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Roy In Rare Form

Roy Williams1Kansas City – North Carolina may not win the National Championship, but Head Coach Roy Williams ALWAYS wins the press conference! Saturday at the Sprint Center he gave some classic responses to questions about his team, his former team, the two universities and the tournament.

This guy loves college basketball, the people around it and the two schools for whom he has worked. You can’t help being around Roy Williams without kind of wanting to root for Carolina Blue or even (don’t throw things at your computer screen) the Jayhawks.

‘Old Roy’ won his 700th game on Friday, becoming the third fastest in the history of Division 1 basketball to do so. He is fourth in Final Four appearances, third in NCAA tournament games and wins (his mentor, Dean Smith is number two in all three categories) and still gets cold chills walking out on game days in Chapel Hill.

After 15 seasons at Kansas and now 10 years back at North Carolina Williams feels like he’s coached at the two best college basketball programs in the country.  Who could argue with him? UNC has earned the most Final Four appearances (25) and Kansas is fifth (19) and the game was practically invented in Lawrence.

Williams says only he and Coach Smith truly understand the depth and greatness of both universities.

The two legendary programs connected in St. Louis last spring in the Elite Eight round and was won by Kansas. The programs rank second and third in the history of college basketball in win totals. Kansas has won 2,100 times & UNC, 2,090. They both trail Kentucky (2,111).

Kansas Coach Bill Self replaced Williams in Lawrence and both coaches have won over 280 games in the ensuing 10 seasons. Williams says that while some people were hurt and angry when he left KU, time heals all.

The game today will be special, but the Coach is unique in this day and age, we need to treasure guys like Roy Williams.  Throughout this press conference he referenced former players from both institutions and just rattled off their names like you might rattle off your address.  The guy loves what he does, the people he does it for and does it with. He is a gift to the game.

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