[uncafan]

I'm not condoning what they guy did, and at the time no way did Roy know if the guy had moved seats or not.

just to be clear here...King is 100% correct. "Pass-list" tickets are always in the same spot for both home and away teams...and if your on a pass-list it obviously means you are a guest of either a player, coach, or someone that is in the traveling party of the visiting team.

Especially in a game like this it would be VERY obvious to Roy and others that this guy switched seats or just appeared half-way through the game. I wasn't there -- so I don't want to comment on whether or not he should've been removed for comments etc. Roy proly over-reacted, but this guy likely had no business being in those seats.

I don't mean this in a "name-dropping" way but I have been fortunate to have been a guest of high ranking athletic department people for several ACC football games and other athletic events and when I was it was always made clear to me that it was not acceptable to wear colors or cheer for the opposing team. Not that my hosts cared at all, but the concern was that fans and donors might see my hosts sitting with me and take issue, or that it would come up in local media etc.

Obviously its different with the pass list because its often friends of players etc....but this isn't as off the wall as it might seem, and I'm sure there are things not being reported about this guys actions.

[pcguy09]

if thats the case, and from what you say then it probably is, then i stand corrected. And there are numerous PC grads who have connections with UNC, so he might have had pass-list seats, but who knows. and when i say numerous, i mean that in a way that correlates with our living alumni base which is about 8-14K.

[blwall1416]

Roy DID NOT ask for the guy to be removed. He knew the guy was in the family & friends section of the Smith Center. Roy asked him to shut up, since he was in that section. The kid then stood there looking at Roy with his arms out. Roy looked at security & asked security to see if that guy had a ticket for that seat because he wanted to know who gave him the ticket to a seat behind the Carolina bench. (Roy has addressed this earlier in the year, when 6 of his friends asked for tix to the MSU game. He told them no, since they didn't ask for tix to the smaller games.)

When security approached & asked to see his ticket the guy yelled "no" & would not cooperate with security. It then became obvious he was drunk. Several other fans then noted they had seen him wandering around the Smith Center yelling & being obnoxious.

He was removed because 1.) he was drunk 2.) he was somewhere he was not supposed to be 3.) he would not cooperate with security.

[olldflame]

Roy DID NOT ask for the guy to be removed. He knew the guy was in the family & friends section of the Smith Center. Roy asked him to shut up, since he was in that section. The kid then stood there looking at Roy with his arms out. Roy looked at security & asked security to see if that guy had a ticket for that seat because he wanted to know who gave him the ticket to a seat behind the Carolina bench. (Roy has addressed this earlier in the year, when 6 of his friends asked for tix to the MSU game. He told them no, since they didn't ask for tix to the smaller games.)

When security approached & asked to see his ticket the guy yelled "no" & would not cooperate with security. It then became obvious he was drunk. Several other fans then noted they had seen him wandering around the Smith Center yelling & being obnoxious.

He was removed because 1.) he was drunk 2.) he was somewhere he was not supposed to be 3.) he would not cooperate with security.

Thanks for what certainly sounds like a credible and detailed account.
If Williams had said something to that effect to the media, I doubt there would have been much if any protest. Instead, he chose to talk about "our game. our ticket, nobody can say anything negative about our players." It comes off as very petty and controlling, and is at best really bad PR.

[LUconn]

So during a game, admittedly in-hand, Roy is playing private investigator to find out how a heckler got into the Carolina section instead of coaching his team. And his explanation is "I don't think anybody should yell anything negative at our players." Are there more things we should add like he was drunk from alcohol he made from the blood of kittens and Roy loves kittens?

[blwall1416]

So during a game, admittedly in-hand, Roy is playing private investigator to find out how a heckler got into the Carolina section instead of coaching his team. And his explanation is "I don't think anybody should yell anything negative at our players."

You have to understand the back story to know why Roy was so miffed. I explained part of it. It has to do with Carolina fans not showing up to the games of lesser opponents. He has heard Carolina fans yell at his players. He has heard the crowd boo the Rams Club commercial that features TJ Yates, played during home basketball games. His concern was that he wanted to know who gave their friends/family ticket to a fan of the opposing team. That's all he wanted to know.

Roy, like Coach Smith, is very much against booing an opponent. I was at the OSU/UNC game in 2006 when UNC knocked off #1 OSU. During a timeout near the end, a group of UNC STUDENTS started the "overrated" chant. Roy ran out of the UNC huddle & had the PA guy announce to stop the chant...."We don't do that here at Carolina." I adhere to the same philosophy. I don't boo any of Liberty's opponents.....heck, I don't even boo dook.

If people want to hate on Roy, that's fine...knock yourselves out....just know exactly why you're hating on him....not just rehashing half-truths thrown out by the media.

[horrez]

His concern was that he wanted to know who gave their friends/family ticket to a fan of the opposing team. That's all he wanted to know.

Really? Isn't there a better way to find that out (other than shouting at the guy from the bench)? Maybe there isn't, but I would have to think there is. And why not tell the media, "I just wanted to know who gave a ticket to a fan from the other team"? Maybe he did say that and the media twisted it to this: "I don't think anybody should yell anything negative at our players. Period. Let's don't make it a bigger thing than it is. But I just don't think anybody should yell negative things toward our players (when) you come in on our tickets to watch our game." I mean, you never know with these media types.

For what it's worth, I wouldn't be happy either if I was Roy and people were giving tickets to opposing fans. At the same time, I would realize that we are playing PC and I should just be happy people are still around with 6 minutes left in the game. And if the guy was drunk, why wasn't he removed before the last part of the second half? (Or do they sell beer there? If they sell beer there, disregard that last question). And to be fair to the guy, it has been reported he yelled "don't miss it", which to me sounds like encouragement... not a taunt.

[blwall1416]

I think this was a great setup by Tiger's PR team to take the focus off him.

[ALUmnus]

I think this was a great setup by Tiger's PR team to take the focus off him.

Yeah, if everyone else's world revolved around carolina basketball.

[pcguy09]

also, before i post this, A) he was where he was supposed to be, his elementary school friends gave him a ticket down there. B) he wasn't drunk.

his take.. http://www.wralsportsfan.com/unc/story/6611583/

[01LUGrad]

I have this funny feeling the kids at Cameron Indoor already have some pretty good stuff up their sleeves for the the UNC game because of this. Shoot, I can think of some good stuff, and I'm not anywhere near as crazy as those kids.

[bigsmooth]

an excellent coach like ol' roy should not be paying attention to what fans are saying. coach your team already! for the carolina fans defending him do you not agree?? why in the world would you let any fan get under your skin? im sure he tells his players to block out the fans....well roy you need to do the same.

[SuperJon]

I like how a guy on the Coastal board put it: if you're invited to dinner at my house, and then proceed to insult me and my family and the dinner that's been provided for you, I'm going to ask you to leave. That's what happened here.

Not, the fact remains that Roy shouldn't have had to do this. That's the responsibility of the ushers. They didn't do their job.

[pcguy09]

i agree with you super, but if all the guy said was miss it deon, then thats not insulting. no one else has quoted the man on saying anything else, just "hey miss it". And i'm sure his buddies gave him a ticket to get passed the ushers, so if he had a ticket then what else could they do?

[pbow]

Please stop taking up for what Roy did...there is absolutely no excuse that a college coach, especially one of Roy's caliber, should be paying attention to someone that yells when one of his players shoots a free throw. And then proceed to have the person thrown out.

The dinner example is very poor in my opinion. It's not even a comparable situation...basketball is a competitive event which a lot of times involve two teams who have no relationship between each other, just like the fans in the stands have no relationships between the teams and coaches...a dinner party at your house is most definitely not a competitive event, and it is most likely shared with friends. The coach shouldn't have thrown the guy out, the ushers were doing there job, they were actually letting the fans in the stand do what fans do. Hopefully UNC fans will be thrown out by the handful this year whenever they travel to support there team.

[bigsmooth]

jon, please the issue is why ol' roy is paying attention to a fan instead of coaching. at least agree that he should be coaching his team. i have no problem with the fact that the guy was removed the section, but cmon he is an awesome coach who made a bonehead move and drew attention to himself. this could have been quietly taken care and no one would have ever known about it.

[01LUGrad]

I like how a guy on the Coastal board put it: if you're invited to dinner at my house, and then proceed to insult me and my family and the dinner that's been provided for you, I'm going to ask you to leave. That's what happened here.

Sorry, dude. That's not what happened. It is never okay to insult your dinner host. That's true. A basketball game is not dinner at your house, though. It is, well, a basketball game. I'd go out on a limb and say different rules apply in these situations.

I was at a middle school game last night at our school. A kid in the stands from the other school yelled while one of our guys was at the line. Our coach (along with most of the people in the stands) laughed at the kid. By the way, the guy on our team made the shot to put us up by 23.

No one cared at a middle school game. I guess you get more sensitive when 15,000 people are in the stands instead of 150.

[Innocent Bystander]

To quote Homer Simpson...

"This ticket doesn't just give me a seat, it gives me the right, NO, the DUTY! to make a complete *** of myself."

[blwall1416]

"Coach Williams asked security to go find out if the guy was supposed to be sitting there, because where the guy was sitting is very close -- it's right across, the aisle, I think -- from where Coach Williams' seats are," Kirschner said. " ... When he has seats that he gives himself, personally, or from the basketball office, he wants to make sure those are Carolina people sitting in those seats. So when he turned around and he's looking up there and people are pointing the guy out, he thought those were seats he had given out. So he asked the security guy behind the bench.

"He did not tell the security guy to go get the guy and throw him out."

Randy Young, spokesman for UNC's department of public safety, said that King initially ignored police officers when they approached him.

"Then he began a conversation with them, and he was still not cooperative," Young said. "When he finally made his way across the aisles, they tried to engage him in conversation. He was still relatively uncooperative. At that point it was in the officers' opinion that he had been drinking. At which point they made the decision that it would be better for himself and others that he was escorted from the building. He was not arrested, no charges were pressed, no trespass orders were issued. That was it. He was simply escorted from the building."

Again, Roy did not have him thrown out. He wanted to know how the guy ended up in the elite seats. If you want to knock Roy for getting into it with a fan, that's fine...I'll even agree. But, to say Roy had him thrown out is not true.

This is nothing new. It happens all over the country. My friend from high school worked as an usher in the RBC in Raleigh. During a Wake/State game, two Wake fans, wearing Wake t-shirts, were moved from the second row behind the State bench to behind the Wake bench. They said nothing. It was just that State didn't want opposing fans right behind their bench. No big deal.

In 2006, dook stopped Robertson scholars, a joint merit program between UNC & dook, from tenting to get tickets for the Carolina/dook game at Cameron....even though it was technically, "their right". Again, no big deal.

[ALUmnus]

Oh boy, here we go with the "it happens all the time" garbage. Sounds like a majority of the spin is coming from the carolina side, trying to cover for something really amateurish. This is about someone who apparently thinks he owns the world of college basketball and all that happens in it. If you can't handle a heckler, maybe you should take up figure skating, Roy.

[blwall1416]

Oh boy, here we go with the "it happens all the time" garbage.

You can call it garbage.....doesn't change the fact that it does happen.

[SuperJon]

jon, please the issue is why ol' roy is paying attention to a fan instead of coaching. at least agree that he should be coaching his team. i have no problem with the fact that the guy was removed the section, but cmon he is an awesome coach who made a bonehead move and drew attention to himself. this could have been quietly taken care and no one would have ever known about it.

I said that Roy shouldn't have done that. Event staff should've taken care of it. I'm perfectly fine with the person getting removed from the building but it's not something Roy should've done. That's what ushers and event staff are for.

[blwall1416]

Even Roy says he wishes he wouldn't have gotten involved with it.

During his weekly radio show Monday night, Williams said he has been sensitive to fan taunts since the Tar Heels played Ohio State at Madison Square Garden last month, when a couple of fans spent most of the game heckling the Tar Heels. He said he was just trying to look out for his players and their parents by yelling back at King.

"I hate that it happened," Williams said, according to the newspaper's Web site. "I wish I hadn't gotten involved with it. But don't be sitting behind our bench yelling at our players in my building. That's the way I feel about. And if I'm wrong, then that's good. But I ain't apologizing."

[ALUmnus]

Yes, that's good that he's wrong.

[JK37]

someone who apparently thinks he owns the world of college basketball and all that happens in it.

If this attitude among coaches of any sport comes as a shock to you, you're very naïve.

See: Leavitt at USF and what he told a player recently.