Was kissing the UNC basketball court part of Roy Williams’ master plan to retire?

North Carolina coach Roy Williams didn’t expect a kiss would cause so much speculation about his retirement. But that paired with Monday’s announcement of the $3 million gift he and his wife Wanda gave toward three UNC scholarship programs, led to full-fledged conspiracies that this season would be the last for the Tar Heels coach.

Williams opened his video conference with reporters on Tuesday with a statement to say it is not.

“Let’s put all this other stuff to rest,” Williams said. “There’s no master plan. There’s no minor plan. I’m doing what I’ve done my whole life.”

After the Heels’ 91-73 win over Duke on senior day Saturday, Williams grabbed the microphone and addressed the crowd about the four seniors. When he finished his speech, he kissed the court named after him in the Dean E. Smith Center.

It was an innocuous move to Williams, but it made people wonder if it was a farewell gesture. Some even likened it to former standout forward Antawn Jamison, who kissed the court of the Alamodome in 1998 after their loss to Utah in the Final Four. Jamison said at the time that he hadn’t made up his mind on if he was returning to school, but he would eventually declare for the NBA draft and give up his final year of eligibility.

“I didn’t know anything about Antawn Jamison kissing the floor, I’d never heard that story,” Williams said. “I knew that we won a lot of games at Kansas and here. I thought the crowd was extremely important to us. I knew it was the last game this season in the Smith Center and that’s all it was. That’s all it was.”

Williams said there were “plenty of times” while he was the head coach at Kansas that he wished he would have kissed the floor at Allen Fieldhouse.

The retirement speculation had “gotten a little crazy,” especially after the university announced their donation on Monday.

“Somebody said I was trying to buy another year from (UNC athletic director) Bubba (Cunningham),” Williams said. “I got a dadgum contract to 2028, do you think I need to buy another daggum year? I’ve already got a contract.”

Roy, Wanda and their donation to UNC

Williams said he and his wife made the pledge for donations to the Carolina Covenant Scholars, Chancellor’s Science Scholars and to endow the 13th men’s basketball scholarship in November and paid it in December. They only decided to make it public after David Routh, the vice chancellor for university development, suggested that if it were publicly known it may spur others to give.

“It’s something I’ve done my entire life, it’s just that I hadn’t really cared if people knew about it,” said Williams, who has given $5.8 million to UNC since arriving as head coach in 2003. “And I damn sure wish people didn’t know about it now, so that I didn’t have to listen to all this junk.”

The Heels are the sixth seed in the ACC tournament and will play the winner of Notre Dame and Wake Forest Wednesday at 9 p.m. in the Greensboro Coliseum.

This story was originally published March 9, 2021 at 3:04 PM with the headline "Was kissing the UNC basketball court part of Roy Williams’ master plan to retire?."

C.L. Brown

The News & Observer

C.L. Brown covers the University of North Carolina for The News & Observer. Brown brings more than two decades of reporting experience including stints as the beat writer on Indiana University and the University of Louisville. After a long stay at the Louisville Courier-Journal, where he earned an APSE award, he’s had stops at ESPN.com, The Athletic and even tried his hand at running his own website, clbrownhoops.com.