The Crying Game

You know it's March each year when the weather gets a little warmer, kids are on Spring Break and Roy Williams is crying at a press conference. Every year (except when he won in 2004 he didn't cry - strange) the same thing from "Ol Roy."

As a Kansas alum (full disclosure here), I'm a fan of what he has been able to accomplish as a coach. I hate the way he left KU after saying he was going to stay there, but that is another post entirely. What I could never stand was his need to cry after losing in the tourney ever year. It almost feels like a canned performance now. Same tears, same corny lines that nobody believes anymore. He needs a new speachwriter. Let me help you correct some of your tired lines from Sunday as you were Weepy Guy at the podium again Roy.

1. "I would give every cent I have right now for my team to be out there cutting down those nets and feeling those feelings that Georgetown’s players are feeling." Really? You would give away all your money, putting your family's security at risk, just so you could go to the Final Four with this team? Um, yeah. Make sure you at least keep a bag full of dimes so you can still buy that Coca-Cola you love so much. Next time try this line:

"Man it hurts when you lose. I really wish this group of guys could feel how great it is to go to the Final Four. This is very dissapointing for all of us." There - believable.

2. "We just didn’t make enough shots down the stretch today." This is an area that Roy has always been similar to Coach K in - giving blame without being completely direct about it. It's never his fault for blowing a 10, 15 or 20 point lead by adjusting his game plan, the players just didn't execute that plan well enough. More example from Sunday:

"We took one three across from our bench that I thought was guarded."

"...we came down and got a wide open three and I didn’t even want it because it was so early in the shot clock but it missed and all of a sudden they dunk it on the other end..."

"I was not ecstatic with a couple of the shots."

"I don’t think there was a single play that I diagrammed to intentionally take a three. It was a second or third option. "

OK, Roy, we get it. You're players didn't execute, it couldn't have been your game plan or lack of adjusting it. But instead of indirectly throwing them under the bus, how about this?

"I think we could have executed a little better, and I think I could have adjusted to the game better as well. We'll learn from this and I expect great things from us next year if all these kids come back."

3. "You know, I said I would give almost anything, and I mean that, to have my guys out there, but I’ll take coaching these kids. We lost, and I wouldn’t trade my kids for anybody."

Come on, Roy, nobody is buying the gosh shucks Huckleberry Hound routine anymore. You "traded" your players at KU when you went to UNC. Save it. And the crying. Enough already. Yes your team worked hard, your staff worked hard, you worked hard, but to cry every year? Try this next year to explain the real reason you're crying.

"Now I have to go explain to Dean why we lost again."

Now buck up and go have a Coke.