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Jay Williams blasts North Carolina players for lack of leadership in loss to Pitt
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Jay Williams saw it in the body language of North Carolina’s players in the waning seconds of Tuesday night’s loss at Pittsburgh, and he wanted the national TV audience to know about it.
So, the ESPN college basketball announcer and analyst tore into the Tar Heel players as North Carolina trailed, 69-65, with 24.9 seconds left in an eventual 73-65 loss. UNC fell to just 13-9 overall and 6-4 in the ACC, suffering its third loss in four games as the first of 2 showdowns with rival Duke approaches on Saturday night.
Williams is a former Duke star, but he’s paid to give his opinions now, and he didn’t hold back on Tuesday night when analyzing the North Carolina players.
“They are all fragmented on the court. Look at Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is huddling in the middle of the court,” Williams said. “It already looks like with 24.9 seconds to go, North Carolina being down only 4 points, the game feels over. None of the (UNC players) have huddled. None of them are talking to each other. This is what (UNC head coach) Hubert Davis is talking about, about the lack of leadership on the team. You’re never out of it until you’re out of it. But you need to have communication about what you’re doing next.”
What North Carolina will be doing next is facing No. 2 Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Blue Devils have won 14 in a row this season as the bitter rivals get set to clash on Saturday night in a 6:30 p.m. ET tip-off on ESPN.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
