The Kansas coach’s dream of a national title now takes a back seat to other priorities.
LAWRENCE, Kan. – It dangles out there like a ripe apple, just waiting to be plucked and enjoyed by a man who has never tasted the fruit.
And don’t kid yourself; Roy Williams is hungry for his first national championship. The Kansas coach knows as well as anyone that it’s within his grasp and is perhaps his best chance for some time.
“I do have a passion for it,” Williams said. “It’s one of my dreams.”
A dream that used to consume him. But now as the Jayhawks go into Saturday night’s Final Four showdown with Marquette in New Orleans, he has a different perspective.
One that took shape six years ago. It was another March Madness, and Williams had a team that he was sure almost had a “right” to win the national title because it was that good.
With a lineup that included Raef LaFrentz, Paul Pierce and Jacque Vaughn, the Jayhawks were just about everyone’s pick to win it all. Instead, they lost two steps short of the Final Four when they fell to Arizona in the regional semifinals.
“That year taught me a lesson,” Williams said. “I used to think my No. 1 goal was to win a national title. After that, my goals changed. Now my No. 1 goal is to coach my grandchildren in Little League.”
Meanwhile, Williams continues to carry the label as the best coach never to have won a national championship. His players hope to do something about that.
“I don’t know if it’s a burden on his back,” sophomore Michael Lee said, “but we’d like to take it off. If we win this one, it should solidify his position as one of the greatest coaches of all time. I still think he’s that already, but that would solidify it.”
With All-Big 12 performers Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich being seniors, this could be Williams’ best shot at winning it all for some time.
In winning the West Regional, KU has already taken out two of its old tournament nemeses – Duke and Arizona – and has demonstrated an uncanny ability this season to overcome shortcomings with skinned knees and grit. Along the way, Williams has had to pull a lot more strings than a year ago, when the Jayhawks reached the Final Four but lost in the national semifinals to Maryland.
If Marquette’s cause on its quest is to celebrate the memory of Al McGuire, then the Jayhawks have one as well.
“Coach has really earned his money this year,” Collison said. “I don’t think we need extra motivation to win a national championship, but it would be huge around here to be the first to win it for him.”
The man with an .807 winning percentage for the highest among active Division I coaches and winner of nine league titles in his 15 years at KU has come close.
In 1991, his Jayhawks lost to Duke in the national championship game. Two years later, also in New Orleans, they tripped in the Final Four semifinals to North Carolina. Then came last year’s slip to Maryland with a team that actually had more talent than this bunch.
“It’s ridiculous that anyone has to defend Roy’s record,” Arizona coach Lute Olson said. “Roy has been one of the best coaches in the country for a lot of years. No one has done a better job than Roy Williams.”
As for Williams, he refuses to get caught up in labels that others stick on him. He knows well that his mentor, Dean Smith, was also criticized for not winning the highest prize before the former North Carolina legend claimed his first national title in his 20th season with the Tar Heels. Williams will forever remember what Smith said the night North Carolina claimed the 1982 national title.
“You know, I’m not really that much better a coach than I was 2 1/2 hours ago,” Smith said.
But like Smith at North Carolina and other coaches at schools with storied basketball programs, Williams is held to a higher standard. It’s almost expected that a Kansas should always be at a Final Four and occasionally win it all.
“No coach should be expected to be in this position every year,” Williams said. “I don’t care where you are, but especially in Middle America. We don’t have those kind of kids growing up next door to me, and I’ve checked the neighborhood every night when I drive home. But whether it’s New York, Los Angeles or wherever you are, people who expect that don’t know much about college basketball.
“There are just so many teams around the country who are really good. It’s not just Lawrence, Westwood, Bloomington, Lexington, Chapel Hill and Durham. The talent is spread so much, and a lot of teams have the same goals.”
And that leaves him to judge himself on his career.
“Whether I feel fulfilled as a coach or not has nothing to do with winning a national championship,” he said. “It’s one of my dreams, but I don’t let that drive me. I don’t lie awake at night thinking about it.”
He does take note of the engraved saying that sits on his desk: “Statistics are important, but relationships last forever.”
“I decided many years ago I wanted to be a college coach so I could have some influence on players’ lives, just as my coaches did on me,” he said. “I do have a passion for a national championship. But it’s not something I’d look back on and say, “Boy, you would have been successful if you had won a national title.’ That’s just not going to happen with me.
“As long as my players feel like I’m giving everything I have and know how hard I try, I’ll feel good about that.”
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(c) 2003, The Wichita Eagle (Wichita, Kan.).
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AP-NY-04-02-03 1714EST
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