KNOXVILLE – North Carolina men’s basketball coach Roy Williams grew up in western North Carolina and began his storied career as a high school coach just 130 miles east of Knoxville.
So as Williams prepared to lead the Tar Heels on their first-ever visit to Thompson-Boling Arena, he knew he was bringing his defending national champions to play in “a pretty doggone good place” as he described it.
“One of the things I wanted to do is I walked over at halftime and I patted the floor with Pat Summitt’s name, because that was pretty important to me,” Williams said. “Pat was a great friend.”
Perhaps the 67-old three-time national champion coach drew a touch of inspiration from the moment, because the message he conveyed in the locker room propelled his team to a come-from-behind 78-73 victory in a match-up of ranked non-conference opponents.
The 20th-ranked Volunteers (7-2) led 38-32 at halftime in front of a checkerboard, sell-out crowd of 21,678.