Kansas City, Mo. ? Kansas Jayhawk fans always knew this could happen.
Sources told The Associated Press Friday that Roy Williams, the winningest basketball coach in the decade of the ’90s and the fastest in history to win 300 games, was headed back to his alma mater, North Carolina, following Bill Guthridge’s resignation.
However, Williams said in a statement Friday he has agreed to talk to North Carolina athletic director Dick Baddour, but it is “completely false” that he has accepted the job.
Williams and Kansas athletic director Bob Frederick scheduled a news conference for 7 p.m. CDT Friday to discuss Williams’ future. Williams said in his statement that he would make a decision before the recruiting period begins July 8.
“I won’t go into recruiting with this hanging over my head,” Williams told The Kansas City Star. “I’ll listen to North Carolina, and then I’ll have a final discussion with Kansas. I will talk to Kansas last.”
“If it was a done deal, coach would have enough respect to talk to the players first. He always said he would,” said Kenny Gregory, Kansas senior forward. “I take his word for it. I’m not going to take it too seriously ’til I talk to coach.”
This is not the first high-profile coaching job to come Williams’ way.
He turned down the Los Angeles Lakers’ head coaching job several years ago. Just a few weeks ago he said no to his old friend Michael Jordan, who wanted him to come coach the Washington Wizards.
Williams told The Star that his decision to leave or stay at Kansas won’t revolve around money.
“If I coach at Kansas next season, it will be for the exact same contract as I had,” Williams said. “This isn’t about money. I won’t be using this as a chance to get more money.”
Williams talked Thursday night with Frederick. Frederick emphasized to Williams “how strongly the university, the community, the people in the state of Kansas and all of our alumni and fans feel about him continuing as the Jayhawk coach forever.”
Frederick did not discuss how the coach responded. Kansas Chancellor Robert Hemenway said the school was privileged to have Williams.
“Our hope and fervent desire is that the best basketball coach in America will continue to practice his craft at KU,” he said Thursday night.
It has been no secret that if any job could pry Williams away from Allen Fieldhouse and the Kansas program he has so lovingly and successfully managed since 1988-89, it was North Carolina. That’s the state where he grew up and the school he attended, played for and served as a longtime assistant under Dean Smith.
Williams’ North Carolina ties had remained strong. Both his son and daughter went to school there and he maintains a beachfront home there.
“I think if it were up to Roy, he would always stay at Kansas,” said one Williams friend a few months ago. “But Wanda (Mrs. Williams) has always wanted to go back home. All her family is back in North Carolina and she’s always been home sick ever since they got here.”
Williams, who turns 50 on Aug. 1, is 329-82 in 12 seasons at Kansas since leaving Smith’s Tar Heel staff. He took the Jayhawks to the Final Four in 1991 and 1993 and led Kansas to a 286-60 record in the ’90s, the best of any NCAA Division I school. Before him, no college coach had reached 300 victories before their 12th season.
Over the past nine years, Williams’ teams have claimed seven conference championships.
Since about 1991 when he had his first Final Four team, Williams has been constantly rumored to be on his way back home. He often became testy about the rumors.
“Dadgumit, I don’t know what I can say or do to show more loyalty to Kansas,” he once said. “I love this place.”
Those rumors were fanned when Smith retired after the 1997 season and was replaced by Guthridge, fueling speculation that Williams’ departure was only a matter of time.
Next to the legendary Phog Allen, no coach in Kansas history has been more successful, or more popular. Williams’ players, with few exceptions, have typically been outstanding students and citizens in the community.
“We’ve always known this could happen,” one Kansas fan said Friday. “If we can get through this crisis, I bet we’ll have him for life.”
Students walking Friday morning in front of Allen Fieldhouse reflected the somber mob on campus.
“I hope it’s not true, but I’ve got a sick feeling that it probably is,” said Rene Russell, a Kansas City, Kan., sophomore. “Whoever they get to replace coach Williams, it just won’t be the same. I feel like crying.”
As for Guthridge’s retirement, Williams said, “I offer my congratulations to him for the major role he played in North Carolina’s basketball success for such a long period. He is one of my mentors, he’s my friend, he is one of my idols.”
