The Dean effect

Smith had huge influence on Williams' decision

SI.com talked with Sports Illustrated senior writer Grant Wahl about Roy Williams' decision to leave Kansas for North Carolina.

SI.com: What was it about UNC's offer that made it more appealing than the offer it made to Williams three years ago?

Grant Wahl: I think the situation at Kansas was different. In fact, both situations -- at KU and UNC -- were different. Clearly, UNC is in a pretty sorry state right now, at least on the basketball court. There is a lot of talent in that program, enough that they can be a top-10 team next year. And there are some pretty obvious differences in Lawrence, in that Bob Frederick, the AD who hired Williams, is gone, and he was there three years ago.

Roy's situation with players was a little different three years ago, too. Back then, he had three sophomores named Nick Collison, Kirk Hinrich and Drew Gooden who were coming back. That's a big part of it -- enough things had changed at KU to give him reason to think about leaving for North Carolina.

Also, I think Dean Smith had a huge, huge impact. You can be very sure that Smith had a huge role in all this. All you have to do is talk to Roy Williams a few times to realize that Smith is the most important person in Williams' professional life. He talks to [Smith] all the time, and he gets suggestions from him all the time.

After Kansas lost to Missouri in the Big 12 Tournament, Smith suggested that Williams write up a pledge on the team's briefing board in the locker room that said if they wanted to win a national championship, they had to block out on every play. Under the pledge, he had written, "DES '53." He said to the players, "This one comes from one of our alums; I don't normally listen to our alumni, but I listen to this guy."

SI.com: If Kansas had beaten Syracuse in the national title game, do you think it would have affected Williams' decision?

Wahl: I think it would have been more likely he would have gone. It might not have taken him this long to make the decision.

SI.com: Will Kansas regret firing athletic director Al Bohl, seeing that it didn't influence Williams' final decision?

Wahl: I don't think so. I think it was widely accepted that Al Bohl was a pariah in the KU athletic department whether Williams was there or not. Even the football coach, Mark Mangino, whom he hired a year ago, was estranged from him.

SI.com: Do you expect there to be any fallout in Lawrence because of this? Will any of the Jayhawks try to transfer?

Wahl: There could be fallout. It remains to be seen who they hire and how successful that person is at keeping those players around. I wouldn't pay attention to what players say now, when they're angry. I would pay attention to what they say once a new coach is in place. I would expect the new coach to come in and convince a lot of those guys to stay.

SI.com: And who do you think that new coach will be?

Wahl: There's already a list out there, but it's fair to say that the one name that gets mentioned above anyone else is Illinois' Bill Self. He's not only a great coach, but he's also good at getting people to buy into what he's doing. If that were the case, I think he would do a pretty good job of convincing [the current Jayhawks] to stick around.

If you're a Kansas fan, you've got to hope the interim athletic director and president will make the right decision. This is an athletic department in complete turmoil right now. Some people think that the chancellor, Robert Hemenway, who hired and fired Al Bohl, might be in trouble with his job as well.

SI.com: With the team UNC has coming back, what impact will an exceptional coach like Williams have on the program?

Wahl: It's hard to say. You've got some real challenges [at UNC]. Here are a bunch of freshmen who pretty much got their coach fired. That doesn't seem like something Roy Williams would want to walk into, but he's going to have to. You've got an athletic director in Dick Baddour who put Williams in a terrible position during the Final Four with the removal of Matt Doherty. And you've got the shadow of Dean Smith hanging over Roy Williams as he tries to get the program back to where it used to be. The level of expectations is going to be amazingly high.

SI.com: And what kind of impact will it have on the rest of the college basketball world?

Wahl: I know a lot of college coaches were looking forward to Williams doing this because there will be a huge domino effect in job openings, starting at KU and moving down. This sort of effect wouldn't have happened if UNC had hired, say, Larry Brown or George Karl from the NBA.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Grant Wahl covers college basketball for the magazine and is a regular contributor to SI.com.