Up close with Gary, Part II

[Editor's Note: This is part two of a two-part series.]

In part one, Gary Williams discussed last year's senior class, this year's freshman class and the changing landscape of college basketball among other things. In part two, he talks about the NIT, the women basketball team's championship and the assistant coach turnaround he's dealt with.

The Diamondback: Debbie Yow put making the NCAA Tournament as the benchmark for what success would be this season. How is that expectation different for you, and how do you expect your team to handle that?

Gary Williams: Well, we went 11 straight times here and we won a national championship. No other coach ever did that here. My expectations every year going in is to win as many games as you can. I don't look at making the NCAA Tournament as my benchmark. My benchmark has been being a national championship coach.

I think [UConn coach Jim] Calhoun has two and [Duke coach Mike] Krzyzewski has three, and everybody else has one that's in active coaching. I think that speaks for itself. My benchmark is to win as many games as I can. And injuries can play a factor. As a coach, what keeps you going, you judge yourself every year and you're honest with yourself. I know whether I did a good coaching job or not. I've won 25 games here, and not necessarily thought I did a great job coaching. I won 17 games here and thought I did a great job.

DBK: How would you rate your performance last year based on that?

Williams: As a coach, I was proud of the team for winning the Virginia game at Virginia. The emotion in the building that day - it was the last game of the regular season and that got us to 8-8 in the league, which traditionally gets you into the NCAA Tournament. I don't know if you guys printed this, but we were the first team to go 8-8 in the ACC, win a tournament game and not go to the NCAA Tournament.

I thought we did well at the end of the year. What hurt us is we didn't play well against Boston College. Bottom line is, we split against Boston College, but we didn't win at the right time or we didn't play well at the right time, and I thought that game hurt us. But overall, it was a battle last year, and I battled.

DBK: I understand you're friends with Tony Kornheiser. How would you rate his Monday Night Football performance so far?

Williams: I think he's reserved. I don't think he's really let it go yet. You've heard him on the radio, I'm sure. He hasn't let himself go yet. I thought he was a little better with the guy from Desperate Housewives that was on there. It's gotta be hard, 'cause he doesn't wanna be Dennis Miller, but he's best when he's a wiseass. That's his best game.

I think he's good. He knows enough sports, unlike Dennis Miller, where he's not an idiot sitting there with [Joe] Theismann and [Mike] Tirico with sports. He's got the sense of humor that I think you need with a Theismann, who's so dogmatic about the blitz and all that stuff.

DBK: There's always a pressure to win, but does the women's championship put more pressure on you to win now?

Williams: No, it's a different thing. Does field hockey put more pressure on football to win?

DBK: Only four teams made the tournament from the ACC last year. How do you see this conference shaping up right now?

Williams: I think we made a mistake last year in not being aggressive enough as a conference to really sell the conference. The commissioner of the Big East, Mike Tranghese, first thing he says every year at their media day: 'We should have eight or nine teams in the NCAA Tournament this year.' We should say that, and I'm gonna say that at the media day this year. I'll say it now. We should have at least seven teams in the NCAA Tournament 'cause there are really good basketball teams; there are tough home courts. We beat each other up during the season.

The way things look right now, preseason, North Carolina looks like they're the best and everybody else, it's hard to separate the teams. If you had to pick one through 12, that would be difficult. Another thing we're looking at is, as a conference, see football went to two divisions so you can say you finished fifth, which might be fifth in your division, which would be 10th in the league. We go one through 12, so if you finish sixth and you're .500, maybe it would be better if you were third and .500. It's just perception, but that's something we need to look at as coaches and administrators.

DBK: Ekene Ibekwe played pretty well for Nigeria in the World Championships. How do you think that performance has helped him?

Williams: Anytime you do that on a stage like that where [Dirk] Nowitzki's on the other team, it should give you confidence. Ekene, you watch your guys over the course of their careers. I think he's worked harder since the end of the season than he did his other two, three years. He's really dedicated himself. I think he looked at himself and realized he had to improve in some areas. I think he's stronger, quicker. He can do some things out there on the court. I fully expect him to be one of the better forwards in the ACC this year.

DBK: A lot happened in the offseason. One of the first was Rob Moxley going back to Charlotte. The high turnover rate among assistant coaches, how has that affected you and the team?

Williams: I'm proud of all the guys who have gotten head jobs from here. Moxley was promised a head coaching job at Charlotte in two years, but I told him to get it in writing. But the other guys, Dave Dickerson and Jimmy Patsos and Mike Lonergan - head coaches coach a whole career and never place a guy into a head coaching position, so I'm kinda proud of that.

I think we have a great staff. Two guys played for me: Michael Adams at Boston College and Keith Booth here, and they're really good. They bring a tremendous amount of basketball experience. Chuck Driesell is a very good recruiter, very well known locally in this area. And this area, the next four to five years is really good.

DBK: What have you been thinking about since the end of last season in terms of team improvement?

Williams: Defense. We have to play better defense. I tell the players this, and I hope I'm right: I think we were last in the league in field goal percentage defense and we still finished .500 in the league and had a winning season. So if we can improve that area, we should be a pretty good team. But defense is hard. Defense is one of those things, you can't go out on the court, do a couple drills and be a good defensive team. It's a gradual process. ...

And defense is a sell. You have to sell defense to a lot of players 'cause some of these guys - most of these guys - were the best players in their league in high school. So they weren't asked to play a lot of defense. In fact, a lot of times in high school the best offensive player, they don't want him to get in foul trouble, so they play a lot of zone, stay away from your man, that type of thing.

DBK: How do you try to prevent what happened to Chris McCray from happening again?

Williams: It never happened before, so that's one in 18 years, it's one in 29 years as a head coach. Do I think people are making a big deal out of it? Yes. Do I think it's important that doesn't happen again? Yes. Did Chris McCray, at age 22, know the situation? Yes. You're a man at 22. He had over a 2.0 going into the semester and here's basketball again.

We're the only sport that gets measured on a two-semester basis. The NCAA passed a rule saying you have to be above 2.0 after the first semester, and I think it's a good rule. But Chris McCray did not flunk out of school. He went below a 2.0.

DBK: What positives can you take from the quick exit from the NIT?

Williams: The NIT meant nothing to us. That's just not something that we wanted to be, where we wanted to be. There's nothing positive about being in the NIT, so that's behind us.

DBK: You have six seniors on this team, but is D.J. Strawberry gonna be counted on to be the leader?

Williams: Yeah, I think he's in a leadership position. He really did a great job for the team last year by playing out of position. He's not a natural point guard, but he played there the majority of the time 'cause we needed him. I think that's gonna help his game. You become a better ball handler; I don't care what your position is, that makes you better. That experience, plus his strength of a senior, he's played against the Redicks of the world, people like that who are the best you're gonna play against in college.

He's the reason I think we can be a good defensive team this year. In other words, we can build around D.J.'s aggressiveness defensively because when you do have young guys like we do this year, they watch, they see who does what. D.J. is established as a player here in the program. Hopefully his leadership on the defensive end of the court will help us.

DBK: Of all the guys you've got returning, one or two guys you expect will surprise some people this year?

Williams: I wouldn't want to just put guys out there, but I think our players have worked hard in the off-season this year, probably harder than last year, leading up to the start of the season. I'm anxious to get out on the court. You're allowed now two hours a week on the floor with the players, so I've seen them. But until you get them into a day-to-day practice situation, you don't really know. I'm looking forward to it.

I think we have some young people who can come in here and play significant minutes right away. I think some veteran players will get a chance to step up. And we play early this year; we play Nov. 7. I think we have 21 practice days before that first game, and we usually have about 30.

DBK: I understand you don't like to pick a number of wins you're gonna get, but do you have a feel for how this team is stylistically?

Williams: I think we're gonna be a team that people will enjoy watching play because we'll be aggressive defensively. I like teams that show that. If you're sitting in the stands watching a team play, you can get a feel for their intensity level, how hard they play, that type of thing. Our teams here traditionally have played really hard. That's how we won a national championship, that's how we won an ACC championship.

We probably didn't play at that level the last two years, so my goal is to have our team playing that way for the start of the season. That's the challenge for me as a coach.

Contact reporter Stephen Whyno at whynodbk@gmail.com.