I mean whatever shall Roy do? How is he going to continue bringing in those top recruiting classes without help from a local AAU coach?
That was sarcasm if you did not notice.
Anyway, adding to the drama we have already discussed, it seems that John Wall's AAU Coach, Brian Clifton says he does not want anything to do with Roy Williams:
UNC had not previously been among the universities Wall was seriously considering — Baylor, Memphis, N.C. State, Duke and Kansas — and Clifton has said he's not on talking terms with Carolina coaches.
"I have no desire to talk to, to be involved with, to visit, to contemplate in any shape, form or fashion John Wall going to play for Roy Williams. Zero," said Clifton, who runs the D-One sports program.
Bomani Jones at 850/620 asked him what exactly his beef was with Roy Williams:
“I don’t have any respect for Roy Williams. I encourage [my players] to play for guys that will inspire them to be good people. If you’re not a good person, you can’t make someone a good person.”
Yet, after meeting Mike Krzyzewski he has tons of respect for him.
Clifton, who has accompanied Wall on campus visits, described Sunday's meeting with Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski as "very good." When asked whether Wall's list of choices had changed, Clifton replied: "The emergence of Duke as a viable option, that in and of itself has caused a change."
"We all left the meeting with the conclusion that it was worth exploring further," said Clifton, who clearly was feeling better about Duke after his earlier concerns that the Blue Devils would not be a good fit for Wall. "I respect Coach K and the way that he goes about business. ... He was enough of a professional to deal with people based on who they really are, not on what he's heard they might be. I'd be comfortable with any of my guys learning from and being shaped and molded by a guy who's got that in his character."
I actually think this is pretty freaking funny. Clifton is obviously pissed off that Roy Williams opted not to give Wall a look previously on the basis of the player's reputation. In fact the N&O article goes on to say Clifton got a cool reception from UNC on another player he tried to bring to them which makes them a little more a case of sour grapes. What is also funny about this is Clifton obviously has no idea when he is being used. He lauds Krzyzewski's demeanor but ignores the fact that the Duke coach is only interested in Wall because Roy is cleaning his clock and Duke has fallen behind in the recruiting game.
Clifton has also not paid attention(apparently) to how the two coaches in question handle players leaving early for the NBA. At Duke, Krzyzewski has long opposed his players leaving early. He publicly chastised William Avery for leaving after two years to the point Avery made his draft declaration at his high school. Both Shavlik Randoplh and Josh McRoberts were given the warmth of a press release when they left. The general perception is the Duke coach is none to happy with players who opt to put their personal careers ahead of the Blue Devil program. There is also the not so small matter of countless transfers out of the Duke program on an almost yearly basis which is usually a sign something is amiss.
Contrast that to Roy Williams being very upfront with his willingness to give UNC players all the available information on the NBA. Heck, UNC under both Dean Smith and Roy Williams have advised players to leave even if they actually wanted to stay. Only once, with Danny Green, has Roy been less than supportive of a decision. In that case, Roy got over it and was on board once the awkward initial announcement was made. As best as I can tell Tar Heel players all love playing for Roy.
This is not to say Roy is not without his flaws. I also think it is possible that Roy or his staff may have mishandled interactions with Clifton leaving a bad impression. However, I find Clifton declaring Roy to not be a "good person" while singing the praises of Krzyzewski to be laughable on a variety of levels. Neither man is perfect and while I am biased, I think there is plenty of evidence pointing to Roy being the better handler of his players and their future ambitions than Kryzewski has been.