Without Proof, How Can You Call Someone A Liar?

January 17, 2012 2:18 PM

Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images

Reporting Taylor Zarzour

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ACC Basketball, Radio.com - Sports, Sports, Syndicated Sports, Taylor's Blog, The Drive, Uncategorized

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FSU, North Carolina, Roy Williams

Roy Williams is many things. He’s one of the most competitive, sensitive, hilarious, corny people I’ve ever met. But he isn’t a liar. Hell, he’s the opposite of dishonest, even sometimes to a fault. I can think of numerous times when he’s said too much.

In the case of explaining why he left the FSU game early on Saturday he did it again. There was no need to spend an entire segment on his talk show explaining his decision. He simply should have said “I asked that the game end with :14 to go so that my team could get to the locker room safely. I didn’t look back and assumed all of my players, including our players on the floor, were coming with me. I didn’t realize the game continued until I watched the tape. While my intentions were good, it probably wasn’t the best way to handle things. That is all.” Instead he spent nearly ten minutes on his talk show passionately defending his decsion, defending his SID, and going through every detail. Again, he was too honest.

But a liar? If you watch the end of the game and how Roy handled all of this you could question many things. Why was he leaving early? How did he think that would send a good message to his team? How could he possibly think this would go over well with fans and the media?

But to suggest he wanted to leave his scrubs on the floor, while he and his best players left early is inaccurate. He emphatically denied that line of thinking on his show, and he deserves to be believed.

If you have proof of Roy being a liar, then come forward and shout it from the mountain top. But if you watch the end of the game I think you will see otherwise. It is more than fair to question his decision to leave, and North Carolina’s performance. But it is totally unfair to call him a liar.

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Without Proof, How Can You Call Someone A Liar?

UNC fan

jesus what a lame article. did Kirschner write this himself?
soox

terrible article. carolina journalists will do anything to defend roy and unc, even when nothing in roy’s story adds up to what their eyes showed them on the court.
accball2012

There really is no good explanation for the actions of Roy Williams after the FSU game… If he is telling the truth, either he thought HE called the game with 14 sec left (which is not only against NCAA rules but completely egotistical) or he was completely unaware that a chunk of his staff and players was missing from the locker room. Unfortunately, watching the game, he made no move to remove the players on the floor standing beside him. He ONLY motioned to the bench to follow him. If he meant for the players on the floor to follow him, then he’s just not very good at coaching. Articles defending his actions only remind everyone how wrong they were.

Hannah

Nice! The deferred renierdng tutorial has been useful since XNA 2.0. This updated version was greatly needed.

Christopher

So rather than call Roy a liar, you’re arguing that he’s so self-absorbed that he didn’t realize the young men for whom he’s responsible were still on the court.

He was so concerned for “their” safety that he gets up and leaves but doesn’t bother to look over his shoulder to make sure they’re with him. Personally, I think that’s worse than lying to cover his butt. And definitely not the type of man I’d trust to coach my son.
Steven

I have proof. Watch the tape and describe to me where, exactly, Leonard Hamilton showed ANY sign of trying to end the game with 14 seconds left after his conversation with Roy. He didn’t. He stood right beside the UNC walkons, the referee, and the scorer’s table and made NO MOVE whatsoever to speak to any of those people to have the game ended early. He stood there silently and allowed the ball to be inbounded and play to resume without a word. Now explain to me how, if Hamilton had just had a conversation with Roy where he agreed to end the game early, why he made ZERO effort to follow through on that agreement? That’s all the proof you need.

Mark

Ah, Steven. You are so wise, You have explained it all for us. Oh wait, you actually don’t know what you’re talking about. Good try, though. Leonard Hamilton agreed that it would be in the best interest of the Carolina players to leave the court early. He did not agree to end the game early. What would have likely happened is that after the Carolina players left the court, the FSU players would have simply dribbled the ball until time ran out and their rabid fans could storm the court. Your all-caps words for emphasis certainly prove your point, though. Oh wait, they just make you look hysterical. The idea that what happened is such a big deal is [yawn] kind of funny, kind of sad. Who cares that they left early? Does that alter the results of the game or just give a reason for blowhards like you to throw around their all-caps yelling words? “I found the caps lock key – look at me!” Let’s just move on.

Kelly

How was FSU supposed to dribble out the clock? It was UNC’s ball. We’d all like to move on, but its pretty hard when you don’t have any legs to stand on.
Steven

Roy stated, emphatically, that he thought they had agreed to end the game early. That’s what he said. There was no mention of having his players leave the court and let FSU dribble out the clock, which would’ve been difficult given that they didn’t have the ball.

In addition, two of Roy’s walkons were literally standing just a few feet from him at the time this conversation took place. One actually walked up to him, looked him straight in the face, and asked him a question. I don’t know what that question was, but it was probably some variatoin of “What are we supposed to do?” After Roy’s very brief answer (its not clear if he even acknowledged him at all), the walkon turned and walked back onto the court, showing no sign that he thought he was supposed to leave. Roy motioned to his bench, not to the players on the court. He never once motioned to or spoke to the players on the court at all. There was no indication given, by Roy, Hamilton, the referees, or any member of UNC or FSU’s team or staff, at any point, that the plan was to have the UNC walkons leave the court.

Your attempts to twist history to fit Roy’s absurd fabrication are amusing, but it doesn’t change the fact that, apparently, the only person in the entire stadium who knew that Roy intended to get all of his players out of the gym was Roy.
Steven

This is a quote from the original article detailing Kirschner’s attempt at revisionist history:

According to Kirschner, Williams asked Hamilton if he would be offended if the game could be declared over with 14 seconds to play. Williams, according to Kirschner, believed that Hamilton had agreed to end the game early.

“Roy’s intention was to just stop it there, bring the whole team off the court and bring Florida State on to celebrate,” Kirschner said.

Read more here: http://blogs.newsobserver.com/uncnow/unc-coach-roy-williams-didnt-mean-to-leave-walk-ons-stranded-at-florida-state-spokesman-says#storylink=cpy
Mark

“Twist history” “absurd fabrication” – my goodness but someone is getting quite exercised about this. Your powers of observation are quite impressive. I like how you are able to determine exactly what happened by watching it on TV. It’s like you were there!

Seriously, 1. why would he purposely leave the players out there, and 2. why would he then repeatedly lie about it? I guess you think it’s because he was afraid of offending your delicate sensibilities?

Why are we still discussing this? What kind of closure are you seeking? I’ll admit I keep responding to you, so I’m perpetuating the problem, but geez.
Steven

Why would he leave his players out there?
- Because no one has ever ended a game in the way Roy supposedly tried to end it, and everyone on the entire planet generally assumes that, in order for a game to proceed to its end, there should be players from both teams on the court. He left his players out there because it was the only sensible thing to do. And that part was entirely reasonable. It’s what he should have done, and it’s actually what he did.

Why would he repeatedly lie about it?
- Because he asked Kirshner a couple of days later if they were getting killed in the media for the loss, and Kirschner told him that they were actually getting killed more for him leaving his walkons out there. (This is according to one of the Triangle-area radio guys.) He couldnt stand the idea that people were questioning his concern for his players, so he concocted this ridiculous story about thinking they had agreed to end the game early. His entire image is based around around this “aw shucks family guy” facade, and abandoning five walkons on the court damages that image.

Kelly

Hamilton, the FSU team, the FSU bench, the refs, the announcers, UNC’s players and UNC’s bench all acted blithely unaware of Roy’s unprecedented CYA “plan” to end the game 14.8 seconds early.

Roy’s story is that he wanted to forfeit the game, failed to do so, and never realized he failed to do so until the next day. If you believe that one, you should have no trouble whatsoever believing that that ship captain mistakenly tripped onto that lifeboat.

Mark

Again, just move on. My leg is that it doesn’t matter. Here’s another leg – if there were no UNC players to inbound the ball, guess what? A 5-second inbounding violation and FSU is awarded the ball. Where do they come up with all of these crazy rules? Could you really not think of that?

Sean T

Terrible. F

and Saint Roy has never lied? ever? really? that is the line you choose to draw?

I believe that is Delvin Roe on line 2
Scott

Okay – this whole fiasco has certainly gone way too far. I, like Bama Z, believe that Coach Williams was really trying to do the right thing. The reason for leaving early is to prevent his team (including the asst. coaches, managers, and various traveling staff members) out of the immediate area where students were going to rushing the floor. Would it have made it better that UNC left all of their starters on the floor until the final buzzer only to have some jackwagon fan rush the floor and do something stupid and injury one of the opposing players trying to leave floor? Or imagine the backlash if one the opposing players accidentally hurts a fan trying to push his way through the increasing crowds…

I’ve read other posts claiming that at least one manager was knocked to the floor and could have potentially been seriously injured because of the UNLV fans storming the floor. It was just precautionary in nature. Sure, I question the decision to make that move, but the motive behind the move.

Secondly, where are the people crying for the facility (and all facilities for that matter) to protect the home teams as well as the visiting teams and their staffs in the event of a court storming party. It is the responsibility of the home team and arena coordinators to provide a safe environment for both teams, staffs and officials to freely come onto and leave the court area. These fans do not always act in a manner that is safe to the team members or themselves. I laughed watching a FSU fan fall from one of the goals after attempting to climb up on the rim. He hit the floor pretty freakin’ hard right in front of what appeared to be a police officer.

In any event, it was a huge win for FSU and an absolutely embarrassing loss for UNC. FSU even backed it up this week by beating Maryland by double digits. Interesting note: Dulkys went for 6pts in that game after killing UNC with 32.
soox

Scott, you are completely missing the point. If Roy thought that his team was in enough danger to actually warrant forfeiting the game and leaving early, then why did he leave the walk ons in there? clearly, they are expendable.

There was one moment where Roy’s actually engaged in conversation with a walk-on while he is on his way out. What does the walk on do? He turns right around and goes BACK TO FINISH THE GAME. If that isn’t incriminating evidence, then I don’t know what is.

I dare anyone to counter that piece of evidence. Roy is a fraud and a liar.

Mark

For goodness sake, another “I saw it on the TeeVee! I know exactly what was said and what happened ! Watch it and you’ll see Roy is a liar!” C’mon, fella, give it a rest and go pull for your precious Dookies.

Sports

Without Proof, How Can You Call Someone A Liar?

January 17, 2012 2:18 PM

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