Scott Williams says no contracts have been signed, no secret deals have been reached.
The former Lawrence High and North Carolina basketball player thinks his famous father — Kansas University coach Roy Williams — flew Friday night to Los Angeles for Wooden Award ceremonies still undecided whether he’ll remain coach at KU or take over at UNC.
“I don’t think he has any idea,” Scott Williams said Friday from Charlotte, N.C., where he works as a bond trader at a bank.
Roy Williams and KU senior Nick Collison — a finalist for player-of-the-year honors — will try to enjoy the ceremonies while rumors swirl about Williams’ future. The coach, who will receive the Wooden Legends of Coaching Award, is expected to talk by phone with North Carolina athletic director Dick Baddour during the weekend.
“I read Mr. Baddour said he’d not offered Pops the job,” Scott Williams said. “I hope he doesn’t, period, but if he does, I hope he waits until the weekend is over so he can enjoy the Wooden ceremonies with Nick Collison.”
Scott Williams last talked to his dad Monday in New Orleans after the national final, which was prior to Baddour speaking with Williams about the job for the first time Wednesday.
Williams said just one thing about the North Carolina job to his dad.
“I told him if there’s anything he has a problem with — anything he has a hesitation about — stay at Kansas,” Scott Williams said. “You love the kids. You love the program you built. If there’s any hesitation, stay there.”
Yet Scott lightheartedly admitted he would prefer his pops return to his native Carolina.
“I have a new motivation this time,” Williams said. “I’ve got to look after myself in these things. The last time I wanted him to come so I could get tickets (to UNC games). This time it’s not related to him. It’s the sure fact Mom would come with him, and I’d get home-cooked meals within 21¼2 hours. I would say the extended family wants him back, and I love the home-cooked meals.”
Scott has told the Journal-World many times that his mom, Wanda, would love to have her husband simply retire because the emotional coach has trouble even sleeping during pressure-packed seasons.
“Mom is laying it on him to quit entirely,” Scott Williams said. “This may speed the process if she gets him out here. If he comes here I honestly don’t think his time frame would shrink. My mom would hope it would. He is crazy enough to go another 10 years. I’d rather him go five years. The best thing would have been to win the national championship Monday at Kansas, retire, say no to North Carolina and lay on the beach.”
Roy Williams turned down an offer from UNC in 2000, citing loyalty to his players. The job came open again when former Williams aide Matt Doherty was forced out two weeks ago.
Scott Williams was asked Friday how his pops could tell KU players he’s leaving them after saying in 2000 his players were the reason he stayed at KU.
“He’d be rolling out with Nick and Kirk (Hinrich),” Scott Williams said, “and the rest of the guys … he’s given himself to them heart and soul and they’ve been very very successful the last 15 years.”
Scott nixes Carolina-based media and Internet reports that his dad has planned this return to Carolina for months.
“I know he didn’t make the decision months ago because none of us thought ‘coach D’ would leave Chapel Hill,” Williams said of Doherty.
As far as Williams’ rocky relationship with former Kansas athletic director Al Bohl, who was fired this week, Scott doesn’t think fallout from the resignation would be a big factor in Williams possibly leaving.
“I don’t think pops is the only one who had differences of opinion with Bohl,” Williams said. “If anybody in the athletic department had fewer problems with him it’s pops. They were smart enough to stay away from each other.”
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Golf outing: Coach Williams played golf Friday at Alvamar with former KU aide Jerry Green and Green’s son, Travis, who today will get married in Kansas City. Former KU player and assistant coach Jerry Waugh played in the group behind Williams with KU assistant coach Steve Robinson, Max Falkenstien and Floyd Temple.
“None of the (Williams’ coaching) staff has an indication as what he’ll do,” Waugh said. “I am not sure he knows. I think he’s going through the same doggone thing as last time.”
Waugh spoke with Williams face-to-face about the Carolina opening once this week.
“I was one of two or three people who didn’t think he was going last time. Everybody told me he was going. I said his feelings for his kids, his players would ultimately win out,” Waugh said. “I vacillate this time. I hear something and say ‘Ooh yeah.’ Then I hear something else and say, ‘Oh my.’
“He is not unhappy at Kansas. I think he feels everything here is straight. If this job wouldn’t have come up was Roy gonna go anywhere? Would he go to UCLA, Maryland? No. He’s happy here. So why would he go to North Carolina? Everything is place at Kansas.
“I want him to go for the right reasons. I want him to stay for the right reasons. I just hope him feeling like he has an obligation of some sort to North Carolina is not a factor. I mean that school is his alma mater. It is important to him. But pressure is not a good reason. I told him I wasn’t there to pressure or him or beg him to stay, just, ‘Here are some facts. Put ’em in your pipe and smoke ’em.”‘
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Big weekend in L.A.: KU benefactor Dana Anderson was to welcome Williams into his Bel Air, Calif., home Friday for a weekend of golf and Wooden ceremonies.
The Wooden Award will be presented today in Los Angeles with a black tie dinner to follow Sunday night. Williams will return to Lawrence in the early hours Monday morning. Carolina media types believe Williams ultimately will be introduced as UNC coach Monday.
Anderson hopes that is not the case. Yet he will not pressure his pal to stay at KU.
“I don’t think that’s appropriate,” Anderson said. “The only thing I’ll say is what I said to him three years ago. I said he loves and admires Dean Smith and has learned a lot of things from him. I recall 25 years ago when KU went to coach Smith and said, ‘We need you to come home and build a program and create something here.’ He said, ‘As much as I love Kansas and my alma mater, I created something here at North Carolina and will stay here with what I built.’ I said with a little bit of a grin, ‘I know how much you admire coach Smith and his principles. Reflect on what he went through and come up with the same decision,”‘ he added, laughing. “I’ll remind him of that.”
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Allen’s take: Former KU football coach Terry Allen spoke with Williams Wednesday.
“If I had to guess I think he might (leave),” Allen told the Des Moines Register. “He feels it’s not possible for him to stay at the University of Kansas. This Al Bohl situation really bothers him. He’s pointed out as the reason (for firing) and it bothers him.
“With Al being out of there, there’s probably a lot better chance of Roy being there, but — and I’m just surmising here — I will tell you that this hurts him to be, now, attacked by Al. And it makes the situation there somewhat uncomfortable.”
Since Wednesday, however, no media types or fans have blamed Williams for Bohl’s ouster.
“I would be hard pressed to find one person in the athletic department in favor of him and defensive of him,” Anderson said of Bohl. “Literally. Nobody in their right mind blames Roy Williams for that. Nobody has risen to the defense of Al Bohl.”
Scott Williams says no contracts have been signed, no secret deals have been reached.
The former Lawrence High and North Carolina basketball player thinks his famous father — Kansas University coach Roy Williams — flew Friday night to Los Angeles for Wooden Award ceremonies still undecided whether he’ll remain coach at KU or take over at UNC.
“I don’t think he has any idea,” Scott Williams said Friday from Charlotte, N.C., where he works as a bond trader at a bank.
Roy Williams and KU senior Nick Collison — a finalist for player-of-the-year honors — will try to enjoy the ceremonies while rumors swirl about Williams’ future. The coach, who will receive the Wooden Legends of Coaching Award, is expected to talk by phone with North Carolina athletic director Dick Baddour during the weekend.
“I read Mr. Baddour said he’d not offered Pops the job,” Scott Williams said. “I hope he doesn’t, period, but if he does, I hope he waits until the weekend is over so he can enjoy the Wooden ceremonies with Nick Collison.”
Scott Williams last talked to his dad Monday in New Orleans after the national final, which was prior to Baddour speaking with Williams about the job for the first time Wednesday.
Williams said just one thing about the North Carolina job to his dad.
“I told him if there’s anything he has a problem with — anything he has a hesitation about — stay at Kansas,” Scott Williams said. “You love the kids. You love the program you built. If there’s any hesitation, stay there.”
Yet Scott lightheartedly admitted he would prefer his pops return to his native Carolina.
“I have a new motivation this time,” Williams said. “I’ve got to look after myself in these things. The last time I wanted him to come so I could get tickets (to UNC games). This time it’s not related to him. It’s the sure fact Mom would come with him, and I’d get home-cooked meals within 21¼2 hours. I would say the extended family wants him back, and I love the home-cooked meals.”
Scott has told the Journal-World many times that his mom, Wanda, would love to have her husband simply retire because the emotional coach has trouble even sleeping during pressure-packed seasons.
“Mom is laying it on him to quit entirely,” Scott Williams said. “This may speed the process if she gets him out here. If he comes here I honestly don’t think his time frame would shrink. My mom would hope it would. He is crazy enough to go another 10 years. I’d rather him go five years. The best thing would have been to win the national championship Monday at Kansas, retire, say no to North Carolina and lay on the beach.”
Roy Williams turned down an offer from UNC in 2000, citing loyalty to his players. The job came open again when former Williams aide Matt Doherty was forced out two weeks ago.
Scott Williams was asked Friday how his pops could tell KU players he’s leaving them after saying in 2000 his players were the reason he stayed at KU.
“He’d be rolling out with Nick and Kirk (Hinrich),” Scott Williams said, “and the rest of the guys … he’s given himself to them heart and soul and they’ve been very very successful the last 15 years.”
Scott nixes Carolina-based media and Internet reports that his dad has planned this return to Carolina for months.
“I know he didn’t make the decision months ago because none of us thought ‘coach D’ would leave Chapel Hill,” Williams said of Doherty.
As far as Williams’ rocky relationship with former Kansas athletic director Al Bohl, who was fired this week, Scott doesn’t think fallout from the resignation would be a big factor in Williams possibly leaving.
“I don’t think pops is the only one who had differences of opinion with Bohl,” Williams said. “If anybody in the athletic department had fewer problems with him it’s pops. They were smart enough to stay away from each other.”
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Golf outing: Coach Williams played golf Friday at Alvamar with former KU aide Jerry Green and Green’s son, Travis, who today will get married in Kansas City. Former KU player and assistant coach Jerry Waugh played in the group behind Williams with KU assistant coach Steve Robinson, Max Falkenstien and Floyd Temple.
“None of the (Williams’ coaching) staff has an indication as what he’ll do,” Waugh said. “I am not sure he knows. I think he’s going through the same doggone thing as last time.”
Waugh spoke with Williams face-to-face about the Carolina opening once this week.
“I was one of two or three people who didn’t think he was going last time. Everybody told me he was going. I said his feelings for his kids, his players would ultimately win out,” Waugh said. “I vacillate this time. I hear something and say ‘Ooh yeah.’ Then I hear something else and say, ‘Oh my.’
“He is not unhappy at Kansas. I think he feels everything here is straight. If this job wouldn’t have come up was Roy gonna go anywhere? Would he go to UCLA, Maryland? No. He’s happy here. So why would he go to North Carolina? Everything is place at Kansas.
“I want him to go for the right reasons. I want him to stay for the right reasons. I just hope him feeling like he has an obligation of some sort to North Carolina is not a factor. I mean that school is his alma mater. It is important to him. But pressure is not a good reason. I told him I wasn’t there to pressure or him or beg him to stay, just, ‘Here are some facts. Put ’em in your pipe and smoke ’em.”‘
¢
Big weekend in L.A.: KU benefactor Dana Anderson was to welcome Williams into his Bel Air, Calif., home Friday for a weekend of golf and Wooden ceremonies.
The Wooden Award will be presented today in Los Angeles with a black tie dinner to follow Sunday night. Williams will return to Lawrence in the early hours Monday morning. Carolina media types believe Williams ultimately will be introduced as UNC coach Monday.
Anderson hopes that is not the case. Yet he will not pressure his pal to stay at KU.
“I don’t think that’s appropriate,” Anderson said. “The only thing I’ll say is what I said to him three years ago. I said he loves and admires Dean Smith and has learned a lot of things from him. I recall 25 years ago when KU went to coach Smith and said, ‘We need you to come home and build a program and create something here.’ He said, ‘As much as I love Kansas and my alma mater, I created something here at North Carolina and will stay here with what I built.’ I said with a little bit of a grin, ‘I know how much you admire coach Smith and his principles. Reflect on what he went through and come up with the same decision,”‘ he added, laughing. “I’ll remind him of that.”
¢
Allen’s take: Former KU football coach Terry Allen spoke with Williams Wednesday.
“If I had to guess I think he might (leave),” Allen told the Des Moines Register. “He feels it’s not possible for him to stay at the University of Kansas. This Al Bohl situation really bothers him. He’s pointed out as the reason (for firing) and it bothers him.
“With Al being out of there, there’s probably a lot better chance of Roy being there, but — and I’m just surmising here — I will tell you that this hurts him to be, now, attacked by Al. And it makes the situation there somewhat uncomfortable.”
Since Wednesday, however, no media types or fans have blamed Williams for Bohl’s ouster.
“I would be hard pressed to find one person in the athletic department in favor of him and defensive of him,” Anderson said of Bohl. “Literally. Nobody in their right mind blames Roy Williams for that. Nobody has risen to the defense of Al Bohl.”
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