I think that head coach Roy Williams winning Coach of the Year honors really does not tell the story unless you follow the Tar Heels closely. Last year, with the team not doing anything a lot of people thought that coach Williams wasn’t able to get a hold of the team. This year, with a very young team, with all the defections, you have to admit that Roy Williams clearly had control of the team, and guided it through the early season problems and all the way up to being the ACC Regular Season Champions. One could argue that he went from the worst season since he took the reins at Chapel Hill to the best! From losing 17 games in one season, below .500 in the ACC, to 20 and 3 after starting 4-3, and 14 and 2 in the conference. This one year turnaround gave coach Williams’s program the honor of being the first one to ever go from below .500 one season to winning the regular season outright the next.
I might be asking too much, but I would like to know the following: how did 23 people vote for someone else as Coach of the Year, and more specifically, how did coach Mike Krzyzewski get three votes? I guess the sarcastic answer I would give is “if Kyle Singler can be first team All-ACC then his coach could be the coach of the year”, but I am not going to go there today, because just like I was pretty mad about the Heels not having anyone on the first squad, I have to be happy that three out of the four awards given out went to UNC.
Harrison Barnes, with 64 votes (out of 74), took home Freshman of the Year, with team mate Kendall Marshall (7) coming in second in the voting. And while it is great that Barnes won it, which makes the t-shirt I bought Barnes on Fire even more special, the fact that Marshall’s play was so evident that he came in second. This is neither the time or place for this discussion, but one can only dream that Barnes and John Henson (49 out of 75), who took home the Defensive Player of the Year, come back next season along with all the player that are on this squad (minus Justin Knox and adding the new class).
Of course you have to wonder how the media gave so much props to this squad but could not see themselves putting any of them on the first team. On the other hand it could be looked at in another way, that this team is truly what a team means, working for one another, with several people being able to lead, and doing so when needed. Which ever way you want to look at it I am just happy to know that some honors have been given to this team that has gone through many bumps in the road both on and off the field. Just for the record, Duke’s Nolan Smith was named Player of the Year, receiving 73 votes, with his team mate Kyle Singler (1) coming in second place along side Jordan Williams of Maryland (1).
Original Story:
http://www.the5thcorner.com/coach-wil...
