Is it just me, or did Roy Williams look like a totally different person by finally getting the enormous monkey off of his back. By winning Monday night and claiming his first national title, Williams has now forced all of the sports media to change their personas toward the man. With his most recent accomplishment, Williams is viewed obviously in many people’s minds differently than he was before his victory against Illinois in the national championship game. Now, it is up to people and fans of college basketball to place Roy Williams where they believe he best belongs in the history of college basketball.After taking over the North Carolina Tar Heels of last season, Coach Williams has proved that he has got talent in the field of coaching after once claiming that his team was “un-coachable”, and then leading them to the promise land the very next season. Somehow he was able to take a team that had a record of 8-20, and two years later lead them to a national championship. A lot of the reasoning behind North Carolina being crowned national champions was due to the level of talent in which the team was made up of. It was just a matter of time of if and when the Tar Heels would ever recognize the talent in which they possessed. Well, it sure looks like they found it all right.
With all of the hype leading up to the national championship, all that was ever talked about was the two things that both North Carolina and Illinois were made up of individually. North Carolina had the ultimate talent, while Illinois had the ultimate team. It was left up to the fans on which side they were willing to take. Many believed that North Carolina might have had too much talent, and if this was the case, that there was a possibility of the Tar Heels not being able to function well together while on the biggest of stages. Many on the other hand viewed Illinois as a team that could accomplish anything as long as they all five worked together as a unit. Dee Brown, Daren Williams, and Luther Head had lead the team all year to a record of 37-1, yet the trio of guards could not overcome the talent in which North Carolina had. Size was what got Illinois. And what also wound up diminishing their chances to win the national championship was the inability to guard Sean May. No one had ever seen May be so dominant in the paint at such a crucial time in his career. The only players of any magnitude compared to May that the Fighting Illini could throw at May were James Augustine and James Powell. The Reverend Powell ended up being to weak to handle May’s dominance in the paint, while Augustine could manage double digits in total minutes. A team’s starting center only managing to play nine minutes in the national finals will get a team nowhere.
As the Final Four stage was being completed on Easter night when the Austin Regional Final had finally been completed with a Michigan State victory over Kentucky in double overtime, many were only focused on two of the teams remained out of the four. All people cared about seeing was a national championship game against Illinois and North Carolina. The seasons in which Louisville and Michigan State had completed to reach St. Louis had been totally disregarded by millions fans across the nation. Those who showed the slightest bit of interest in Louisville and Michigan State were only those who were personal fans of the teams.
Before entering the national championship, North Carolina had all of the history compared to Illinois. North Carolina had the tournament history with this being North Carolina’s sixteenth final four. North Carolina had all of the great players including Michael Jordan, James Worthy, and Vince Carter. And North Carolina had the numerous championships compared to what Illinois brought coming to St. Louis. The Illini’s coach, Bruce Weber, was in his second year at a major Division A school. Before coming to Illinois, Weber had a total of two tournament wins with his former school Souther Illinois. This was the first Final Four for Illinois since 1989, and its first chance at a chance to play for a national championship.
With North Carolina’s win, the Tar Heels are the champions of college basketball for the first time since the ’93 season, and Dean Smith’s final national championship, which happened to be Roy Williams coaching mentor. The North Carolina family should indulge in the feeling as champions because of the many possible lottery picks which within the teams roster.
The starting roster for the Tar Heels now must make one of the toughest decisions of their entire lives, well maybe not since most of them will be high lottery picks. NBA scouts worship most of the players on the Tar Heel roster. Sean May, Raymond Felton, and Marvin Williams have all been given high praise by scouts, saying that they would be drafted by any of the teams with lottery picks. As for Rashad McCants, many believe that he should stay in school and work on his skills. With the sudden disappearance in the second half of the national title game, many believe that he might not be quite as ready as some of his fellow teammates may be. All six of the Tar Heels who are all being kept a close eye on by NBA scouts, could soon find themselves being dismantled as a team, and all be drawn towards the NBA with the extremely high salaries in which their possible NBA contracts will present all of them.
From his recent victory in the national championship, Roy Williams now is able to not worry about the many questions he would have recieved about him not being able to win the so called “big one”. He is now officially removed from the list of most all time wins in the NCAA tournament without a national championship. Williams has now passed that honor down to Oklahoma State’s coach Eddie Sutton. The challenge for Williams now, will be to see how many players he can convince to stay in Chapel Hill, and try and help him repeat the following year as champions of college basketball.
And as for Illinois, at least you didn’t get screwed over by the BCS.