Players Call on Doherty to Alter Approach

The players' message was simple: Things need to change.

"I think we got a lot of positive feedback," Williams said. "I think everybody put everything out on the table about each other. Some of the things I wanted to change were basically the way situations were handled.

"It was everyone not feeling they had the place to talk with the coaching staff. They felt like they didn't have a say. Everybody has to be able to say something."

Williams met individually with UNC coach Matt Doherty on Wednesday to further discuss the players' relationship with the coaching staff, Doherty said.

The coach, who said he also met individually with Williams two weeks ago, was pleased with the the conversation, which came on the heels of Adam Boone's decision to transfer from North Carolina.

"This is good stuff," Doherty said of the conversations. "This is how we're going to improve."

Following the Tar Heels' 8-20 season, rumors spread about the transfers of several players, including Williams and fellow freshman Jackie Manuel.

On Wednesday, Williams said he had considered transferring near the time that teammate Neil Fingleton departed in December.

"The expectations on myself were so high, and I didn't feel I was getting the chance to do some of the things I did at the end of the year," said Williams, who averaged 9.8 points and 4.2 rebounds per game in the 2001-02 season.

But Williams dispelled rumors claiming he would transfer, saying he would not be leaving Chapel Hill anytime soon. He also spoke for Manuel.

"Jackie's not going anywhere," Williams said. "He's just like me. He had his growing pains, just like any freshman."

But, he added, "If things don't change, I'll be forced to leave. I will take it upon myself to leave."

Williams' comments came despite his mother's claim that the players, including her son, had not been happy for much of the season.

Gail Hillman-Williams said in a telephone interview Wednesday that her son, a freshman forward, was becoming frustrated with his teammates' departures.

She said that while she had not encouraged her son to transfer, she did not want him to continue to be unhappy.

"All his friends are leaving," Hillman-Williams said. "The people who encouraged him to come and work together as a group ... they're all gone."

She said her son had an increasingly difficult year. When asked whether she had to, at some point during the year, convince her son to return to Chapel Hill, Hillman-Williams said, "Yeah."

"I've never seen a group of guys so unhappy," she said. "I think they've all thought about leaving at some point."

But Doherty said that the players' feelings were natural, especially following a season as disappointing as the Tar Heels'.

"I would be surprised if you found guys who were happy," he said. "Who would be happy with 8-20?"

Doherty said that both he and the players felt better after talking through some of the frustrations from the season. He said the team was still adjusting to him and his coaching staff, who were hired in July 2000.

Doherty also said he tries periodically to get the "pulse of the team."

"I have to, as a coach, listen and not get defensive," he said.

Those are some of the qualities that Williams indicated the players are seeking in UNC's coaches. But he didn't say why Boone, Fingleton and Brian Morrison decided to transfer, instead explaining that different people left for different reasons. Joseph Forte, Ronald Curry and Julius Peppers did not return from the 2000-01 team.

Doherty, who said he was surprised by Boone's departure, added that the meeting will help his coaching in the future.

"As (coaches), we need to improve on everything -- communication, Xs and Os, whatever."

The Sports Editor can be reached at sports@unc.edu.