When Roy Williams and the Kansas Jayhawks take the floor of the New Orleans Superdome Saturday afternoon, Williams’ wife, Wanda, will be in the stands cheering for “Roy’s Boys” and probably wearing a red- and blue-accented suit that she’s worn during earlier Kansas victories in the NCAA basketball tournament.
Not that she’s superstitious, mind you. It’s mostly a matter of color coordination.
“I do have two suits I’m wearing, mostly because those are two suits with the right colors,” she said. “And Greg Gurley’s mom said I can’t stop wearing one of them.”
Wanda Williams leaves the superstitions to other people, like her husband, who has made national headlines with his graveyard-visiting, river-splitting rituals.
Although she refuses to join in, especially in the upcoming Spitfest — “I have to draw the line somewhere” — the coach’s wife says she understands.
“I suppose it’s all a mindset. If they didn’t do it, it would be nagging at the back of their minds, and they would be concentrating on it instead of positive things,” she said.
March Madness and the related Final Four fever haven’t had much effect on the Williams household, she said.
Since we got back to Lawrence Saturday night, mostly it’s been a case of answering the telephone,” she said. “Everyone has been calling.”
When the Jayhawks advanced last week to the Final Four, the pressure on Roy seemed to lessen, Wanda said.
“He seems a little more relaxed this week than the week before. And the rest of us generally don’t exhibit any tension. We’re just along for the ride.”
This season the Williams family has had quite a ride, following the Jayhawks to tournaments in Hawaii, Chicago, St. Louis and now New Orleans.
But the travel advantages aside, being married to one of Kansas’ most famous men isn’t that big a deal, Wanda Williams said.
“It doesn’t really make a lot of difference to me. Most people know me through some group I’m in. When people meet me as Roy’s wife, they tend not to remember me because they’re falling all over themselves to meet him.
“When we first got here, I thought about not going to the grocery store in sweatsuits, but I gave that up.”
Wanda Williams said she doesn’t offer Roy coaching tips — “I don’t know anything about basketball” — and she has no predictions on the outcome of Saturday’s game, which will pit Kansas against the University of North Carolina.
The former high school English teacher is a full-time wife and mother to Scott, 15, a sophomore at Lawrence High School, and Kimberly, 13, a seventh-grader at South Junior High.
She admits to being “completely laid back” during basketball games, although “I guess I tend to get more excited when I think people are not being fair to the kids.”
One thing gets her out of her seat for certain: “I tend to like Darrin’s (Hancock’s) dunks, mostly because the kids are going nuts.”
She doesn’t take much credit for her husband’s sartorial splendor or his noteworthy tie collection.
“Terry Bloskey out of Hutchinson sends most of them,” she said. “He tends to have really nice stuff. Roy can go down there — he’s not much of a shopper — and Terry makes it painless.”
Expect a winning tie to appear Saturday, Wanda said.
“Roy knows which ties are 4 and 0 and which are 0 and 1,” she said.
