CHAPEL HILL, N.C. ? There was a Roy Williams sighting Monday night on North Carolina’s campus.
Or was there?
“My city editor said he saw Roy, (his wife) Wanda and (UNC athletics director) Dick Baddour sitting on the steps of the (campus) planetarium,” said Brian Frederick the son of Kansas athletics director Bob Frederick who happens to be summer editor of the school paper, the Daily Tar Heel.
“They got up to leave. He heard somebody say they were going to the Smith Center,” Frederick added.
Sources close to Carolina basketball were highly skeptical of the Williams sighting.
Nobody in Carolina country could confirm an appearance by KU’s coach.
If Williams was here with Wanda, what was he doing touring a campus he is so familiar with?
“Sealing the deal,” Brian Frederick said with a laugh.
Actually, Frederick, a 25-year-old Lawrence High graduate, isn’t sure Williams will succeed Bill Guthridge as UNC coach.
If Roy and Wanda were indeed in town Monday night could the city editor have been joking or mistaken? it might have been merely to stroll on the coach’s old stomping ground to help him decide if he wants to return to his alma mater.
Whatever …
Brian Frederick hopes the story is finalized by noon Wednesday deadline for the Daily Tar Heel edition that hits the newsstands Thursday.
The paper comes out just once a week in the summer.
“I’m hoping we can get a little something in,” Frederick said.
Like other media types, Frederick has phoned his dad, Bob, in Lawrence to request media information.
“I remember journalists on my front lawn on Christmas morning. Now I’m doing this (too),” Frederick said.
He was recalling an incident years ago when Glen Mason accepted the Georgia coaching job on Christmas Day. Reporters visited the Frederick estate for comment.
“My dad opened the door and let them all sit in the living room and come out of the cold (while the family continued dinner),” Brian Frederick said.
Yep, dad Bob has been known as one kind, honorable man throughout the years. “Honestly, I don’t think he (dad) has the scoop,” Brian Frederick said. “He is just as optimistic as anybody in Lawrence that coach Williams will stay.”
Brian Frederick says he realizes Williams is facing one of the toughest decisions of his life.
“I guess first and foremost I feel bad for Roy Williams having to make the decision,” Frederick said. “I’d like him to be able to please both campuses. I don’t think he’s a lock (for the UNC job). I personally have knowledge of Lawrence and KU basketball and a lot of people here don’t know what it’s about.
“I had an interesting thought today,” Frederick added. “If Roy said no to North Carolina it might have a big impact on the program. Nobody says no to North Carolina.”
Frederick arrived in Chapel Hill a year ago. He attended the University of Iowa two years, KU two years and has taught at Lawrence High, plus at a high school in San Jose, Calif., and in Los Angeles.
“I like to move around, I guess,” Frederick said.
