North Carolina finished the regular season at 16 – 15 , dropped to third in all-time wins , and bowed out in the first round of the ACC tournament . The Tar Heels did not receive a post-season tournament bid by the NCAA — the only time in Williams ' coaching career that his team did n't take part in that tournament when eligible to do so . However , they did receive a bid to the NIT . The Tar Heels made it to the NIT championship game versus Dayton , which was played on April 1 , 2010 , at Madison Square Garden . The Tar Heels lost by a score of 79 – 68 , bringing their overall tally to 20 – 17 for the 2009 – 10 season . This 20-win season however kept Williams ' streak of 20-win seasons alive . Williams stated that the season was " the biggest frustration and the biggest disappointment of my professional life " . In addition to frustrating play , Williams was criticized for comparing the season to the disaster in Haiti by stating , " Our massage therapist told me , she said ' You know , Coach , what happened in Haiti is a catastrophe . What you 're having is a disappointment . ' And I told her that depends on which chair she was sitting in , because it does feel like a catastrophe to me , and that 's because it is my life . " Williams later apologized for his comments , stating that he misspoke and " neglected to say that it puts basketball in perspective . " The Tar Heels started out slow during the 2010 – 11 season , dropping early games to Minnesota , Vanderbilt , and Illinois , and also being blown out by twenty points at Georgia Tech . It was not until Williams made the difficult decision to start freshman point guard Kendall Marshall over junior Larry Drew II that the Tar Heels returned to their dominant winning ways . The Heels won the ACC Regular Season Championship after beating Duke in their final regular season game in Chapel Hill . It was Carolina 's fifth ACC Regular Season title in eight years under Coach Williams . However , Carolina lost to Duke a week later in the ACC Tournament Championship game . Coach Williams was selected as the ACC Coach of the Year for the second time since becoming head coach at North Carolina for overcoming the adversity of losing some players to transfer and dismissal and winning the ACC regular season title . After defeating Long Island , Washington , and Marquette , the Heels ( 29 – 8 , 14 – 2 ) lost to the Kentucky Wildcats in the Elite Eight
disaster in Haiti
2010 Haiti earthquake
Roy Williams (basketball coach)