ROY WILLIAMS

Been a tough week. Been a tough last year and a half. Last year with Leslie and P.J. and their problems, NCAA and then all of a sudden this stuff. The last 16-17 months havent been very pleasant.

Some of you were here when Dean Smith coached and off-the-court stuff ran him off. Thats not anything like what were doing now. The media he didnt really enjoy. The recruiting, the alums, all the stuff. He loved coaching. In fact, he made me promise I wouldnt quit at 66 because he quit at 66 and felt like that was too early.

The last 16 months if this had been my first 16 months, I would be mowing the grass on the greens at the golf course. Thats what Id be doing.

Human nature is you feel that (everything is crashing down on you) and its like golly gum, what else is gonna happen next but at the same time, weve made some mistakes. PJ made some mistakes. I never shied away from that. And then at the end, the mistakes he made with the NCAA, I told him Ive gone to the cliff with you but Im about to be pushed over the edge and I cant do that.

This year its a different kind of thing because now the bad things, the things that Im extremely sad about goes to the core of our university. Im graduate. My wife is a graduate. Even more importantly, I sent my son and my daughter there because I thought its a great place. I would still send them there. Im extremely confident that its going to eventually be the University of North Carolina again, but right now people dont think the things that I think. I cant control what everybody thinks of what went on or thinks of me. This has not been a very good time, but I dont just assign oh well, we cant catch a break because we did make some mistakes.

If I look back on it of course you can say maybe I shouldve done this or done that but if you ask me did I make a mistake in this, Id say no. If I had to go back and live it over again knowing what I know, darn right.

I thought independent study was not a negative thing. Its just that I felt like my players would be better in a structured situation where I could go and look in and make sure they were in class. Its not that I was trying to hide them from something negative. I never took an independent study course in college, so it wasnt that I was trying to hide them from anything. The stuff about the af-am we had nine or 10 players who were majoring in the same thing wasnt ordinary.

You guys get the chance to believe what you want to believe.

Lets not push the players to anything and lets not prevent them from studying anything. That was my idea right there. Lets allow them to choose what they want so after my second year, we had one guy who wanted to major in af-am, so guess what I let him do? I didnt know there was anything wrong with that. The rest of the guys wanted to major in something else, so guess what I let them do: major in something else. I thought thats what I was supposed to do.

Should I have done something? Ill stand up in front of anybody the president of the United States, the Pope, and Im not even Catholic Ive never chosen a course. Ive never been asked to choose a course. I dont have the knowledge or experience necessary to choose a course. Ive never asked or been asked about how to teach a class. Ive never had a professor come down to the Smith Center and tell me how to conduct a practice.

A basketball coach, in my opinion, is supposed to emphasize academics, make sure that the players have the correct time to work on their academics. Thats what a basketball coach is supposed to do. Were supposed to emphasize that we want you to get an education, not just grades. We want to emphasize that we want you to get a degree, not just stay eligible. Ive been very fortunate. Ive never had a player ineligible. Weve never talked about eligibility. Weve talked about gaining a degree, being productive in society. You can say Im too short, too ugly, too much gray hair, bad golf swing, but theres not one frickin person in the world that can say that Ive never emphasized the academic side of it. And if they say that, then theyre lying or whatever they want to do.

I didnt see the smoke! I was nave. Its my university. Its the University of North Carolina. I went to school there. I worked to get my degree. I went to every class. I took a course pass/fail one time. Dumbest thing I ever did. I got a B+ in the daggum class. I made a 3.6 one semester at North Carolina. I sent my children there. Do you think Id want to send my children to a place where they do silly things? I didnt know. I dont think I was supposed to know. Arts and Sciences up on campus controlled the academic part of our university. Not Roy Williams.

I do get emotional about it. My gosh. Im not a guy that just goes to a program and stays a couple years and then leaves when he sees he can get a better shoe contract. Its my place. Id fight somebody thats my school. You can accuse me of being nave, but truthfully, I dont think you can go further than that. Thats my opinion. Theyre like noses. Everyones got one.

(Are you fearful of the NCAA taking away championships?) Im fearful of being able to walk out of this room without being able to get hit by a car. I cant let that dominate my life either. Ive seen NCAA decisions that I scratch my head about in one direction and scratch my head about in another direction. I have never, until this past summer, met in front of an infractions committee. Its the first time ever in my entire life. I have no idea whats gonna happen. I have no idea what timetable. I know what I can do. And what I can do is go to practice tomorrow and try to coach like crazy and try to give my kids guidance and let my kids know I care about them. Thats what I can do.

Last year we had a lot of junk and the kids did band together, but it was more internal. We were more involved. To me, now were external. Were involved because its our university. Were involved because basketball is mentioned, but were not involved like we were last year with this is the guy that I roomed with, this is my guy that I dove on the floor and banged heads with or something like that. But I was so proud of last years team the way they handled the adversity. I met with my team last Thursday and said you guys have any questions about any of this stuff? I dont know if I have answers, but Ill give you my opinion.

The kids youthful exuberance, they can handle stuff better than adults. Am I expecting a slow start? No. If it happens, Ill say I didnt expect it but its here. I dont go in looking for something negative.

(Whether guys on the team are ignoring it because it doesnt affect them) I havent read all 132 pages with a fine-toothed magnifying glass or anything like that but Im not even sure these guys were in the sixth grade when basketball had any involvement in this. Somebody said nothings gone on since 2011 and I think it was even much earlier for basketball. I read enough to know that I was very disappointed and sad, like I said earlier, but perhaps thats the way theyre approaching it because theyre not involved. They were not involved. Weve seen sometimes that people are penalized who are not involved. For me as a head coach, leader or adult, supposedly mature one, I guess Ive gotta think about that. I think they categorize it into moving on.

We lose an NCAA tournament game, it sticks with the coaches forever and the players, by the time they get back on campus, theyre wondering what theyre gonna go eat that night. I dont wanna eat for a month, but young people have a way of (compartmentalizing).

My ethics are Im as proud of my ethics as I can possibly be. Im not going to do anything like this. If they fire me, its gonna be because I didnt win games. Its not going to be because I, for sure, knowingly, did something unethically. I dont move my ball on the green when nobodys watching. I had a guy one time say you can bet Roy Williams on a golf course and you play Tuesday and let him play on Thursday and youll get the fair shake. Thats as nice a thing as anybody could ever say. So no, I dont worry one second about my ethics and what can be done there. The NCAA, Ive never knowingly done anything that would even violate tenets of the rules. I drive 70 miles an hour in a 60 mile-an-hour zone. I have no problem saying that. If its 70, I drive 79 or 80. But Im not involving young people where Im supposed to be somewhat of an example.

I gotta say, I wish I could even think about it right now, but my minds been a little frayed you better be proud of who you are, because youre the only guy that you live with. You can accuse me of everything. But thats not everything.

Im not even sure when Wayne even knew. That report, those people did an amazing job with all the time commitments and people and emails but I use this as an example:

There was supposedly some meeting that I had, it was reported in there that I had a meeting with a group of academic people and tutors and I told them their job was to keep my team eligible. Didnt happen. Did not happen. And we cannot find out where it was ever said. At the bottom of the report they disclaimed that they couldnt confirm that report because they couldnt find that person. Ive got two guys that have been trying to find that statement that was supposedly made. We cant even find that statement. Wayne Walden you can take a paragraph or a sentence out of this daggum monologue that Im giving and just take that out and it may sound a lot different than the whole monologue.

Wayne Walden is one of the most ethical people Ive ever known in my whole life. Still, I say that today. You dont find any emails between me and Walden. That doesnt prove that Im innocent. Its just I dont fricken email. You cant find any emails between me and Debbie Crowder. That doesnt mean Im innocent. I dont email. Again, I havent seen those emails, dont have any idea exactly if theres one that stands out more than the other. Theres a difference between somebody thinking and somebody knowing and theres a difference between becoming aware in 2004 or becoming aware in 2008 that something had happened three or four years before. Its such a complicated investigation. Thats what I feel for Ken Wainstein and their group, because it was so complicated.

(Do you have issues with what was said in the report from a context standpoint?) It was silly. Do you guys write everything exactly right? No, you make a mistake every now and then but that didnt mean you did anything intentionally. I think, to me, thats the most important part there. If the report and this has been told to me, which means the same thing as a report, I guess that 11 of my players were at the press conference, it wasnt. There were seven. Report said they talked to seven. It wasnt. They talked to 10. There was a meeting that I supposedly had. Didnt happen, and in the report, if you look down below, it just sort of disclaims it a little bit. But that was in the report, so if a person just reads that report about Roy Williams saying your job is to keep my players eligible somebodys gonna believe that. And in the report, they didnt verify it. And again, Ive got people trying to find that statement that cant find that statement.

Now if you want to paint a broad brush, do I disagree with the report, no, Im not saying that. We had some embarrassing things that went on. We had some things that I am not proud of. We had some things that Im hurt by. I cant describe it more than saying its terrible. And again, some of you have kids its not that I went to school there. I send my daggum kids there. Im extremely proud of the place and Id like to be part of the feeling again when we get that feeling back. So please dont thats not what I was saying, okay? I had one night a guy said that a guy got one rebound. He got three. I think the report was so exhaustive, so comprehensive, so complicated, if Id agreed with everything they said if anybody agreed with everything theyd said I think it wouldve been monumental. So please dont take that, thats not what Im saying. I honestly feel if you portrayed me as saying that report was wrong, then I think that youre not being fair.

(You got emotional when talking about your kids, your ethics. How has this affected you personally?) (Long pause) Its only affected me in the way that the things that they have to deal with, because they know me. My friends know me. My high school coach knows me. Coach Smith knows me. So the people that really mean something to me, Im not worried their thoughts about me. Im worried about what they have to listen to other people saying. And thats corny, Jesus Christ.