New York ? A proud University of North Carolina basketball alum, Scott Williams never roots against his beloved Tar Heels.
Except, of course, when the opponent is Kansas.
“I want it to be a close game. I guess you could say I want Kansas to win by one in triple overtime,” chuckled Williams, the 25-year-old son of KU coach Roy Williams, who played for Dean Smith two years and Bill Guthridge two years at UNC.
Triple overtime?
Wouldn’t that put some undue stress on the man Scott affectionately refers to as “Pops?”
“That’s definitely true,” Scott Williams said, commenting on tonight’s Preseason NIT semifinal between KU and UNC (approximately 8:30 p.m., Madison Square Garden).
“Those kind of games get everybody nervous, but they show you what people are made of and can help a team later in the season.”
Williams, a bond trader for Wachovia Securities in Charlotte, N.C, who won’t be able to attend tonight’s game in person – his girlfriend long ago set other Thanksgiving week plans – longs for a postseason in which KU wins six straight games and a national title.
He wants the title for his pops – a man driven to win his first national championship.
“Yes I’m worried about him. He is so passionate about it. It’s to his physical detriment,” Scott Williams said of his 52-year-old dad.
“Definitely I’m worried about him from that perspective.”
He’s not the only one.
“My mom is trying to get him to retire now,” Scott said, matter-of-faculty. “If he is fortunate enough to win the title, I think he’d hang it up. Mom’s bickering … I think he’d be forced to fold at that point.”
While Roy Williams is wildly popular in the state of Kansas – it’s believed both he and Kansas State football coach Bill Snyder could run for political office and win election – there are always some outspoken critics who won’t consider Scott’s dad a success until he wins it all.
“I don’t think that’s a big driving force for him, but it bothers both of them (parents) – Pops because he wants to please everybody. You can’t do that. Too many people have differing opinions,” Scott Williams said.
“I think Mom’s biggest deal is she wants to have him be able to sleep a whole night (without waking up).
“She wants to hang out at the beach together (at beach home in South Carolina). She, for selfish reasons, doesn’t want to share him and that’s understandable. In the season there’s so little time for them to spend together. She understands it’s the demands of that business. She knew what she was signing up for.”
Scott, a 1995 Lawrence High graduate who was a reserve guard on the Lions’ ’95 Class 6A state championship team, recognizes his dad’s passion of basketball as deep.
“He is so passionate because he cares so deeply for kids in his program,” Scott Williams said. “When he goes in homes for visits he tells parents, ‘I will take care of your son if he comes to Kansas.’ It means so much to him. People ask me, ‘Do you have other brothers and sisters?’ I say I have one sister and 13 or 14 brothers depending on how many guys are on Pops’ team that year.”
While Scott wasn’t surprised his dad chose to stay at Kansas during the wild summer of 2000 when Carolina grad Roy Williams was offered the UNC job, Scott said a move home might have helped his mom and dad in one way.
The Williamses have no relatives in Kansas; hordes in Carolina.
“The pressure would be outrageous at North Carolina, just like Kansas,” Scott said. “Having family support nonstop might make it easier for them, especially my mom. Pops loves golf. In North Carolina you can play year round.
“He says he wants to coach Little League baseball and they have teams in both Kansas and North Carolina.”
Indeed, Roy Williams says his major goal in life now is not to win a national title in basketball, but coach his grandson or granddaughter’s Little League team. Of course, he has no grandchildren yet.
“At this point,” Scott Williams said, “I think the next time talk will come about Pops leaving is when he’s retiring, not taking another job.”
Yet the topic of the North Carolina job never seems to die down.
Scott chuckles when asked about the Summer of 2000 when his dad rejected Smith’s offer to come home.
“Really until the day Pops announced, he didn’t know what he wanted to do,” Scott said. “He called me that morning (July 7, 2000) and said, ‘I’ve made a decision and have a press conference tonight.’ I said, ‘I know it’s a good decision, but don’t tell me.’ He said, ‘I want to tell you.’
“But I said, ‘So many people are asking me about it at work and I don’t want to have to lie to people. If I don’t know the decision I don’t have to lie.’
“It was not a tough time for me. It was actually easy. I’d get an occasional phone call from the Greensboro paper. A guy from the Greensboro paper asked me for comments about Pops accepting the North Carolina job. I said, ‘I’m happy for him but I don’t think he’s accepted.’ The reporter said, ‘Oh yes, he did.’ That was a week before he announced his decision and everybody was positive.
“As far as the way people have treated me, it’s not changed. It’s still probably tough on Pops. He feels he let some people down. But my perspective is it’s two gracious groups of people, Carolina people and KU people.
“Even now people come up to me and say, ‘We’d rather have your dad, but we’re happy to have coach (Matt) Doherty and we think he’s going to do a great job.”‘
Indeed, Matt Doherty is beginning his third year at UNC and has his young team off to a 3-0 start.
“Coach Doherty has been as gracious as he can be to former players,” Williams said. “The basketball office sends out a mailing every year helping us get tickets. I think he has learned a lot in a couple years and he has brought in some outstanding players who are going to be great. You have to remember except for coach (John) Wooden at UCLA, perhaps nobody has had bigger shoes to fill.”
Doherty replaced Guthridge, who replaced Smith.
“Coach Doherty is going to be fantastic,” Williams said. “It’s 100 percent positive around here again.”
