Bad move, Roy

Roy Williams is many things -- a wonderful father and husband, a pretty good golfer, a hard worker and most important, a man who wants to be loved by everyone.

He is also the head basketball coach at North Carolina , though you wouldn't have known it by his attire Monday night.

Maybe you heard, Williams was in the Alamodome rooting for the Kansas Jayhawks during the national title game. No surprise there. After all, Williams spent 15 years as the head coach at KU. Also, his son, Scott, who lives in London , was still in town, and Williams wanted to spend as much time as possible with him. Williams also had to stay in San Antonio to be with his star forward, Tyler Hansbrough , at the various National Player of the Year ceremonies held Sunday, the day after the Jayhawks ended North Carolina 's season with a 84-66 win in the semifinals.

All of that was understandable. But when he put a Jayhawks sticker on his shirt, fresh wounds were ripped open; untold numbers of North Carolina fans felt as if they'd suddenly gut-punched (to be fair, there were many Tar Heel fans who had no problem with it), and understanding was replaced by anger, disappointment and hurt. That sticker was exactly what it was intended to be -- a visible sign that Roy was supporting Kansas . It also rubbed more than a few North Carolina fans the wrong way.

I'm one of them. As a UNC graduate and longtime Tar Heel fan, I found it curious at best, and disrespectful, unprofessional and inappropriate at worst to see the head coach of my alma mater visibly supporting another team without an equally visible sign that he's North Carolina 's coach.

"My makeup is that I care what people think," he told Sports Illustrated in 2003, a line he repeated in various forms throughout the week leading up to UNC 's Final Four tilt with Kansas . It's hard to believe Williams cared very much what Tar Heel fans would think of his wardrobe choice Monday night.

Root for Kansas ? Fine. Support Kansas ? Fine. But there is a way to do so without disrespecting yourself, your team, your employers and your own die-hard fan-base that cares about who you are and who you represent. Why not wear a UNC shirt with a KU sticker, or a KU hat, or a UNC shirt and a KU pompom? A small gesture to be sure, but had he balanced his KU fashion choice with one for North Carolina , this would never have become a story.

In the absence of further evidence, North Carolina fans were left to wonder where Roy's loyalty truly lies. Is it with the school he works for now, the one he, his wife and children graduated from and where he spent 10 years at as an assistant? Or is it with the school he works for now or the school that gave him a chance (on Dean Smith 's recommendation) to be a college head coach?

While Williams' gesture has been interpreted as a classy move toward Kansas , it's fair to interpret it as an unclassy move toward North Carolina . Fans can reasonably expect to be heartbroken at the Final Four. They shouldn't expect to see their head coach visibly supporting their conqueror a scant two days later.

Roy doesn't owe Kansas fans anything. He spent 15 years giving them everything he had. Since leaving, he's spent five years, beginning with literally the first 15 minutes of his introductory press conference as North Carolina 's head coach in 2003 (at which he wore a Jayhawk tie) praising Kansas -- the school, the state, the people.