Roy Williams was in Charlotte last night on the Tar Heel Tour where he answered questions from fans about the program. A poster at Inside Carolina did a summary of Roy's answers. I will post them as is and you can pick through them.
Question about APR/Scholarships being removed from teams with low grad rates in the NCAA tourney- Roy responded with that some teams are being hit with schollie reductions already.....and that he is proud of Carolina and our 1000 APR. Funny, did not hint at Kentucky, but Butch did later.....
Question about #50.....Talked to Tyler last night, Tyler called him all excited about seeing Roy fist pump at the poet's airball Monday night at the JordanCats game....told Roy he was his hero. Roy explained that Tyler really had a tough time with the vertigo/concussion, even had a really tough time concentrating, knowing where he was during the second half of the season, couldn't practice, etc. Tyler did not dunk that ball at the 100th celebration because he was afraid he was going to fall down. Tyler now has a good report and is expected to be released from his treatment in July and should be ready for the preseason.
Question about the incoming players....Roy broke each one down and raved about Harrison. Said if he doesn't start, I know we will be real good....
Spoke about his offseason meetings with the team....told Big Z he needs to step up and be The Man. Mentioned Z had his biggest growth as a player in hih school between so. and Jr. years and expects the same from him this year. Thinks he is going to have a big season. Asked the Wears individually why they think he recruited them, and they both responded "because we are smart players" Roy told them both that was right, so they need to start playing like smart players. Said Henson broke the 200 barrier yesterday, Roy was at the weigh in and John is 202 lbs now, up from 183 when he got to campus. Told Will he will not play unless he is under 240 and feels Will will be ready and will shoot much better than 36% next year. Also, said Will will be the 5th post player.
Asked about a backup center...Roy talked about the Kanter (sp?) kid that committed to Kentucky. He got a call about him a while back from a connection in Europe telling him the kid was going to decommit from UW. Roy said they were interested but at the time did not have a schollie. In the 8 weeks or so that they heard about the decommit until Ed decided to go pro, it was too late, as UK was all over him. The team we have is the team we have at this point.
edit to add this...asked about Carmichael and possibly playing there again. Said he didn't think we would have won the W&M game in the Dome, loved the atmosphere, etc. Said he has talked to the RC about it, however very tough to get 21K people who pay for tickets into the 7k Carmichael. Doubtful it will ever happen....
The one I would like a major clarification on is whether he told Will Graves he would not "play" or "start" if he did not get his weight under 240. Another poster on the premium side said Roy was talking about Graves losing his starting job over the weight issue, not playing time in general. I am betting on the latter simply because, regardless of his weight, UNC needs experience on the floor. According to Roy, Graves has the highest basketball IQ on the team(well until Harrison Barnes shows up anyway) I cannot imagine Graves not playing at all but not starting seems reasonable. Of course that will lead many of you to ask why Graves would be starting anyway with Barnes coming in. The answer is I think Graves would end up starting at the two though I question whether he can stay in front of an opposing SG if needed.
I would not read much into Roy putting a condition on Barnes starting. He is likely just being non-committal since Barnes is not even on campus yet.
And Roy is correct. Tyler Zeller needs to step it up. If he does and John Henson finds some offense(and three Big Macs per day) then I think we are all going to be very happy with the interior play.