Now it’s Roy Williams’ turn to step on stage, and he knows the act preceding him was dynamite.
“Following the job Larry Brown did isn’t going to be easy,” Williams said this morning after he was named men’s basketball coach at Kansas University.
“I’m going to try to be Roy Williams. I’m going to do the best job I can do. But I realize it’s a tough act to follow.”
Williams has never been a college head coach before. The 37-year-old native of Asheville, N.C., has been an assistant coach at the University of North Carolina for the last 10 seasons. Before that he was a high shcool head coach.
“Instead of making suggestions I’m making decisions now,” Williams said during his introductory press conference at the Lawrence Holidome. “I guess that’ll be a big adjustment. It’s a big adjustment, but I’ll try to get through it.”
Kansas athletic director Bob Frederick, who talked to several head coaches about the vacancy — notably Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, Ohio State’s Gary Williams and Charlie Spoonhour of Southwest Missouri State — stressed that he had no qualms about hiring an assistant coach to take over the NCAA championship team.
“That’s something I was able to satisfy in my own mind,” Frederick said. “I felt he could step in and do the job. I don’t think I would have considered any assistant other than Roy or other program than the one he was in.”
Frederick said he visited with North Carolina head coach Dean Smith for about 2 1/2 hours last Monday in Topeka while Smith, a KU alumnus and former KU basketball player, was visiting his parents. That conversation, Frederick said, convinced him to seek out Williams in spite of his lack of head coaching experience.
“It was the recommendation of Dean Smith, No. 1,” Frederick said, “and No. 2 because of everything I was able to check out about him. And No. 3 because of my personal feeling when I talked to him.”
In an interview with the Journal-World shortly after Brown resigned, Smith praised his long-time assistant. Williams, said Smith, “has so many of the good characteristics of Larry (Brown) and he would be there forever.”
Frederick flew to Atlanta last Tuesday morning to talk to Williams, who then left for a vacation in Bermuda. That vacation lasted exactly one day. Frederick called him and asked him to come here to be interviewed.
That interview with the screening committee took place on Thursday night in Allen Fieldhouse. Frederick said he offered Williams the job at 11:08 p.m.
“He represents some solidity…some stability,” Frederick said.
After fiver years of Brown’s name being linked to one job after another, Kansas basketball fans hankering for those two commodities may have found them in Williams.
“My hope,” Williams said after expressing how excited he was to have the Kansas job, “is you don’t have to go another press conference to hire a new head coach for the next 30 years.”
That remark elicited prolonged applause from a sizable gathering of faculty members and boosters attending the media session.
Chancellor Gene Budig was among them, saying “I am pleased…and relieved that this issue has been resolved. We’ve attracted a first-class individual, and he’s coming from an institution much like ours.”
During his introductory remarks, Frederick pointed out that North Carolina has graduated 160 of 166 seniors while Williams has been there.
“I’m going to try to recruit student-athletes here who’ll be student-athletes who are part of the student body,” Williams remarked.
And he’ll jump right to it. A three-week period when college recruiters can go off campus begins Sunday, and Williams vowed he would hit the road.
“I feel we’re really behind with a changeover in the staff,” he said. “Hopefully, we can make up some time.”
Williams said he had some possibilities in mind for assistant coaches, but he wasn’t ready to make any announcements yet. There are no holdovers. Brown took all his aides with him when he was hired on June 13 by the San Antonio Spurs.
“Larry Brown won the national championship,” Frederick noted,” and now Roy Williams has a chance to capitalize on that success.”
Williams stressed, however, that repeating as NCAA champions will be extremely difficult.
“Everybody is going to be fired up to play the University of Kansas,” Williams said. “Everybody’s going to be ready for the national champions. And when you lose the No. 1 player in the NBA draft, that’s a heckuva loss.
“It’s also hard to overcome the feelings of winning the national championship. A lot of teams drop off after they win the national title. But we’ll play hard and we’ll play unselfishly.”
Williams planned to meet with KU’s returning players as soon as possible and also contact the Jayhawks’ recruits. One of them, 6-6 forward Freeman West, said he wasn’t planning to transfer from KU. West also said that his roommate, Indiana transfer Ricky Calloway, also planning to stay.
In addition, freshman guard Sean Tunstall of St. Louis’ Vashon said this morning by phone that he hasn’t changed his mind about attending Kansas in the fall.
At North Carolina, Williams served as junior varsity coach for eight years (1979-86). He also handled the responsibilities of scouting, conditioning and recruiting. On the court, he worked with the Tar Heels’ big men.
Williams was offered a four-year contract at $78,000 a year. That’s the same salary Kansas gave Glen Mason when he was hired as head football coach last Dec. 30.
