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The Roy world Kansas coach surrounded by soap-opera-like dramaPosted: Friday March 28, 2003 8:10 PMUpdated: Friday March 28, 2003 8:44 PM
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Did you hear? The coach of Kansas just beat Duke and now he has to face North Carolina! He turned down UCLA, but now he’s talking to Arizona! Spending the past few days around Roy Williams has been like sorting through a crossword puzzle of basketball royalty. On Wednesday, he was answering questions about his interest in the UCLA job. By Friday, the discussion had changed to North Carolina. All the while he’s been preparing for what could be the most rewarding two-game stretch of his 15-year career. After scoring his first victory over Mike Krzyzewski in Thursday’s Sweet 16 game, he gets the chance Saturday to avenge an Arizona team that dealt him both a life-changing defeat six years ago and his most stunning loss of the season. "Someone asked me about [North Carolina] when I was coming off the court [Thursday] night," said Williams, “and I was like, 'Jiminy Christmas, can’t I just enjoy this for a day?'" Just another day in the soap opera that is Kansas basketball. Here are the Jayhawks, a step away from returning to the Final Four for a second consecutive season, despite losing a top-five NBA draft pick and the Big 12's all-time leading 3-point shooter, despite losing three of their first six games, despite losing a 15-point scorer for half the season, despite losing by 17 to Arizona after leading by 20, despite nearly daily rumors involving their coach’s future. But for Williams, this is exactly what was supposed to happen. This is exactly what he had in mind three summers ago when he shocked his mentor, Dean Smith, and the state of North Carolina by turning down his supposed dream job to stay in Lawrence. It was this day he envisioned, when his then-freshman tandem of Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich would be seniors and the Jayhawks once again would be among the national title contenders.
“Three years ago, it was an extremely difficult decision for me,” said Williams. “It was the worst seven days of my life. I felt like I couldn’t make the perfect decision.” The decision he made, however, he assumed was final. How could he have known that three years later his alma mater’s proud basketball program would be in turmoil, its players meeting with the athletic director this week to discuss the fate of their embattled coach, Matt Doherty, who happens to be Williams’ former assistant? With a horde of North Carolina reporters still in town after covering Duke’s loss the night before, it was 2000 all over again for Williams at Friday’s news conference. They wanted to know if he’d talked to Doherty. They wanted to know what he thought the Tar Heels’ problem was. And, of course, they wanted to know if he’d be interested in the as-of-yet-unavailable job. “I’m not interested in talking about North Carolina,” said Williams. “I’m not sitting here lying -- I don’t know anything about what’s going on there. I’m focused on what I’m trying to do.” What he’s trying to do is no small chore: get his team to ignore the fact that the last time it faced its upcoming opponent, it was outscored 52-22 in the second half. This, mind you, in the friendly confines of Allen Fieldhouse. The Jayhawks’ players say to a man it won’t be a motivating factor -- the fact that their season ends if they lose takes care of that -- but it can’t help but creep into the back of their minds. It has for Williams. “They beat our tails last time,” he said. “I know I’m going to be fired up.” For Williams, it goes even deeper than that. Arizona dealt him the most painful loss of his career back in 1997, when the Paul Pierce/Raef LaFrentz Jayhawks were 34-1, the overwhelming tourney favorites, and got tripped up in the Sweet 16 by Mike Bibby and the eventual national champion Wildcats. “That loss really hurt,” said Williams. “I thought we were the best team that year, and I thought it was just right for that team to go to the Final Four.” But it was also the event that made him “wake up a little bit and realize what’s going on in the world,” as he started reprioritizing his life to put family before basketball. Thus began his dramatic transformation from the strict, tight-lipped figure early in his career, so consumed with the national championship, crying in news conferences, to the relaxed jokester he’s become today, more content to give one-liners to the media, even when the subject is this week’s multitude of job rumors. As it is, since dropping his obsession with the title, he’s put himself in the best position yet to win one. Beat Arizona, and a man long criticized for his postseason shortcomings will achieve something no Jayhawks coach has in 50 years: consecutive Final Fours. In doing so, he’d fulfill the dream he had the day he spurned his dream job. But as it turns out, that dream might not be dead, either. Stewart Mandel covers college sports for SI.com. Got a comment, question or scoop for Stewart? Click here.
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