NCAA final more than just the end of a season

UNC’s Williams can’t escape retirement talk, as seniors ready to exit in blaze of glory

HOUSTON— Everywhere you look on the expansive grounds of the NRG Center, the slogan of the NCAA Final Four is there, equal parts promotional and a grim reminder of what awaits on Monday.

It is draped across chain-link fences, affixed to street lights, even on the styrofoam coffee cups that pile up in the garbage cans of the media work centre. The message is inescapable: the road ends here.

No one, it seems, is more in tune with the message than Roy Williams, who will lead his North Carolina Tar Heels into championship Monday against coach Jay Wright and the Villanova Wildcats.

The 65-year-old Williams, the Tar Heels head coach over the past 13 years, grew tired on Saturday of questions about retirement. He told reporters not to ask him “that stupid question.”

That led to a pointed question in his Sunday press conference, asking him what gave him the right to dictate what’s asked of him.

Williams danced his way through it and, more than a good 30 minutes, shed light on his mindset with the potential for his third national championship — and maybe the end of his coaching road — looming.

“There’s a guy to my left down there, Marcus Paige,” Williams said, pointing at his senior guard.

“(He said) ‘We’ve been here and never even won a ring.’ That statement was made in the pre-season. That became a motivation for me.”

The Tar Heels got a ring when they won the ACC tournament this year, but they’re a win away from bringing UNC its first national championship in seven years.

If Williams wins his third title as a coach, he would join an elite group of the game’s best tacticians, like John Wooden, Mike Krzyzewski, Adolph Rupp, Bobby Knight and Jim Calhoun. He’d also pass his Tar Heels predecessor, Dean Smith, who won two in his 36 years at the helm.

Williams was an open book on Sunday, talking at one point about being old enough to not worry about pleasing people anymore.

Tar Heels sophomore Theo Pinson, who has now made it a tradition to interrupt the press conference to get laughs out of the media and his teammates, might be in the same boat.

The young players might not have the same complete understanding of the finality of the Final Four, but there’s an awareness, especially on Villanova’s side.

Led by seniors Ryan Arcidiacono and Daniel Ochefu, and junior Josh Hart, they know on some level what Monday represents.

“Our final game is inevitable, it’s on Monday, we all know that,” Ochefu said.

“This is what you always want your last game to be,” Arcidiacono added. “I think for myself and I can speak for the walk-ons also, no matter what happens in this game, we really just want to go down playing basketball the way we’ve learned to love and grow and play these last three or four years.”

The college season started as a free-for-all of sorts, with no clear-cut favourite to win the championship. North Carolina, a No. 1 seed, and Villanova, a No. 2, are here now, each coming off dominant wins. Villanova pounded Oklahoma by 44 points on Friday, while UNC beat Syracuse by 17.

The road ends here in front of 76,000-plus fans on Monday.

“For me, it would be a dream,” Williams said, “a goal that we set at the start of the season, that we had a chance to be the best team. Now we’re one of only two teams that still has a chance. So that’s really important.”

“This is going to be a hell of a game,” Wright promised. “This is going to be a good game.”