CHAPEL HILL, N.C. ? There are some traditional print and TV reporters, as well as more radical Internetters, who believe Roy Williams accepted an offer to coach North Carolina’s basketball team last Friday.
They believe Friday night’s press conference at Kansas, in which the 12th-year Jayhawk coach said he had yet to make up his mind, was a sham.
They believe Williams told Carolina coaching legend and KU grad Dean Smith he’d accept an impending job offer at UNC, then became angry when The Associated Press reported Friday morning Williams was indeed, a lock for the Chapel Hill job.
Finally, a growing legion of media believe Williams accepted a final offer from UNC athletics director Dick Baddour on Sunday night and it’s just a matter of time before it’s officially announced Williams is Tobacco-road bound.
The rumors are hogwash, Kansas athletics director Bob Frederick says.
“I’d stake my life on the fact that is not true,” Frederick said Monday night. “I was with him (Williams) an hour and 15 minutes Friday, listening to him struggle with it.”
On Monday Frederick said, just like Friday, “it’s still 50-50, absolutely” that Williams would return to coach the Jayhawks.
He also said no KU players meeting had been called for this morning, a rumor that twice has appeared on the Internet.
And Frederick emphatically denied another wild rumor: Some out here believe Williams is waiting until Wednesday or Thursday to announce his decision to take the UNC job so he can help Frederick line up Notre Dame’s Matt Doherty or Vanderbilt’s Kevin Stallings as his successor.
“That’s absolutely not true. I’ve not talked to one person. Roy is still my coach. He knows it,” Frederick said.
Enough rumors for one day? Or do you want more?
Geez, this waiting for Roy to exhale and announce for Carolina or KU is a bit taxing.
J-W photographer Earl Richardson and I have been in Chapel Hill since Saturday it seems much longer talking to folks about what they think Williams is going to do.
What do I think?
Well, in covering Williams during his entire tenure, I’ve always told anybody who asked I thought Roy would return to his alma mater if given the call.
I won’t change my mind now. I will not waffle.
However, I will say I’m 99 percent (never say never) sure the Jayhawk coach is sincerely torn. One thing Roy Williams has never been is a liar.
And just from watching him relate to his players current and past for many years, he is an emotional softie when it comes to his Jayhawks. He isn’t playing games with them.
Yes, it’s tough to say goodbye to players.
But for some reason it’s hard for those outside the Carolina family to fathom it’s nearly impossible for Carolina hoop family members to turn down requests from Dean Smith.
Dean Smith wants Roy Williams to succeed Bill Guthridge, who succeeded Smith. If Williams turns down Smith, virtually EVERYBODY in the basketball world would be surprised.
Williams can pull the stunner of a lifetime and stay at Kansas and keep the Jayhawk program rolling. To do so would shock many and all of those folks sporting the conspiracy theory mentioned above.
