Domino effect?

Williams' departure could result in more moves at Kansas

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) -- If the most popular man in Kansas gets away, will the bungler who let it happen be far behind?

Heartsick Jayhawk fans would have to blame somebody. And university Chancellor Robert Hemenway, even though he's been on a strict diet and has lost a lot of weight, would be standing there with a big fat bullseye on his backside.

All along the way, critics can point out missteps made by the chancellor. He could have stopped Williams' good friend, Bob Frederick, from being pressured into stepping down as athletic director.

He could have hired somebody besides Al Bohl to succeed Frederick.

Once Bohl was on board, Hemenway could have stopped him from firing head football coach Terry Allen, another good friend of Williams, with three games left in the football season.

And he could have stopped Bohl from alienating not just Williams, but seemingly everyone else in the athletic department during his 22 unsuccessful months on the job.

But Hemenway never moved on any of it. He opted to let the problems fester until three days after the NCAA championship game. That's when he finally fired Bohl, insisting he hadn't come to that decision until the day before.

Now, can he stop Williams from going home to North Carolina?

He'd better. If the wildly popular Williams does reverse his decision of 2000 and take the job at his alma mater, it would call Hemenway's judgment sharply into question and put Kansas in a monstrous mess.

Long a model of stability, the Jayhawks would find themselves in the awkward position of lacking both a basketball coach and a permanent athletic director at the same time.

Which job would Hemenway fill first? How could he possibly defend his handling of the situation?

And Williams, if he does stay at Kansas, presumably does not even know who his athletic director will be. Can he trust that Hemenway, given a second chance, will make a sound decision?

Or has Williams been promised veto power over anyone Hemenway decides upon? When asked if that is the case, Hemenway was noncommittal. It's not the sort of concession a college president wants to admit to making to a basketball coach.

Hemenway, after all, has his lofty position as a member of the NCAA's board of governors to think about.

In the meantime, Williams will be pondering a decision while enjoying a gala weekend in Los Angeles where he and Kansas All-American Nick Collison will be honored.

And he must know he'll never be loved in North Carolina -- or anywhere else -- as much as he's adored in Kansas.

When organizers announced the celebrities they'd lined up for next month's Bayer Advantage Celebrity Pro Am in Kansas City, they did not put former vice president Dan Quayle at the top. Or former Chiefs coach Marty Schottenheimer. Or baseball Hall of Famer George Brett -- all people who have committed to play in the tourney.

Roy Williams is their headliner, the man who must have heard the young woman holler as he pulled out of his campus parking space on Wednesday, "We love you, Roy."

So what will he eventually wind up doing? Opinion among nervous fans seems about evenly divided.

Those who believe he'll go to Carolina say he's just holding off his announcement until after the John Wooden Awards in Los Angles. He wants to be there with Collison as the Kansas coach, they say.

Those who believe he'll stay say he's already told the Tar Heels, but is taking pains not to embarrass his old friends back East.

They point out that both Williams and North Carolina went to great lengths on Thursday to say that he has not actually been offered the job. North Carolina says there are other potential candidates they're also going to talk with.

That way, North Carolina can find somebody and say, "How could Williams have turned us down, since he was never actually offered the job?" And Williams will not have to embarrass his beloved alma mater by publicly telling them thanks, but no thanks, for the second time in three years. No doubt, that's the theory Hemenway clings to.

 

Related information

Stories

Kansas players wait for Williams to decide UNC, Williams keep talking North Carolina players anxious to get new coach Kansas fires AD, tries to keep Williams

Multimedia

Visit Video Plus for the latest audio and video