By Caulton Tudor
Raleigh News & Observer
It’s pretty obvious what caused coach Roy Williams to chase that fan out of the Smith Center during North Carolina’s basketball victory over Presbyterian on Saturday.
Ol’ Roy was just plain ol’ bored.
That’s what happens when you come down from back-to-back games against Michigan State and Kentucky to play against a team called the Blue Hose.
Don’t forget Williams is hyper competitive. Hey, that’s what happens to a guy who hangs around Dean Smith all those years.
Plus, having to wear that stupid sling on his left arm probably has Williams more frustrated than a politician with strep throat.
That arm sling is why the Tar Heels lost at Kentucky, by the way. Under normal circumstances, with a full range of arm motion, we all know Roy could whip John Calipari’s you-know-what. But it’s not exactly normal circumstances when Calipari has John Wall and Williams is coming off surgery to repair a torn labrum (whatever that is).
Williams needed both arms, a healthy back and one of his fanciest neckties that day at Kentucky. An open-collared coach with only one good arm hasn’t a prayer to upstage a man with Calipari’s mobility and wardrobe depth.
And by the way, don’t buy for one minute the explanation that Williams tore his labrum during a charity golf tournament. I have it on good authority that it actually happened during an arm-wrestling match against Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, who claims to own Williams lock, stock and shoulder blade.
By the time Roy got to the gym Saturday, he was fed up with everything.
What with his arm all tied up, Wall playing like another Carmelo Anthony, Tiger Woods (Williams’ favorite golfer) No. 1 on TV scandal maven Nancy Grace’s hit list and then Marcus Ginyard unexpectedly pulling up lame as the result of a mystery ailment the world’s best medical minds could not diagnose, Williams was looking to rumble.
The problem was, Presbyterian was not good rumble material. The game was over the second the contract to play the game was signed. With little better to keep him occupied, Roy checked out the audience and found some poor soul on which to take out his boredom and frustration.
It wasn’t a smart idea to get the bloke booted, of course. When Carolina goes to Duke, you can go ahead and make book that Mike Krzyzewski will have Deon Thompson removed from Cameron Indoor Stadium for sassing the Crazies during pre-game drills. Don’t laugh. It happened to former N.C. State coach Les Robinson’s son-in-law a few years back.
By now, Roy probably regrets doing it ó and particularly during a slow week for sports news around these parts. I wouldn’t be surprised if he hasn’t tracked down the evictee and shipped him a dozen Titleists and an autographed copy of “Hard Work.”
Hey, maybe the title of Roy’s next book could be “Hard Words.”