bgorman@heraldsun.com; 419-6668
DURHAM -- North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams always says he's honored to be involved in one of the greatest rivalries in all of college sports.
So it's fitting that when he shared one of his most embarrassing road-trip moments with the Durham Sports Club on Wednesday, it happened during a 1979 UNC-Duke game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
In that game, the Tar Heels, coached by Dean Smith, held the ball in the first half, but the Blue Devils led 7-0 at the break thanks to some UNC turnovers.
As both teams walked back to the locker rooms at halftime, Williams, who was an assistant coach at the time, was hit in the shoulder by a rotten grapefruit thrown by a Duke student. Williams said it was bad enough he was trying to think of things to say about the Tar Heels' performance in the first half, but it was the only suit he owned.
"I know they didn't even know who I was," Williams said. "They weren't trying to hit me, but they had bad aim and missed Coach Smith."
Williams' appearance at the Durham Sports Club came two weeks after his counterpart at Duke, Mike Krzyzewski, spoke to the group at Croasdaile Country Club. Williams, whose team is coming off the program's fifth NCAA title, spoke about the upcoming season and took a few questions from the crowd during his 35-minute talk.
Williams also revealed that the Tar Heels played at Vanderbilt on Sunday for a "secret" scrimmage, and the Commodores "kicked our tails from the first moment to the last." The NCAA allows team's to play one non-publicized scrimmage that is free from public and media viewing, and statistics and scores are not to be provided to any media outlet.
"It was not a good day for the Tar Heels in Nashville, Tennessee, on Sunday afternoon," Williams said.
But Williams also acknowledged that the Tar Heels have a chance to be very good this season. He said UNC has questions marks at point guard and on the perimeter, but he expects some of the freshmen to make an immediate impact.
Williams said freshman John Henson, who stands at 6-10 and 195 pounds, looks like he's 11 years old but has tremendous potential.
Williams said he can't tell which one of the twins, David or Travis Wear, is better, but it might be because he also can't tell them apart. Williams recounted a story about how the brothers look so much alike that they switched jerseys halfway through a high school practice and their coach never realized it until they told him the next day.
"The officials in the ACC, I got a surprise for [them]," Williams said jokingly. "If David's playing really well in the first half and gets a third foul. ... I guarantee the officials can't tell them apart."
Williams went through almost the entire roster, pointing out strengths and weaknesses of each player. But he said he thinks the real strength of this year's team will be on the defensive end of the court. In year's past, the Tar Heels have just outscored everybody to win -- Williams doesn't envision that happening this season.
"I think what this club is going to do, I think they're going to realize that the defensive end of the floor is going to be important for us, that that's where we're going to have to hang our hat," Williams said.
