At North Carolina, we are told, the inmates are not running the asylum.
A potential player revolt was not the reason, UNC athletic director Dick Baddour avowed, that men’s basketball coach Matt Doherty resigned. It would be “extremely unfair to those players” to blame Doherty’s departure on them, he added.
OK, then, just who IS running the asylum in Chapel Hill?
Is it Baddour, who has often been described by Carolina media as bumbling? Is it UNC Chancellor Jim Moeser, the former organist at Plymouth Congregational Church in downtown Lawrence who may have pulled the wrong stops?
Or is it Dean Smith, the legendary former UNC basketball coach who is, according to many Tar Heel loyalists, pulling the strings from his office in the basement of the arena erected as a shrine to his 36 years of glory?
Actually, it doesn’t matter who has the hammer in Chapel Hill. The problem isn’t so much how to solve it as it is to survive it, because only time can cure replacing a legend.
Three years ago, Roy Williams almost left Kansas University to return to his native North Carolina. At the time, there was a tacit understanding — at least in North Carolina — that Williams would return once Bill Guthridge, Smith’s longtime aide, had served as head coach long enough to provide a buffer to prevent Williams from suffering from the dreaded Successor Syndrome.
Do you remember who succeeded Vince Lombardi with the Green Bay Packers? In a similar vein, can you recall who took over when Lawrence High football coaching legend Al Woolard retired? Answers: Phil Bengtson and Don Pfutzenreuter.
North Carolina’s unwritten and unspoken succession plan failed when Williams couldn’t pull the ripcord on his Kansas players, mainly Kirk Hinrich, Nick Collison and Drew Gooden — three freshmen who had restored Williams’ faith in the fruits of straightforward recruiting.
With Gooden gone and Hinrich and Collison headed to the NBA, the question is: Does Williams feel strong enough about his returning players and his recruits not to say, “Thanks, Kansas, it’s been a wonderful 15 years, but I can’t resist the second siren call of Tobacco Road.”?
A sports column written by Scott Fowler of the Charlotte Observer hinted Williams may not be able to resist Smith’s plea to return and place the men’s basketball program back on its ivory tower.
“Williams has already repaid Kansas many times over for the faith the Jayhawks have shown in him,” Fowler wrote. “Now he needs to salvage the North Carolina program.”
Depends on how you look at it.
Can Williams, for instance, ever fully repay the faith Kansas athletic director Bob Frederick had in him back in 1988? The heat was so intense Frederick needed suntan lotion. How could Frederick hire an unknown assistant coach? This is tradition-rich Kansas and KU should be able to hire established head coaches. Who is this Ron Williams anyway?
Fowler also penned these lines: “(Williams’) love for Smith, though, is undying. He still refers to him as ‘Coach Smith’ — and the way Williams says the word ‘Coach’ is the way a son who deeply loves his father says the word ‘Daddy.'”
I have news for Fowler. As recently as in Anaheim, Calif., last weekend, Williams referred to his mentor as “Dean Smith.” At the age of 53 and firmly established in the college basketball coaching firmament, Williams certainly respects Smith, and always will, but the reverence has gradually faded as the son has reached equal footing with the father.
I have no idea what Williams will do after New Orleans, but I do know Williams has based almost everything he has done on Smith’s career, and Smith, as you know, established his legacy at one school.
At least twice Smith was approached by Kansas officials about returning to his alma mater. Instead, Smith orchestrated the hiring of Larry Brown in 1983 and Williams in 1988.
Perhaps Williams has reached the stage where he can now assume the role of a broker instead of a successor.
