CHAPEL HILL — The tumor that doctors removed last week from Roy Williams’ right kidney is not malignant, North Carolina announced today.
Williams, who is preparing to enter his 10th season as the Tar Heels basketball coach, underwent surgery on Sept. 19. Doctors determined the tumor to be an oncocytoma, which is a benign tumor of the kidney that, according to UNC, “is often indistinguishable from kidney cancer on x-rays.”
Late Night With Roy is set for Oct. 12 at 7:30 p.m. ROBERT WILLETT
CHAPEL HILL — Doesn’t seem like all that long ago that I was in a locker room in St. Louis, conducting interviews after North Carolina’s final game of the 2011-12 season. And now the 2012-13 season is upon us. That’s especially clear now, after UNC announced the details of Late Night With Roy.
As I’m sure you know, Late Night is the Tar Heels’ annual celebration of the start of basketball practice. It’s also an excuse, I’m told, to watch Roy Williams partake in some skits and a bit of fun. Here’s hoping his recent surgery won’t hamper any of that.
The details for the 2012 version of Late Night With Roy:
CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina coach Roy Williams has been released from UNC Hospitals, one day after he underwent a three-and-a-half hour operation to remove a tumor from his right kidney.
UNC announced Williams’ release in a statement on Thursday afternoon.
UNC coach Roy Williams called a team meeting at 10 p.m. on Tuesday to inform the Tar Heels of his impending surgery. ROBERT WILLETT
CHAPEL HILL — Another dramatic day in Chapel Hill – and one that helped put other recent dramatic days into perspective. North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams underwent surgery on Wednesday morning to remove a tumor from his right kidney.
Here’s the final day-one story that I wrote. As you’ll see, Williams called a 10 p.m. meeting on Tuesday to inform his players that he’d need surgery. It was a quiet meeting, said Steve Robinson, Williams’ longtime assistant. During the meeting, Williams was the only one who spoke, said Reggie Bullock, the Tar Heels’ junior guard.
There are some questions at this point for which we don’t have answers. Questions like:
UNC coach Roy Williams underwent surgery on Wednesday to remove a tumor from his right kidney. ROBERT WILLETT
North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams underwent surgery on Wednesday morning to remove a tumor from his right kidney, according to the university.
Steve Kirschner, a UNC athletic department spokesman, said it was not yet known whether the tumor is malignant. Kirschner said it could be a week or more before doctors make that determination.
Williams might have to undergo another surgery next month, but he is not expected to miss any time once the regular season begins in mid-November.
James Michael McAdoo and UNC begin the season on Nov. 9 against Gardner-Webb. ETHAN HYMAN
CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina on Monday released its 2012-13 basketball schedule. It includes, of course, trips to Maui, Indiana and Texas and, for the first time, 18 ACC games.
After taking some time to evaluate the schedule, here are some initial thoughts:
Roy Williams and the Tar Heels will travel to Hawaii in November. PHOTO: Robert Willett
CHAPEL HILL — And at long last, we have a North Carolina basketball schedule. UNC moments ago released its 2012-13 schedule.
Here it is:
UNC will open ACC play at Virginia on Jan. 6, a Sunday night. PHOTO: Robert Willett
CHAPEL HILL — The ACC basketball schedule is out. At least the schedule for conference games.
The league office earlier today released the ACC-only portion of its basketball schedule, which has come out over the past weeks and months in piecemeal form. We know the schedule for various holiday tournaments that involve league teams, and we know the schedule for the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Now we know the full ACC schedule.
Eventually we’ll have the complete schedule, which will be nice.
For now, though, here’s a look at the dates and times for UNC’s games:
Julius Peppers was one of the smartest basketball players Matt Doherty ever coached, the former UNC coach posted on Twitter earlier on Tuesday. PHOTO: Scott Sharpe, N&O file
CHAPEL HILL — Former North Carolina coach Matt Doherty took to his Twitter account earlier today and defended the intelligence of Julius Peppers, the former Tar Heels’ all-American football player whose college transcript (somehow) made its way onto UNC’s website.
The transcript, which went viral after N.C. State fans discovered it on an obscure page of UNC’s website, showed that Peppers was barely eligible to play during his college years. He left UNC with a 1.8 GPA – at least in classes for which a letter grade was recorded – and he made Ds or Fs in 11 courses.
Nonetheless, Doherty had this to say on Twitter about Peppers: “Julius Peppers was one of the smartest players I ever coached.” Full tweet:
Roy Williams says he's confident in the academic side of his North Carolina basketball program. PHOTO: Robert Willett
CHAPEL HILL — Roy Williams gave a radio interview earlier today with Taylor Zarzour and Marc James, who co-host “The Drive” on 610-AM in Charlotte. If you haven’t heard it already, be sure to give it a listen right here.
As you’d expect, Williams was asked for his opinions on the ongoing academic scandal at North Carolina, one that started out as an internal investigation of the university’s African and Afro-American Studies department. That investigation, of course, uncovered 54 aberrant AFAM courses, and it raised questions about the role the AFAM department might have played in keeping UNC athletes eligible.
The latest in this ongoing saga transpired earlier this week when Julius Peppers’ UNC academic transcript somehow became public after it had been posted on the school’s website. Peppers, an AFAM major, struggled through most of his non-AFAM courses, but he performed unusually well – relative to the rest of his grades – in most of his AFAM classes.
Williams spoke about the Peppers situation and other issues during the interview earlier today. Here’s what he told Zarzour and James about a variety of topics:
