Reflections on the hiring of the seventh – lucky seventh? – coach in the history of Kansas basketball …
Roy Williams’ only previous experience as a head coach was at Owen High School in Sawannanoa. N.C. Own High, located a few miles east of Asheville, Williams’ hometown, is actually closer to Black Mountain, N.C., hometown of former North Carolina standout, Brad Daugherty, now with the Cleveland Cavaliers, than it is to Sawannanoa…
You’re right if you think it’s unusual for a major college to hire someone with no previous head coaching experience. It’s been done, though, and for the most part successfully.
The prime example is Denny Crum who went directly from being an aide to John Wooden at UCLA to Louisville. Nobody can say Crum has been a flop as head man of the Cardinals.
Closer to home, Leonard Hamilton didn’t have any head coaching experience when Oklahoma State hired him away from Kentucky. Hamilton has been rebuilding the OSU program for the last two years, and many Big Eight observers think the Cowboys could be a first-division team next seaon…
At the press conference Friday, Williams cracked that the last time he’d seen that many people “was in the day Eddie Fogler got married.” Fogler, now head coach at Wichita State, and Williams are friends, of course, from their days on Dean Smith’s staff. They’ll be rivals, however, when the Shockers come to Allen Fieldhouse next Jan. 25 for a non-conference game. Williams, incidentally, will be returning to North Carolina when the Jayhawks meet Duke on Feb. 18 in Durham.
Now that he’s hired a basketball coach, Kansas athletic director Bob Frederick has shifted his focus to finding a new director for the Williams fund. After that?
“I hope to take a couple of days off and go to Worlds of Fun with my kids,” he said. Frederick and his wife Margey have four boys ranging from 14 to 3…
What kind of a basketball player was Roy Williams? According to sources in Asheville, he was a good high school guard but he certainly wasn’t a great player. Williams walked on at North Carolina where he was a member of the freshman team in 1968-69, but he never played any varsity ball for the Tar Heels…
Apparently all the head coaches Frederick approached about the KU vacancy turned down the job, although the Kansas AD assuredly did not approach all the head coaches who were interested in the job.
For instance, West Virginia’s Gale Catlett had several backers – notably former KU All-American Dave Robisch and ABC sportscaster Gary Bender – but Catlett was never in the picture.
“I spoke to Bob Frederick and to the chancellor,” Robisch told me, “and they said Gale would be given an interview, but he wasn’t. I have nothing against Roy Williams. I’m sure he’ll do a good job. We just wanted to get Gale an interview.”
Kansas chancellor Gene Budig was at West Virginia early in Catlett’s tenure there. Catlett was an assistant coach at Kansas while Robisch was here…
When Williams left here Saturday morning, he didn’t say where he was headed, but he did say he would be recruiting. No doubt, Williams will attend the Nike/ABCD Camp that winds up next Thursday in Princeton, N.J. and the B/C Camp from July 17-22 in Renesselaer, Ind. Both are heavily attended prep showcases.
Was Williams the only head coach in Kansas history to go directly to his introductory press conference from a doctor’s office? Williams had an inner-ear infection and was battling dizziness and nausea. He made it through the media session with no problems, however…
Frederick said he offered the job to Williams’ boss Smith first. “But Dean said it would be hard,” Frederick reported, “to leave a place where they’ve named the arena after him.” …
