Roy Williams was the first person to read the manuscript of Jerod Haase’s book, “Floor Burns.”
“Jerod said, ‘I want you to read it and block out anything. If you want to take out sentences or chapters or anything, do it,”‘ Williams, Kansas’ men’s basketball coach said of former Jayhawk shooting guard Haase’s diary of the 1996-97 season.
“I didn’t change anything.”
Williams did have one suggestion for Haase, who in the book discussed spending some time with a KU basketball recruit.
“The only thing I told him — the stupidity of the recruiting idiots — instead of saying, ‘We had a prospect and went out to eat,’ if he’d name him, 100 idiots would have bought the book. He said, ‘I’m not going to do that.’
“He tells the truth. As long as it’s the truth, I don’t care what people know. It’s an inside look. It could have even been more revealing. Jerod cares so much and is so protective if there was any question if something should be in or not, he just left it out.”
Still, the book isn’t sugarcoated, Williams said.
“You could have been with us 24 hours a day the entire year and at the end of the year said, ‘It can’t be this good,”‘ Williams said of the Jayhawks’ 34-2 season.