Let me start this by saying I am fan of UNC basketball as well as a big fan of Roy Williams. Even though I am a fan, I am not fanish enough to allow the actions of Roy Williams Saturday night go unnoticed. Saturday night the Heels played Presbyterian and beat them handily, 103-64. Unfortunately towards the end of the game Deon Thompson was fouled and went to the line. While there, a fan of the Blue Hose (I’m not even going to try to figure out what that is) decided to taunt Thompson by uttering the words “Hey Deon, don’t miss it”.
Anyone who has ever been to any sporting event knows that taunting goes with the territory and, as long as you stay civil, is usually shrugged off or laughed at. Someone, however, must have pissed in Roy’s coffee Saturday morning because he did not take this taunting lightly. He traded words with the Presbyterian fan and summoned security to remove the fan from the Dean Dome. This was a little much and reports from everyone around the kid who got tossed all say that he never got personal or rude. Nevertheless, Roy had the kid, who might have been McLovin’s stunt double, escorted out by not one, but three security guards.
What I figure happened was Roy turned to make a comment to the kid (first mistake) and the kid challenged him by talking back. Once this happened Roy had to establish dominance and not be shown up on his own floor by an opposing fan, thus resulting in the removal. Roy is a man who has coached games against Duke at Cameron Indoor. This is a place where the students are literally on top of you and your bench. I can say with all the confidence in the world that Roy Williams has heard worse words at a Duke/UNC game than people have heard at a truck stop bar. At his post game press conference, Roy dodged the question by first responding by saying “Someone offered me free ice cream after the game and I was seeing where to go”. He then said he thought it was wrong and no one should taunt his players, but would not go into detail about what the kid said.
Now we get to see the backlash of all of this. I am sure Duke fans are foaming at the mouth with the chance to taunt Roy and his players now. They know Roy will be reluctant to send security over because he knows all eyes are on him. My advice to Roy would be this: Unless the fan uses profanity or hurls objects at you and your players, it might be best to block out the background noise and focus on the game at hand, which now, unfortunately, is going to be harder than it ever has been.
