|
Monday, April 14 Coach to meet with team; topic of talk unknown ESPN.com news services |
||||||||||
Kansas coach Roy Williams might have one of two things to tell his basketball team today: Either he's staying with the Jayhawks, or leaving to coach North Carolina. Williams was scheduled to talk with his players at 4:30 p.m. ET, but there has been no confirmation that he will reveal his future plans during the meeting. Williams did tell the Jayhawks that they would be the first to know of his decision. North Carolina has not scheduled a news conference and sources said Monday afternoon that no decision on who will coach the Tar Heels -- Williams' alma mater -- has been made. "I would suspect that, by [Monday] or Tuesday, something would be decided," former Kansas athletics director Bob Frederick, one of Williams' closest friends, told the Kansas City Star on Sunday. "I would think that, for his own sanity, he doesn't want it to go beyond that." North Carolina contacted Kansas on Wednesday about speaking with Williams, but Williams told reporters in Los Angeles at the Wooden Award ceremonies that he didn't plan to speak with Tar Heels athletics director Dick Baddour until Monday. The pair already had at least two discussions regarding the Tar Heels' head coaching vacancy. The scenario is similar to three years ago, when the 52-year-old Williams waited more than a week before turning down North Carolina to stay at Kansas. UNC instead hired Matt Doherty, who resigned April 1 with three years left on his contract. Once Williams balked in 2000 after a week's wait, Baddour settled on the inexperienced Doherty. That proved to be a mistake. Doherty went 53-43, missed the NCAA Tournament two years in a row, and alienated some of his players and UNC athletic department staff before being ousted more than a week ago. "The same things that came into play that made it difficult for him to make a decision last time are existent again," Frederick told the Star. "I think he's really struggling with the decision. I have no idea what it's going to be." Williams has said he was "out of it" and requested that reporters refrain from asking questions about the Tar Heels job. "I feel for Roy," Texas coach Rick Barnes told The Associated Press. "It's really, truly a gut-wrenching decision he's going to have to make. I'm sure he's extremely torn because of his loyalty to the Carolina family. I can tell just from being around him, he's under a lot of stress." On Wednesday, Kansas chancellor Robert Hemenway fired athletics director Al Bohl, whose relationship with Williams had been strained ever since Bohl was hired two years ago. Bohl said that Williams orchestrated his dismissal, but Hemenway denied he fired Bohl to convince Williams to stay at Kansas. Hemenway added that Williams never indicated to him he wanted Bohl fired. Williams has won 418 games and been to four Final Fours in his 15 seasons at Kansas, but never has won the national title. Kansas lost to Syracuse 81-78 in the championship game April 7. Information from ESPN.com senior writer Andy Katz was used in this report. |
|