Confusing losses with real loss

February 13, 2010 12:36 am

The way the Tar Heels are playing would make any coach pull out his hair, but Roy Williams' words stepped over the line.

Roy Williams acknowledged he was out of line to compare his Tar Heels team with earthquake-devastated Haiti.

TO HIS CREDIT, Roy Williams apologized later. But his words Tuesday had to make even the most cynical fan cringe.

With North Carolina muddling through a shockingly poor season, Williams quipped on Tuesday: "Our massage therapist told me, 'You know, coach, what happened in Haiti is a catastrophe. What you're having is a disappointment.'

"I told her that depends on what chair you're sitting in. It does feel like a catastrophe to me, because it's my life."

Williams deserves a break, because he did apologize two days later. He's also one of the most candid coaches in college basketball, one who wears his emotions (good and bad) on his sleeve.

And, frankly, he's never been through anything like this.

Wednesday's loss to Duke dropped the defending national champion Tar Heels to 13-11 and 2-7 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Williams has never lost more than 12 games in a season in his 22-year Hall of Fame career. To make things worse, his best player, Ed Davis, broke a bone in his left wrist Wednesday night and may be out for the season.

Still, to compare a few defeats on the court to the loss of an estimated 230,000 Haitian lives due to last month's earthquake is flippant at best. And Williams should know better.

He knows that he'll get no sympathy outside Tobacco Road. The Tar Heels have been so good for so long that opponents delight when they do hit a rare pothole. Their roster is annually chock-full of high school All-Americans, and they have more size than most NBA teams. Plus, this year's top recruit, Harrison Barnes, is due to arrive in Chapel Hill in the fall.

But that's months away, and this is now. Most experts expected a drop-off after Tyler Hansbrough and three other starters left for the NBA, but no one--least of all Williams--saw this coming.

The Tar Heels have lost seven of their last eight games--five by double digits. Virginia, which had lost 25 of its previous 27 visits to the Smith Center, blew out UNC by 15 on the road.

The Heels' guard play and their defense are atrocious; They're last in the ACC by wide margins in both points allowed (73.5) and turnover margin (-1.62).

Barring a miracle--and without Davis, it will take exactly that--the Heels will miss the NCAA tournament for just the third time in the past 36 years. And Williams will be on the outside looking in for the first time since his rookie season at Kansas, 1988-89.

The Tar Heels aren't alone among traditional powers, though. Arizona (13-11) is in danger of seeing its 25-year streak of NCAA bids end. (UNC holds the record with 27 straight between 1975 and 2001.) UCLA (11-12), Connecticut (14-10) and Louisville (15-9) may join them as spectators.

But none has fallen as far and as spectacularly as the Tar Heels. Even with the losses of Hansbrough and friends, UNC tied Duke in preseason media balloting for first place in the ACC. (Shows what we know.)

And this has to gall the Tar Heel faithful most of all. While their team has faltered, Duke (20-4) is enjoying its best season since winning the 2001 national title.

Williams doesn't need anyone's advice on the court. Off it, though, he'd be best advised to suffer quietly through a blip of a season and be careful about making insensitive remarks, no matter how much he's hurting.

"I said that does put basketball in perspective," Williams said in his statement of apology Thursday. " The people of Haiti are suffering through unimaginably difficult times. I know very well that we are just playing a game."

They're just not playing it very well at the moment.

Steve DeShazo: 540/374-5443
Email: sdeshazo@freelancestar.com