Report: Walker Kessler transfer, direction of college basketball 'nail in coffin' for Roy Williams
“Someone who knows Roy just told me there had been no definitive plan to retire now but that he has been increasingly fed up with the direction of college basketball and the Walker Kessler transfer was the ‘nail in the coffin,’”
The decision for the former five-star from the class of 2020 to transfer was finalized after what a source said was an emotional in-person meeting between Kessler, his father Williams Sunday March 21.
"He loves North Carolina, he loves the University, he loves his teammates. He fell in love with the school walking down Franklin Street, so this was a basketball decision only," a source close to Kessler told 247Sports’ North Carolina affiliate Inside Carolina.
As for Williams’ thoughts on the transfer portal, he hasn’t been afraid to make them public. Speaking in March, he raised concerns regarding immediate eligibility for first-time transfers.
“I think it will be the most significant piece of legislation that’s ever happened in college basketball,” Williams said March 10. “I'm old school. I believe if you have a little adversity, you ought to fight through it, and it makes you stronger at the end. I believe when you make a commitment, that commitment should be solid. And it should be to do everything you can to make it work out. We have all, even you guys on this screen here, have seen guys come in as freshmen that were okay or not good. They were better sophomores and they were better juniors and they were better seniors. And they were drafted.
"So I think it just opens up that there's no bottom line, there's no negative. If you don't like what the coach gave you for the pregame meal, you have the right to leave. I'm old school. And now people say, well, the coaches leave. And that's a reason I’ve told you guys that at one time in my life, I wanted to coach at one school and that was it. And things didn't go like that. And I've turned down a lot of jobs because I want to be at North Carolina. I didn't leave and try to find another place to coach last year after we had such a tough year.
"So general principle-wise, I don't like it. I understand freedom and I understand its new world and I understand that they're not my generation. But I do think there's something about making a commitment and sticking with it and fighting through adversity. In saying that, it's our world, we're going to have to live with it, it's not going to change. The horse is out of the barn or the toothpaste is out of the tube or whatever you want to say. It's a done deal. And what's going to happen next, nobody knows. But I think these are totals I shouldn't say because I don't know if it's fact, but somebody said that there were more people in the transfer portal for football than there were spots in the power five conferences.
Entire article:
https://247sports.com/Article/Roy-W...rth-Carolina-Tar-Heels-basketball--163471191/
UNC Basketball: Hall-of-Fame head coach sounds off on Kessler decision
Hall-of-Fame head coach Jim Boeheim didn’t mince words when talking about former UNC basketball player Walker Kessler and his decision to enter the NCAA transfer portal.
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Regardless of its true impact, Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim referenced the Kessler transfer in an interview with Yahoo Sports’ Pete Thamel on Thursday afternoon, stating that he couldn’t understand why the rising 7-footer would leave UNC when he had a good opportunity to be a star there next season.
“Why Walker Kessler would leave there is beyond me,” Boeheim told Thamel. “He’s going to get the ball 25 times a game there. It’s just wounded pride. That’s crazy.”
Thamel elaborated on the Kessler transfer, and how it may have helped push Roy Williams to ultimately retire rather than dive deeper into an era of college sports that he simply wasn’t prepared to acclimate to at this juncture in his career.
“It’d be unfair to overstate how the the transfer of freshman 7-footer Walker Kessler impacted Williams’ decision to retire,” Thamel wrote. “He was a top-25 prospect who sources have indicated could end up at Gonzaga or Auburn. (The Zags are the favorite.) Kessler’s player narrative a decade ago would likely have been that he took his lumps as a freshman — zero starts and 8.8 minutes per game — and eventually developed into a star at UNC. But the incentive of being able to transfer without penalty has him seeking greener pastures.”
Entire article:
https://keepingitheel.com/2021/04/0...-fame-head-coach-sounds-off-kessler-decision/
