The longer the Great Roy Watch drags on the more I’m convinced one and only one roadblock stands between Roy Williams and his ascension to the North Carolina throne.
Williams has so many ties to North Carolina it’s a wonder they haven’t made him an honorary citizen already.
Williams’ son, Scott, and his sister, Frances Baker, live in Charlotte. His daughter, Kimberly, attends North Carolina U. His wife, Wanda, also has relatives who live in the Tar Heel State.
Moreover, Williams has invested in a couple of golf course/housing developments near his native Asheville. He has so many North Carolina connections it makes his beach house in South Carolina seem like an anomaly.
What ties does Williams have to Kansas? Well, he owns a couple of lots in an upscale Lawrence housing development, a house off 15th Street on El Dorado Drive the same house he and Wanda purchased when he came to Lawrence in 1988 and a 12-year investment in the Kansas University basketball program.
I don’t know how much affection Williams and Wanda have for their home. I’m sure they love it, or they wouldn’t have stayed in it for so long. Still, as much as Williams loves that house, it’s just a house, and it wouldn’t be that difficult to leave it for another.
Not so for his investment in KU basketball, bringing me to the main reason Williams is struggling with his decision as he vacations on the Atlantic Ocean.
Williams, as emotional a coach as I’ve ever known, realizes the hardest thing he will ever have to do as a coach is to say goodbye to his current players.
You’ve seen him at post-season award dinners choking back tears, rubbing his eyes as he hugs his seniors, realizing they will never play for him again.
Imagine Williams telling his entire team he won’t be coaching them again. That would be Tear Time at Blubber City, and Williams knows it.
Worse, Williams would have to do it via a conference telephone call because the players are no longer on campus. The Jayhawks have returned to their homes and most won’t be coming back to Mount Oread until August.
According to plan, Williams will meet face-to-face with KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway and athletics director Bob Frederick in Lawrence before he makes a decision.
Presumably, soon after that session with Hemenway and Frederick, Williams will pull the trigger. Since Williams has announced he will absolutely, positively tell his players first, a conference call will have to be set up so he can inform the players of his decision before they hear it on radio or television.
I can picture Williams telling his players he’s staying over the telephone. That would be a joyous moment for all. However, I cannot envision him telling them via phone that he’s going to North Carolina. It’s so well, it’s just so wrong. And yet it’s the only way.
If Williams is indeed leaving, his players deserve to be told in person. Williams, who has personified class in his dozen years here, knows that only too well.
As much as the lure of North Carolina is tugging at Williams’ heart, the prospect of saying good-bye to the players he recruited, nurtured and, in many cases, loved has to be tearing him up.
Most of the people I’ve talked to agree that Williams’ loyalty to his players has turned what he thought was his dream job into the dilemma of a lifetime.
