Williams ‘really hungry’

By Staff     Oct 17, 2003

AP Photo
North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams answer questions at media day. Williams spoke Thursday in Chapel Hill, N.C.

? Roy Williams doesn’t know his new team like he should because of summer recruiting and time spent as an Olympic assistant.

But North Carolina’s coach now has the pulse of the Tar Heels heading into the first practice this weekend.

“I’m really hungry, but it’s human nature that I can’t be as hungry as those kids are,” the former Kansas University coach said Thursday. “Nobody on our squad has ever played in the NCAA Tournament.

“I’ve got to think they are going to do anything that I ask them to do to see if it’s going to work,” he added. “I want them to pull the nails out of the floor if that’s what I ask them to do.”

After a turbulent three seasons under Matt Doherty, including an Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season championship and a player revolt last season, Williams is a calming influence for one of the nation’s top college programs.

He also returns to Chapel Hill as a former Dean Smith assistant with quite a resume.

North Carolina, which reached the third round of the NIT last season, returns five starters and can go nine or 10 deep.

Most preseason publications list the Tar Heels in the top 10. However, Williams said that may be rushing things a bit.

“I don’t know if it’s realistic or not because I really haven’t watched a single tape from last year until last Saturday because I wanted to start everybody with a clean slate,” he said. “I am looking forward to this Saturday so I can form my own expectations.”

Williams said practice at the Smith Center Saturday will be quite a bit different than when he took over the Kansas program 15 years ago as an unknown commodity.

“Let’s be honest, my first year at Kansas I brought nothing,” Williams said. “They didn’t quite know what my JV record was.”

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