Roy Williams did not reach 900 career coaching victories Wednesday night as North Carolina lost by double digits to sub-.500 Marquette at home in a game that was arranged last weekend. The result brought out second-guessing by fans who see it as damaging to the Tar Heels' case for an NCAA Tournament at-large bid.
Williams was asked in his postgame press conference for his response to the second-guessers. If they caught the reply, especially the end of it, then they probably were left feeling even more frustrated.
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In the interest of context, here's the full exchange:
Q: "What would you say to Carolina fans who are questioning whether or not it made sense to schedule this game, considering the result?"
A: "Well, if I'd known we were going to lose, God almighty, I wouldn't have scheduled the thing. Come on, we can't operate in damn hindsight, God almighty. If you had told me we were going to lose, then hell, yeah, we wouldn't have played the game. If you had told me we were going to beat the Lakers, I'd have scheduled them. Carolina fans, they're not that dumb. If they are, I got no answers for them."
And that was the end of Williams' presser.
Roy Williams with an absolute classic tonight: pic.twitter.com/sxwy1sgH8M
— Mark Armstrong (@MarkPArmstrong) February 25, 2021
The Lakers are having issues at the moment; they were blown out by the Jazz in Utah on Wednesday night and have lost four in a row. But we digress.
The Heels are 14-8 (8-5 ACC) with just three regular-season games remaining before next month's ACC Tournament. Williams wanted his team to play (and win) a late-season game against a high-major program (in this case, a Big East team). It didn't work out.
Now he's getting grief from fans who get to be critical after the fact, considering the result.
