Roy Williams has been coaching college basketball for a long time, but it isn’t often that North Carolina gets run out of a building like Michigan did to them on Wednesday night by a score of 84-67.
Williams was escorted into the Michigan media room first after the game and pulled no punches on what he thought of his, and his team’s, showing on national television in this game.
“The job that the head coach is doing right now, we stink,” Williams said. “We work screens on ball every day in practice. Three plays in a row they set a screen in the middle of court for a dunk or a layup. I have no positive things, if you want to find some positive things you better go out and find somebody on the streets. I’ve got no positives from this.
”I’ve been coaching for 31 years. Right now my coaching sucks.”
Roy Williams says “he feels like he’s done the worst job with this team in his 31 years as a head coach.” Congratulates Michigan on a huge win and great atmosphere. Says he’s the most frustrated he’s ever been. pic.twitter.com/xgHdDDOvB6
— Anthony Broome (@anthonytbroome) November 29, 2018
Michigan head coach John Beilein, on the other hand, was elated at how his team played and looked every bit a man trying to stay grounded when he took the podium. He reacted to Williams’ statement by taking it as praise.
“That’s one of the biggest compliments I’ve ever had,” Beilein responded. “It’s not like we’re trying to frustrate you, we’re trying to keep people from scoring baskets. They run some great stuff and they’ve got some young players in there playing now, too. We’re young but we don’t have freshmen out there too much. Just one really good one. That’s quite a compliment because I think they, traditionally, have one of the best offenses anywhere.”
Still, Williams was a bitter and frustrated man in the aftermath of its blowout loss. Michigan is making a habit out of giving blue blood programs their worst and most frustrating nights this season.
“They played a heck of a lot better than we did and they coached a heck of a lot better than we did,” Williams said. “It’s very frustrating right now. As a coach I feel like I’ve done the worst job in my 31 years as a head coach. Give Michigan credit, they got tougher. They make the tougher plays.”
Next up for Michigan hoops is the Big Ten conference opener against Purdue on Saturday afternoon in Ann Arbor. Tipoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET from Crisler Center.