Roy Williams planned on clinking glasses with his wife during dinner on Tuesday night.
“Tonight, Wanda and I wills it back and think a bit, maybe make a little statement over a Coca-Cola,” Williams, Kansas University’s men’s basketball coach, said Tuesday from his office at Parrott Athletic Center.
Williams figured his 10th anniversary as Kansas basketball coach — he was introduced as a press conference a decade ago today — was something worth celebrating with his life partner.
After all, they’ve both come a long way in a decade.
“I feel I’ve been here 130 years in some ways because so many things have happened,” Williams said. “I also can remember the press conference like it was yesterday.”
He can remember feelings of uncertainty as he left an assistant’s job at his alma mater, North Carolina, for the head job at KU.
“I called coach Guthridge (Bill, then North Carolina assistant) on July 7, 1988. One question I asked him was, ‘Do you really think I can do this?'” Williams recalled. “I had some cold feet because I was in such a comfortable situation at North Carolina.
“Yet I did have that desire to be a head coach. When Bob (Frederick, KU athletics director) asked me if I wanted the job and I said, ‘Yes,’ it was a great feeling, but not one where I patted myself on the back. At that time I was scared to death. I wanted to get to work.
“Bob said, ‘Your salary will be…’ I said, ‘I don’t have time to worry about that. I trust you. We’ll talk about that later.'”
So Williams arrived minus a contract — he signed one a year later — and went to work.
Williams has compiled a record of 282-62 to become college basketball’s winningest coach through 10 years of a career. Last season, he surged past Jerry Tarkanian as the winningest active coach (.819 winning percentage).
“The worst loss is any of ’em,” Williams said, looking back on 10 years of games. “The significance of those losses at the end of the year stick with you so much longer. Arizona, UTEP and Rhode Island (NCAA Tournament losses), all three are bad enough to not have to pick one.
“The biggest victory? The good news is there have been so many more of those. The 1991 and ’93 marches to the Final Four. In ’91, we beat North Carolina in the semis to get to the final game.
“This past season, we beat Missouri in front of all our former players, coaches and managers on our 100 Years of Basketball celebration. Also our great comeback against UCLA (down by 15, KU won 85-70 in 1995); the Indiana game where Jacque (Vaughn) made a three at the end. The Kentucky game where we scored 150.”
He’s recorded 282 wins without any hint of scandal.
“I hope our legacy always is that,” Williams said of winning without breaking the rules. “Working with coach (Dean) Smith 10 years, it’s the great legacy he has.
“I hope I will be remembered as a coach who tried to do it the right way, who cared a great deal about his kids, who gave every ounce of time, energy and knowledge he possibly could.”
Williams has survivied the fishbowl of a community consumed by basketball.
“I hope I’ve not changed as a person. I think I still enjoy and appreciate the small things,” Williams said. “I don’t think Roy Williams is that important, but boy, when you are head coach at Kansas, you are in the public eye.
“It’s a pretty important deal.”
Williams accepts celebrity status by signing autographs willingly. He doesn’t mind making chit-chat with passers-by, except when he’s with his family.
“The people in Lawrence are fantastic,” he said. “I’ve always said the attention and signing autographs is so much better than the alternative, people not caring.
“The only times it’s bothered me is when it cuts into family time. Scott (Williams’ son) had a good game at sub-state his senior year at Lawrence High. He came up to talk to me after the game and a guy interrupted and asked for an autograph. I turned around and Scott had gone back to the locker room. That hurt.
“This year I was at one of (daughter) Kimberly’s dance contests. She finished and came down and we talked about how she did. Somebody interrupted in the same scenario. That’s the only time I think, ‘This is ridiculous.’
“I always stress it’s a good problem to have.”
