this article was on aol about NC and Roy ...
Tar Heels' Williams the Wrong Kind of Sure Thing
North Carolina Coach Always Chokes in Tourney
By JIM ARMSTRONG, AOL
There are critics who say Tar Heels Coach Roy Williams does not get the most out of his players.
There's something you need to know about the NCAA Tournament: The best team doesn't always win. Unless, of course, Roy Williams happens to be coaching it. Then it never does.
Talk about your mixed emotions, your daunting dilemmas, your sticky situations. One look at North Carolina's roster and any amateur bracketologist would pick the Tar Heels to win the national championship. Heck, one look at that roster and Stevie Wonder would pick the Heels to win it.
They're big, they're athletic and they can shoot the stars out of the sky. They play in the toughest conference in America and their tradition is so rich, Bill Gates couldn't afford the down payment.
Now for the fine print: Their coach doesn't get the best out of his players when it matters most.
If this were, say, the preseason NIT, Carolina would be the team to beat, no doubt about it, no questions asked. If it were the Maui Classic or the Great Alaska Shootout, Williams would be your man. If it were January or February, there's nobody you would rather have roaming your sideline than Coach Roy.
But it's March, when Williams' teams disappear like pizza at a frat party. If Reggie Jackson was Mr. October, Williams is Mr. November. He'll beat you during the season and on the recruiting trail. But then March rolls around and he's left to find a fresh spin, a timely rationale, a new explanation for why he didn't get the job done.
Fifteen times Williams has taken a team into the tournament, and 15 times he has come away empty handed. Let me guess. You're thinking to yourself, ''If only my stockbroker were that consistent.'' Williams is as predictable as beanballs in a Yankees-Red Sox game. As historic coaches go, he's the backup band and Mike Krzyzewski is the headliner.
It's not like talent has been an issue. Williams can recruit with the best of them. He could sell nukes to Switzerland. He could turn Rush Limbaugh into a card-carrying liberal. But more than anything, he wins. He has the best winning percentage of any coach in college basketball.
Williams is such a good coach for the other 11 months, he considers a No. 2 seed in the tournament a bad year, a No. 3 seed a full-fledged disaster. He has been favored to win the national championship more times than he would care to remember, including 1997, when his Kansas team included NBA lottery picks Raef LaFrentz and Paul Pierce.
So what's the problem? Good question. If Williams had the answer, he would fix it. At this point, a wardrobe malfunction is the most popular explanation out there. When it's time to hit the road to the Final Four, Williams packs the wrong shirts, the ones with the tight collars.
Maybe he'll prove me wrong, but I don't see anything changing this year. Carolina may well reach the Final Four, but don't look for the Tar Heels to win the championship. How will they lose it? Oh, they'll find a way. With Williams, it's always something.
The amazing thing is that, despite his long history of March meltdowns, people continue to believe in Williams. Don't ask me how, but Carolina has emerged as the trendy pick to win this year's tournament. Most of my co-workers are going with the Tar Heels. Even lesser authorities, among them ESPN screameister Dick Vitale and several Las Vegas sports books, have established Carolina as the favorite.
Not me. I'm going with Louisville. Why? It certainly isn't because the Cardinals are the best team. They're a No. 4 seed in a tournament won by Nos. 1 and 2 seeds for 13 of the past 15 years. Not only that, only one team from Louisville's league, Conference USA, has ever reached the Final Four, much less won it all.
So why go with such a longshot? Boredom, for one thing. It's not as much fun to pick Duke or Illinois or some other superpower. Anyone can see those teams will be there at the end. The trick is to pick a surprise team that no one in his or her right mind saw coming.
It's more than that, though. More than anything, it's about Williams, the proud possessor of the best team in the tournament. It's always easier to take a flyer on a longshot when you know the best team isn't going to win.
