After keeping two storied basketball programs waiting all week, Kansas scheduled a late-night news conference Thursday and invited fans to watch leading to speculation that Roy Williams would remain with the Jayhawks and spurn a chance to return home to North Carolina.
Kansas athletic director Bob Frederick scheduled a news conference for 9 p.m. CST Thursday to discuss Williams’ job status, and said either he or Williams or both would attend. A news release invited fans to watch the conference on a giant video board at the football stadium.
North Carolina athletic director Dick Baddour called a news conference for 9:30 p.m. CST.
There still was no indication, official or otherwise, that Williams had made a decision he had agonized over since Bill Guthridge retired as Carolina coach last week.
Many observers on the scene speculated that if Kansas had bad news to announce, fans would not be invited to watch Williams say goodbye to a school where he won 329 games in 12 seasons.
Earlier Thursday, Williams strolled the Kansas campus alone and wore the haggard look of a man who had no job, not a man struggling to pick between two great jobs.
Seven days after he learned the North Carolina position he had always coveted had come open, Williams still could not make up his mind.
The question has gripped both states for a week. Thousands of Kansas fans have made signs, handed out roses and even prayed so that Williams would stay. Kansas officials said almost 2,000 e-mails had arrived addressed to Williams urging him to stay.
From Gov. Bill Graves to teen-agers working the check-out stands at convenience stores, Williams has dominated conversation.
But even as a throng of journalists waited outside Allen Fieldhouse for word Thursday, Williams walked alone across the grounds, silently and unsuccessfully groping for his own answer.
He finally left the campus Thursday afternoon, driving off alone after telling reporters that he was going to his Lawrence home to “do some thinking” and possibly reach a decision later Thursday.
Friday, the day before summer recruiting begins, was Williams’ self-imposed deadline.
After flying back from the Carolinas Wednesday evening, Williams met for several hours Thursday with athletic director Bob Frederick, Chancellor Robert Hemenway and members of his coaching staff.
Engulfed by reporters as he tried to slip into a side door at Allen Fieldhouse, Williams appeared exhausted. “I am tired,” he said.
“I was just trying to sneak away from you guys to get some time to walk around on campus by myself,” he said.
“I’ve just got to make a decision. I can’t go on like this. And you guys can’t go on like this. I apologize for putting you through this. I’ve just got to have what I think is the right feeling. I’m hoping we’ll know something real soon.”
Williams said he hoped to make a decision on his future later in the day but added, “Don’t hold me to that.”
Williams, who has been to the Final Four twice with Kansas, but has not won it, is trying to decide whether to stay with a promising Jayhawks team or go home to North Carolina, where he grew up and spent 10 years as an assistant under Dean Smith.
The entrance to the Wagnon Student Athlete Center, home to the school’s basketball offices, was festooned with signs, most of them hand-lettered: “Roy, you are home.” “Roy, you belong at KU.”
One sign referred to an incident in which Williams apologized after characterizing lackadaisical fans as a “wine and cheese” crowd following a 15-point victory over Colorado.
The sign read: “How’s this for getting off our fat butts? Maybe this is just what we needed to appreciate you.”
Asked if the signs meant anything to him, Williams replied: “Yes, but the students at North Carolina have also been very kind.”
Williams returned from a vacation at his South Carolina beach home Wednesday night, denying reports that he had accepted a multiyear contract to coach North Carolina.
Kansas desperately wants to keep Williams, who is torn between his ties to North Carolina and Smith and the powerful basketball tradition of the Jayhawks and Allen Fieldhouse, where Wilt Chamberlain made an emotional return to see his jersey retired in 1998.
Frederick said he disagrees with media reports that Williams has already agreed to accept a lucrative deal to replace Bill Guthridge, who resigned as North Carolina coach last week.
“I don’t feel that. But I realize obviously the North Carolina media feel very strongly about that,” Frederick said. “It’s clear they think the decision’s already been made.”
A North Carolina native, Williams coached under Smith from 1978-88. At Smith’s suggestion, Frederick hired Williams in 1988, and the result has been almost unmatched success, including two Final Four appearances and seven conference championships.
With a 329-82 record, Williams has won more games in his first 12 seasons than any other coach in NCAA history.
“He has loyalty to North Carolina as a result of his 10 years of coaching there,” Frederick said. “He has loyalty to the University of Kansas, and to his players. He’s struggling between those two loyalties.”
