Jeff Lebo expected to see his good buddy and fellow North Carolina alum Roy Williams sitting on Kansas University’s basketball bench tonight.
Instead, Williams will be in Chapel Hill, N.C., leading the Tar Heel program, while Bill Self will patrol KU’s sidelines during a 7:05 p.m. battle against Lebo’s Tennessee-Chattanooga Mocs. Williams set up a 2-for-1 series with the Mocs — two games in Lawrence, one in Chattanooga, Tenn. — as a favor to Lebo.
“Coach Williams reminds me of coach (Dean) Smith in scheduling, helping some of his former guys,” said Lebo, who played at UNC in the late 1980s when Williams worked as an assistant to Smith.
“He (Williams) scheduled TCU this year as a favor to Neil (Dougherty, TCU coach and former Williams assistant), and to take Keith Langford back home. He scheduled a game in Nevada for David Padgett. It is a classy thing to do.”
Lebo, who has met, but is not a close acquaintance of, new KU coach Self, actually never has been to Lawrence before this trip.
“I’ve been playing and coaching 20 years and I’ve never had a chance to go to Lawrence,” Lebo said. “I look forward to it. I’ve watched a gazillion games in there (Allen Fieldhouse) on TV. Our kids are looking forward to playing the No. 5 team in America. They know all Kansas’ players, seeing them on TV every game.”
Lebo, who was named Southern Conference coach of the year after leading the Mocs to a 21-9 record in his first year at the school, is known as one of the country’s top young coaches.
The 37-year-old former Tennessee Tech head coach turned down an offer to become coach at Iowa State last spring.
“It was a good situation, obviously more money, but I didn’t get in this business to see how fast you move up the coaching ladder,” Lebo said. “I have a good situation here.”
