CHAPEL HILL, N.C. ? The word is never taken lightly in the inner circles of North Carolina basketball. Dean Smith has seen to that for four decades.
And it appears that bond between a coach and his players dashed the Tar Heels’ hopes of getting Roy Williams to return to his alma mater.
The Kansas coach said no to Smith, his close friend and mentor, on Thursday night, choosing to remain with his team in Kansas.
“My sense is that Roy left North Carolina thinking he was coming, but when it got down to telling that to his team he couldn’t do it,” James Moeser, North Carolina’s incoming chancellor, said Friday.
“I was surprised, but I was not shocked because I knew this was a very tough, agonizing decision for him,” Moeser added. “I knew enough about him that it would be an emotional decision based on sort of his gut feelings and that’s exactly what happened.”
For some North Carolina fans, it was worse than losing a game in the Final Four or a recruit to Duke.
Williams, 49, the winningest college coach of the 1990s, was clearly North Carolina’s No. 1 choice to take over one of the game’s elite programs following the retirement of Bill Guthridge a week ago.
On Tuesday, Williams played golf with Smith and former PGA Tour pro John Inman at the school’s newly redesigned Tom Fazio golf course. He then met with UNC athletics director Dick Baddour again before the two drove to the airport.
“Everything was positive, but Roy is a positive guy,” Baddour said. “I’m sure I said something like, ‘Let’s be looking for a house next time you come.”‘
He remained confident Williams would be his next basketball coach. Still, he was nervous.
“I felt very good when Roy left campus,” Baddour said. “I felt like my meeting with Roy and his visit went extremely well. I told my wife after he left that we’ve done everything we can do. Now, it is out of our hands. Coach Smith felt the same way.”
But Williams was headed back to Kansas turf, where he was faced with an outpouring of support by thousands of fans and backers and his players.
“You have to look at where Roy is,” said Rusty Clark, who played on three Atlantic Coast Conference title teams under Smith in the late ’60s. “He has been there for a long time. That has become home.
“It’s very tough when you recruit somebody who has about everything they want and need,” Clark said Friday. “I remember when UCLA in its hey day tried to recruit Dean, and he turned them down. Everybody said, ‘Gee, how could you turn down the UCLA job?’ He said, ‘Look, I’ve got everything I want right here.”‘
Smith did not attend Thursday night’s news conference in the Smith Center, or return phone calls left at his house and office Friday seeking comment on Williams’ decision or the search for a new coach.
Baddour and Smith were working on plan B on Friday. It appeared no new candidate had surfaced, with recruitment looming.
“Timing is a factor,” Moeser said. “Soon is better, but getting the best person is the most important thing. “The sun rose this morning in North Carolina and it will continue to do so and North Carolina will continue to have the best basketball program in the country.”
from North Carolina race
Columbia, S.C. South Carolina basketball coach Eddie Fogler has withdrawn his name from consideration for the North Carolina job, saying he wants to continue working with his young, improving Gamecock team.
In a statement released Friday, Fogler said he had spoken with Baddour, but decided the timing was not right to leave.
“I’m excited about the upcoming season and our program here at the University of South Carolina,” Fogler said.
will speak to Brown
Philadelphia Philadelphia 76ers coach Larry Brown has been granted permission to speak to North Carolina about the coaching job at his alma mater. Smith contacted Sixers president Pat Croce on Friday regarding Brown.
Brown, who joined the 76ers in 1997 after four seasons with the Indiana Pacers, signed a multiyear extension in March.
“I’m expecting Larry not to leave. I have to think positively,” Croce said.
It is believed Brown has an escape clause that allows him to accept a college coaching position.
to talk about vacancy
South Bend, Ind. Notre Dame basketball coach Matt Doherty has received permission to talk to North Carolina officials about the school’s coaching job.
Doherty, a former North Carolina player, was headed to North Carolina on Friday after a visit to the Nike basketball camp in Indianapolis, WSBT-TV reported.
Doherty was not speaking to the news media, a representative of the Notre Dame basketball office told WSBT.
