The prima donna problem

Roy Williams was doing his weekly radio show the other night, and he wasn't a happy guy given that he was less than 24 hours removed from a pillaging in Atlanta at the hands of Georgia Tech.

But it wasn't just one bad game that was frustrating Williams. It was the overall inability to reach players who don't take this team basketball thing nearly as seriously as he.

Williams gave his thoughts on the proper show of emotion on the court, saying the taunting and showboating has gotten out of hand in general. Then he boiled over in response to a question that wondered if there's anything frustrating about coaching this year's team.

“How we play. There’s no question about that. It’s frustrating to me when you don’t invest enough. I use this analogy all of the time. You know how you make money in the stock market? You’ve got to invest. If you want to make a lot of money in the stock market, you’ve got to invest a lot. If you want to make something out of basketball, you’ve got to invest a lot.

"And you know the old stories about people shoveling snow so that they could play on an asphalt court? I did that. You’ve heard the story – I used to break into the gym so much and the policeman got so concerned that I was going to break my neck, he got the principal to give me the dadgum key. I get frustrated when I feel like my team doesn’t invest enough or cares about it enough or loses itself in the team.

"And in today’s culture, it’s hard. I’ve got half of the guys on my team that their mom and dad and their friends and everything think that they’re going to make $88 million. They could give a flip whether we win a game or not. They want their guy to get 37 shots and play 50 minutes in a 40-minute game. The culture is hard on kids nowadays, and I understand that, but it makes coaching harder…

"It’s something that I’ve told many teams – if you cared one-tenth about it as much as I do, [gosh] it would be a lot of fun.”

Anyone who has watched North Carolina this season knows this team can be confounding to watch. The Tar Heels might not be the most talented team in the country, but they have more talent than most. And it's safe to say the production does not match said talent.

Williams really hit on something that's reflective of a broader problem in college basketball these days. The elite players who roll off the AAU assembly line are inflated with individualistic ideas when they walk onto college campuses. The capability of bolting to the NBA after one season in college leaves some of the best players indifferent toward playing defense, boxing out, and passing enough to set up a high-percentage shot.

Williams had it right when he said kids these days aren't properly "invested" in the team. The lack of investment is apparent when Williams or other coaches pull their superstar off the floor and scold them for making a mistake, and the player stares blankly the other way as if to say "when is the draft again?"

At some of these big-time coaching jobs, maybe they should advertise "Maintenance man wanted" when they have an opening. Because that's what the profession is becoming in some ways.

Here at Clemson, coaches seldom have that problem because they seldom attract the kind of elite players that carry all that baggage. While Oliver Purnell or Brad Brownell or whoever would kill to have half the McDonald's All-Americans that North Carolina collects, perhaps the task of coaching and building a team ethic is easier when you don't have to worry about inflated egos and rampant individualism.

Noel Johnson emanated the prima donna vibe when he was at Clemson. Strange, given that his talent didn't seem to match the attitude. When Johnson decided to transfer, apparently angry that he wasn't playing 30-plus minutes per game, Brownell wasn't happy about it because he needs all the able bodies he can get. But I wonder if Brownell ultimately deemed it addition by subtraction of the negative vibes.

Georgia Tech's Paul Hewitt has witnessed first-hand the blessing and the curse of signing elite players. The numerous one-and-done cases under his watch have chiseled away at continuity and team identity. There have been occasions in recent years when the Yellow Jackets looked great walking off the bus, but very few occasions when they've actually been a good team. And here Hewitt is, his rear planted squarely on the hot seat.

N.C. State's Sidney Lowe probably has some thoughts on the topic after watching J.J. Hickson undermine his team's chemistry a few years ago. And it looks like he's confronting the same dynamic this year with the presence of heralded freshmen C.J. Leslie and Ryan Harrow.

There's something to be gained from having players in your system for four years. The foundation for Purnell's success here was patiently and methodically building a program by signing players that fit his system and watching them grow and mature.

No one should feel sorry for the coaches who stockpile the best players. But actually coaching them isn't as easy as it might seem.

LW