Spot on, Coach: You Are NOT The Right Man For The Job

On 2021 April Fool’s Day the sports world received breaking news. Roy Williams, the head men’s basketball coach of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, publicly announced his retirement from arguably the most coveted coaching job in the United States. Coach Roy, as he is fondly known within Tar Heel nation, spent 18 years as the leader of a Blue Blood powerhouse, winning three NCAA national titles and winning 77% of his games in his overall career. Clearly, his records are nothing for fools to sneeze at and yet, he broke from his very predictable coaching life to be rather unpredictable and step away from it all. Considering the state of big-time college basketball, I agree that Coach is not the right man for the job.

I am certainly not the first or the loudest academic, analyst or fan to question the demands and complexity of NCAA Division I men’s college basketball. Here’s my take on why Williams is spot on with his decision. Coach Roy is not the right man for the job if it means the following:

1. Catering to the mighty media dollar. Due to the commercialization of NCAA Division I Power Five conference scheduling, teams can be scheduled to start the jump ball at 9:00 p.m. EST, which means going to bed after midnight. Late night travel and meals can lend itself to an unhealthy lifestyle. Many argue that the game is no longer controlled by coaches but by the media partners who want to showcase their product to as many watchers and listeners as possible. Thus, the schedule doesn’t often…