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Bigger picture Winning national title not everything to Williams, BoeheimPosted: Sunday April 06, 2003 5:19 PM
NEW ORLEANS -- They both insist it doesn’t matter nearly as much as everyone says. But deep down they want it as badly as anyone. And come Monday night, one of them finally will be able to replace the rationalizing with the real thing. Kansas’ Roy Williams and Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim have spent so long convincing themselves and their followers that the national title is not the be-all-end-all of their existence that you wonder what will happen when one of the two actually wins it. "I’ll be just the same next year, win or lose," said Boeheim. "On Tuesday afternoon, I’m going to be with my four kids, and I’m going to be as happy as can be, whatever happens Monday night." They’re the nation’s two winningest active coaches by percentage. Between them, they’ve taken seven teams to the Final Four.
But by today’s what-have-you-done-for-me-lately standards, they won’t achieve true greatness until they’ve added a ring. The vision, though, of either of man going into an uncontrollable depression every time his season ends short of perfection couldn’t be further from the truth, at least not anymore. Over the years, as their critics have grown, their perspectives have managed to get rosier. Williams was an assistant at North Carolina in 1982 when Dean Smith, who eventually would collect more victories than anyone to coach the game, finally got the championship monkey off his back in his seventh Final Four appearance. "I had big tears rolling down my face, happy and relieved that nobody would ever be able to [criticize Smith] again," said Williams. "That’s when he turned to me and said that famous quote: 'I don’t really think I’m that much better of a coach than I was 2 1/2 hours ago.'" In spite of what he learned under Smith, Williams admits he bought into the all-or-nothing notion early in his career before gaining perspective from some of the disappointments, particularly the 1997 team that went 34-2 but lost in the Sweet 16. "That one hurt for a long time," said Williams. "It made me, over the course of that summer, sit back, try to investigate myself, try to see if there was something I was doing wrong, see if my goals were right. At that time, I decided my new No. 1 goal was going to be live long enough to coach my grandchildren." Family also has served as a turning point for Boeheim, who by all accounts has mellowed since his second marriage in 1997 and the subsequent birth of three children. A victim of one of the all-time heartbreakers in the ’87 title game, when Keith Smart’s last-second jumper lifted Indiana over the Orangemen, he makes no bones about how much his perspective has changed over the years. "I compete just as hard now as when I was younger," said Boeheim. "The only thing I realize now is it’s not the end of the world if you don’t win. It took me a long time to figure it out, but I finally figured it out that this isn’t life and death. "To be able to do what I’ve done and walk out here and be down there coaching, I’ve got to be the luckiest guy in the world. And some people will never accept that because they have the mentality that if you don’t win the championship then you’re not fulfilled. If that’s what it takes to fulfill your life, you’re a small person and you don’t have a clue." Both Williams and Boeheim also have been around long enough to know that in a one-and-done tourney, there’s often no rhyme or reason to when those rare championship chances will come up. As in ’97, some of Williams’ most dominant squads never reached the Final Four. This year, he’s in the championship game with a team that started 3-3, lost one of its best players to injury and wasn’t expected by many to make it out of the regionals. Boeheim’s self-proclaimed best teams were the Billy Owens-led 1990 and ’91 clubs, both of which won the Big East yet failed to make it out of the Sweet 16. The ’96 John Wallace team, however, reached the national title game as a No. 4 seed, and now in a year when the 'Cuse probably should have been rebuilding around their freshmen, they’re instead back in the big one. "Coach Boeheim is going to be in the Hall of Fame whether or not he wins the championship," said center Craig Forth. "He’s had his chances to win it, he’s had great teams in the past. This may be one of the best teams in Syracuse history, but it may also be one of the youngest. To be able to do this now would be icing on his cake." The same would go for Williams. Closure couldn’t get much neater than winning the title with the two seniors for whom he spurned the North Carolina job three years ago and being on the verge of another impending UNC courtship. "We’ll see a different side of him if we get it done, that’s for sure," Kansas senior Nick Collison said. "I think he’ll go crazy." "I’ve never seen someone who wants to win it as bad as him," Kirk Hinrich said. "It would make his year for sure." But would it make either his or Boeheim’s career? Today, they say no. But let’s ask the winner tomorrow. Stewart Mandel covers college sports for SI.com. Got a comment, question or scoop for Stewart? Click here. |
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