NOTHING TO PROVE! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? YOU MUST BE ONE OF THOSE ROY HATERS!
Hey, I can understand that reaction, but to immediately reset (and tone down) the dial:
A) I’m not a “Fire Roy!” idiot (and yes, those who have wanted Roy fired for basketball reasons qualify as such).
B) I have consistently been one of the first people in line to say how good Roy Williams is as a coach. The idea that he just has to roll out the ball and win games is absurd. No other coach with his collection of accomplishments gets the same treatment. It might not even be close, but I’ll hear other arguments. (Lute Olson might have approached Roy on this scale when he was active, and that was a bunch of bullspit, too.)
Nevertheless…
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