Everybody knows about the 69-6 record Kansas University’s men’s basketball team has compiled during the past two seasons.
And the four league titles Kansas has won in the past four years.
Memories of Roy Williams’ early years at Kansas may have started to fade a bit, however. After all, Williams has been here awhile. He’ll celebrate the 10th anniversary of his hiring on Wednesday.
A look at some memorable moments of the Williams decade:
Also, it was decreed KU could not bring recruits to campus for a full year as a penalty for violations committed during the Larry Brown era.
“It was the biggest shock I’ve ever had,” Williams said of the announcement of sanctions on Halloween, 1988.
“It wiped me out. It was a struggle for me every single day to make sure I kept my feelings from everybody else because I had to be the one who more or less was going to show we could go on.”
“To me that first bunch is the one that, quote, made Roy Williams,” he said. “When I came to Kansas I inherited a group of guys that had just won a national championship and they gave me a chance. Everything I asked em to do, they tried to do.”
That’s the year KU beat Kentucky, 150-95, in Allen Fieldhouse. It was also the season KU beat LSU and UNLV in the Preseason NIT. It really was the year KU fans’ love affair with Williams took off.
“We go into Baton Rouge and Dick Vitale is there,” Williams said, recalling practice the day before KU’s 89-83 victory over Shaquille O’Neal-led LSU.
“Vitale said, ‘the NIT wants LSU in the (Madison Square) Garden.’ I called the team over and said, ‘I just told this guy we’ll spoil their party.’ He said, ‘You’ve got guts.’
“We had Vegas by 25 (points in a 91-77 win). Tark (Jerry Tarkanian) to this day says he never had anybody wear them out like that.”
KU later hit Kentucky with an 150-point anvil.
“We had three days to prepare. I said, ‘We will attack their press, move and lay the sucker up on the other end.’ It’s what happened. The fieldhouse was as loud as any place I’ve heard,” Williams said.
KU led Indiana, 25-6, in a blowout and trailed Arkansas by 12 before winning by 12 in the Charlotte, N.C., just down the road from where Williams grew up in Asheville.
“We had Indiana, 25-6, and they stopped the game because one of the bolts was out on the floor. I remember Bob Knight saying, ‘Can we start it over?'” Williams said.
“We beat Arkansas. I’ll never forget it. We did it in Charlotte and my whole family was there. I’ll never forget the look on my mom’s face and Scott saying, ‘Dad, I’ve GOT to be there,'” Williams said of his son desiring a trip to Indianapolis and the Final Four.
Of the Final Four loss to Duke: “I was ticked at our fans. After we beat North Carolina (in semifinal), our fans were pulling for Duke against Vegas. I thought our chances of beating Vegas was a lot better. Vegas would be such an overwhelming favorite,” Williams said. “We could do some things to bother their pressure.”
Duke beat KU, 72-65, in the NCAA title game.
“The big plays were made by Bobby Hurley and Grant Hill. Billy McCaffrey made some shots and Bobby took our pressure away and Grant made incredible drives. We couldn’t buy a basket. Alonzo shot over 60 percent for the year and was 1-10,” Williams said.
“They spread the court, controlled the tempo. They used three guards. We were not sharp,” Williams said. “The offensive end, we didn’t score. It was the toughest loss I had as a coach, even tougher than Duke.”
“We did it in St. Louis (regional) before the California game. We beat California and Richard Scott said, ‘We will spit wherever coach says.’ It’s funny because that year was the only time we did it, but it gets so much attention.”
The Jayhawks also spit in New Orleans, site of the Final Four, where KU fell in the first round to UNC to conclude a 29-7 season.
Since then KU has had records of 27-8, 25-6, 39-5, 34-2, and 35-4, emerging as one of the top handful of teams in the country under KU’s “verteran coach.”