University of North Carolina Athletics
Brewer: Coaching Was William's Dream
April 15, 2003 | Men's Basketball
April 15, 2003
CAR-O-LINES
By Rick Brewer, SID Emeritus
Perry Dowd probably summed it up as well as anyone.
"It won't end the recession and it won't stop the war, but it's the best thing to happen around here in a while," said the restaurant manager at 411 West on Monday.
She was talking about the news that Roy Williams was taking the job as head basketball coach at Carolina. That's how much he's respected in this town and among Tar Heel fans.
When he came to Chapel Hill in 1968 as a college freshman, he wanted to be a basketball coach.
Not only has he become a coach, but he's now recognized as one of the best in the business.
He has the top winning percentage of any active coach and has guided Kansas to 14 straight 20-win seasons.
Williams, who turned down the Carolina job three years ago, ended a difficult week of trying to make the right decision?for himself and two universities about which he cares a great deal.
"Three years ago the right thing for me to do was stay at Kansas," he explained Monday evening. "Now the right thing is to come here, to come home.
"I'm a Tar Heel born and when I die I'll be a Tar Heel dead. In between I was a Tar Heel and Jayhawk bred.
"Coach Smith and Dick Harp had to do a lot of convincing to the people at Kansas for me to get that opportunity. I'll never be able to thank the people there enough for taking the chance on hiring a number two assistant."
Williams has always been an emotional coach and that only made Monday a rougher day.
"One of the toughest things I've ever had to do was talking to my team this afternoon and telling those 13 guys I was leaving," he said. "Then I had to try to call the four kids we had recruited for next year and break the news to them. It wasn't a good afternoon for me in Lawrence."
But, it was a good evening in Chapel Hill.
Williams comes back to Carolina after 15 years at Kansas where his teams compiled a 418-101 record. That's a winning percentage of .805.
The Jayhawks were 19-12 in his first season. Problems before he arrived had left Kansas on NCAA probation and with an inexperienced team. A year later the Jayhawks were 30-5.
His last 14 teams in Lawrence went 399-89, a winning percentage of .818. He has taken four of his teams to the Final Four.
"I was taught by Coach Smith, Bill Guthridge and Eddie Fogler 90 percent of what I know," he said. "I was taught to run a program, not coach a team. That's what we did at Kansas and that's what we will do here."
Undoubtedly, Williams will soon named to the Basketball Hall of Fame. That will make Carolina the only school in America with three Hall of Fame coaches in the last 50 years. Smith and Frank McGuire, of course, are the others.
As an undergraduate at Carolina Williams played on the freshman team in 1968 and then spent his last three years watching Tar Heel practices and games.
"At least I had the sense to know I wasn't going to be a great player," Williams once said. "But, I loved the game and that's why I was so interested in coaching."
In 1973 he became basketball coach at Charles D. Owen High School in Swannanoa. He also coached baseball and golf for five years, ninth-grade football for four seasons and was athletic director for two years. Like Smith, he is someone to avoid as an opponent on the golf course.
Smith hired Williams as a part-time assistant prior to the 1978-79 season. "When I first got here I realized how much I had gained from high school coaching," he once said. "I had developed close relationships with my players and I really missed those.
"But, the ideal situation was one where I could devote my entire day to basketball and that's what you get on the college level."
Smith assigned Williams to coaching the junior varsity.
"But, Coach also got me involved with the varsity?scouting, watching game film and helping with practice."
He was initially paid $8,000 a year. He supplemented that income by selling Tar Heel basketball calendars and driving a copy of Smith's weekly television show to an Asheville station on Sunday mornings. Those were the days before satellite transmission and the show had to be hand-delivered.
He simply wanted to get coaching experience. Money was not an issue then and is not now.
Athletic Director Dick Baddour had to announce Williams' base salary. The coach wasn't sure what it was.
"Everything is not finalized yet," said Baddour. "Our lawyers are still working out the details of our multi-media package."
Of course, there is a rap against Williams--he can't win the big game. That's the way some fans look at four trips to the Final Four and no title.
That's also been said of some other prominent coaches once or twice.
What people fail to understand is the NCAA Tournament is like Russian roulette. One miss and you're out. You have to be lucky.
However, in college basketball a team also has to be very good to have that kind of success. You have to be at your best for six straight games against top opponents and hope you don't run into a team giving its greatest performance of the year.
So which is the greatest accomplishment?having the consistent success to reach the Final Four on four occasions or to have one season where all the pieces fall into place and win a national championship?
Eight conference championships in the last 12 years and 14 straight trips to the NCAA Tournament. You have to win a lot of big games to accomplish that.
Williams plans to win a lot more big ones in Chapel Hill.
