North Carolina coach Roy Williams says he should have kept his mouth shut last week, when he ripped fans who called his radio show to criticize the Tar Heels.
In a news conference last week after a win over Clemson, Williams admonished fans for calling his weekly radio show to voice their displeasure with the team.
But on this week's radio show, Williams said he regretted having done that.
"I wish I had not said one word," Williams said Monday, according to a transcript of the show posted by the website insidecarolina.com.
In the news conference last week, a frustrated Williams said he was sick of the armchair criticism of his team.
"Everybody was talking about how they were Carolina fans for nine million years and how bad we are. I don't give a damn how long you're a Carolina fan, those are kids in the locker room, and they played their buns off tonight," he said last week. "Don't call me next week and say how good we are; keep your damn phone calls to yourself."
This week on his show, Williams struck a more conciliatory tone.
"I wish that I would have just kept swallowing it. I hate that I said that. What I hate even more is that I categorized people when I said 'fans,' because our fans don't upset me," Williams said, according to the transcript on insidecarolina.com. "My gosh, the fans in the Smith Center this year have been unbelievable. They've helped us in games. North Carolina fans have just been phenomenal.
"But it is, and people have just got to accept it, I'm not perfect. Never will be and never have been," Williams said. "But if somebody says something that is not fair ... Somebody told me Mack Brown used to say, 'Well, how many times have you been to practice?' But was I wrong.... You're darn right I was wrong. I shouldn't have said it because it came out that I was criticizing fans."
North Carolina (13-5, 3-1 ACC) is third in the ACC and hosts North Carolina State on Saturday. The Tar Heels are unranked and coming off a season in which they missed the NCAA tournament, though they did reach the NIT final.