University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: HOF Links Smith And Williams Again
September 5, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Sept. 5, 2007
By Adam Lucas
There they are again.
Dean Smith and Roy Williams, right next to each other. Where they belong.
It has been ten years since Dean Smith coached a basketball game for the University of North Carolina. Is that possible? Is it really true that there are kids approaching middle school who have never been alive to see him horde his timeouts or orchestrate another late-game comeback?
For about thirty minutes Wednesday afternoon, the Carolina basketball universe was perfectly in balance. Williams and Smith, together again--1,403 college basketball victories, 985 of them at North Carolina.
They were there to talk about Williams's impending induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Smith, a Hall of Famer himself, will present Williams at the event on Friday night. It's the last perfect piece of symmetry for a duo that will always be linked.
To Carolina basketball fans, this seems normal. Of course Coach Smith and Coach Williams belong together. Don't they always?
But it's not normal. Nothing like this--a student following a pupil and reaching such exalted heights so quickly--has happened anywhere else in college basketball. It didn't happen at UCLA after John Wooden. It didn't happen at Kentucky after Adolph Rupp. It didn't happen at Indiana after Bob Knight.
Sure, those programs have eventually found somewhat similar success to what they achieved under their most legendary coaches. But it's always required essentially starting the program over.
But these two, well, as soon as they sit down you can see the bond. They are sitting at the podium in almost exactly the same way, with their hands crossed on the desk. They know the same stories, both spoken and unspoken. When the topic is raised of James Worthy's Hall of Fame speech, Smith says, "James went on and on...you were there, right?"
"I was there," Williams says, and he laughs at the memory of their former player giving an extended induction speech. It looks remarkably like family members telling a familiar well-worn story over the dinner table.
There are differences, of course.
"The knowledge aspect of them is very similar," Michael Jordan says. "Coach Williams utilizes a lot of the same instructional things. But his temperament is a little bit different. Coach Williams is a little more forgiving to the personality of players than Coach Smith. His persona is not quite as magnified as Coach Smith."
A magnified persona. That's a good way to put it. When Smith walks into a room, you're struck with the urge to genuflect. When Williams walks into a room, you're struck with the urge to hit a tee shot. You would not call Coach Smith "Dean." You would not hesitate to call Coach Williams "Roy."
Smith would dislike any discussion of his magnified persona, of course. He dislikes anything that requires accepting credit. That's why outsiders sometimes doubted him, because they didn't believe such a sizable dose of modesty could be truthful. But there he was again on Wednesday, shaking his head sheepishly as Williams said he thought his Hall selection was a good way to honor Smith.
"He's the best there's ever been," Williams says of Smith. And Smith just shook his head some more. And don't miss this part of their relationship--Williams truly believes Smith is the best. He'll tell you he knows it to be an indisputable fact. It is the one area of his life where he chooses not to compete, which should show you how much it means to him.
Friday in Springfield, Williams will join the ranks of the best there have ever been. Before his career at Carolina is finished, it's entirely possible he may find himself in the discussion of the very best.
But there is no doubt, absolutely none, that together they're the most formidable coaching duo in college basketball history. They're already forming a link that allows generations to have the same appreciation for Carolina basketball. My 2005 Illinois game is my dad's 1982 Georgetown game. My 2005 Duke game is his 1974 Duke game.
You hope that at some point in the days to come Williams will allow that notion to wash over him. Right now he doesn't have time. Right now he has a speech to prepare and a cadre of friends to entertain in Springfield and a 2007-08 Carolina team to engineer.
But sometime, maybe next summer when he's dipping his toes in the Atlantic Ocean, it will hit him. Remember, 30 years ago he was just a coaching wannabe who looked at Smith in much the same way you or I do--he was someone who'd be happy just to take notes at one of the legend's practices. Think of the person in your profession you admire the most in the world and then imagine being told you've reached his level.
It's still the same program, still the coach at the helm proclaiming that all the success is due to the players, still the same familiar blue. But now it's Smith taking notes at Williams's practices.
This weekend, Roy Williams and Dean Smith become equals in the eyes of the Hall of Fame. They may never become equals in Chapel Hill.
Which is exactly how Williams wants it.
Adam Lucas most recently collaborated on a behind-the-scenes look at Carolina Basketball with Wes Miller. The Road To Blue Heaven will be released on September 1. Lucas's other books on Carolina basketball include The Best Game Ever, which chronicles the 1957 national championship season, Going Home Again, which focuses on Roy Williams's return to Carolina, and Led By Their Dreams, a collaboration with Steve Kirschner and Matt Bowers on the 2005 championship team.
