CHAPEL HILL – Winning college athletic programs are often taken for granted. One assumption not to make, though, is that’s an easy transition for an assistant coach to pick up where his mentor left off. Sometimes there are hiccups before a blue blood re-establishes itself.
At North Carolina, Roy Williams has made it look easier than it is. He is on the verge of passing his mentor, Dean Smith, for NCAA Division I career victories.
Williams, in his 17th season at UNC after returning home from 15 at Kansas, won his 879th career game on Monday against Yale. He can pass Smith when the Tar Heels (8-5, 1-1 ACC) face Georgia Tech (6-7, 1-2 ACC) at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Smith Center.
If North Carolina wins, that will mean another ceremony similar to the one after the Yale game on Monday when he tied Smith. Williams prefers to be with his team after the game, and that was especially the case on Monday with freshman guard Anthony Harris having suffered a season-ending knee injury.W
Williams considered the ceremony a distraction, comparing it to the 1991 season in the Final Four when his Kansas team not only beat Smith and the Tar Heels, the post-game attention was subsequently focused on Smith’s ejection for two technical fouls. He felt his team didn’t get to enjoy the victory.
“The other night when the game was over with, Steve (Kirschner, Sports Information Director) stopped me because I was going to the locker room,” Williams said. “I told him I didn’t want to do that (the ceremony). I forget what he said but he said, ‘Coach, this is going to be quick.’ I said, ‘I just don’t want to do it. I want to go see Anthony.’ ”
Whenever the next ceremony takes place and whatever is stated, left unsaid will be that most pupils don’t rise to the level of their mentor. Consider these examples, including Smith contemporaries:
— UCLA’s John Wooden and former assistant Gary Cunningham. Who? That’s the point. Two other former assistants were Larry Farmer and Walt Hazzard.
— Marquette’s Al McGuire and Hank Raymonds, even though Raymonds was credited for most of the X-and-O work as McGuire’s assistant.
— Connecticut’s Jim Calhoun and Kevin Ollie. Ollie won an NCAA title in 2014, but he didn’t leave a legacy. He was fired four years later for NCAA penalties.
A much longer list has accumulated for coaches that succeeded an icon without the pupil-teacher association. Indiana has never welcomed a new coach to 0match the “old days” of Bobby Knight.
Although Williams has compiled his victory total at two blue blood schools, it should be noted he took over a Kansas program on probation. When he returned to Chapel Hill, the Tar Heels had missed the NCAA Tournament back-to-back years under former UNC player Matt Doherty.
Williams has been good at picking his spots in other ways. He recalled turning down a chance to be the head coach at George Mason University in May, 1988.
“I’m comfortable coaching; it’s all I ever wanted to do. I remember during down the George Mason job. The AD was coming down to meet with me and sign the contract. I called him at 6 a.m. and said, ‘Don’t come.’ I called Coach Smith at 10 because I knew he wasn’t going to be up at 6 and told him, ‘I’ve got some good news and bad news, either way you look at it.’ And he said, ‘What’s that?’ And I said, ‘Coach, I called and told (George Mason) I wasn’t coming because it didn’t feel like it was the right thing.’
“And I’ll never forget he said, ‘Everything is going to be fine. I love the way you’re patient. Everything is going to work out one of these days. A job is going to open up that’s going to have your name written all over it and be staring you right in the face.’ That was in May and that July is when I was named the new coach at Kansas.”
Oddly enough, North Carolina’s other revenue sport, football, has a head coach enjoying a homecoming, albeit there are different circumstances.
Mack Brown is back from his first North Carolina stint from 1988 to 1997 (122-70) upon leaving for Texas. After 16 years with the Longhorns and five years on TV with ESPN, he has revitalized the Tar Heels’ in the first season of his second stint. UNC finished with a 7-6 record, winning a bowl game after missing bowl trips the previous two seasons under Larry Fedora.
Williams said there is no secret to homecomings. It’s just work hard and be yourself.
“Mack and I had discussions but never discussed it,” Williams said. “The only thing we talked about was when we were at a golf tournament and we tried to win the sucker. We asked who was going to make a good shot.
“I was happy to have him back. I thought the enthusiasm would be great for our program and the athletic department. I thought we had good players that they (Brown’s staff) could coach in a more positive manner than the last year when Larry’s teams got beat up so much with the injuries. I loved Larry Fedora, but it was tough for him with injuries. I thought Mack and his staff would be good for our team.”
Unfortunately for the Tar Heels, Williams’ team trying to play through one of those seasons with the injury bug. He has used five starting lineups so far after only two a year ago.
Harris is out for the season along with Sterling Manley (left knee), whom Williams had projected in the top six if not a starter until he was ruled out at the start if the season.
Freshman guard Cole Anthony is midway through a six-week rehab process from his knee injury. Andrew Platek (ankle) is game to game.
“It has been difficult,” Williams said. “I talked to another coach about it. The weird thing is both of us said at the same time, ‘Nobody is going to feel sorry for North Carolina’ It has made a difficult season, but the good news is we’ve got more games to play.”
That will give him games to add to his total that trails only Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, 1,071; Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim, 954; and Indiana’s Bobby Knight, 902.
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Tom Shanahan, Author: Raye of Light http://tinyurl.com/knsqtqu
— Book on Michigan State’s leading role in the integration of college football. It explains Duffy Daugherty’s untold pioneering role and debunks myths that steered recognition away from him to Bear Bryant.
http://shanahan.report/a/the-case-for-duffy-and-medal-of-freedom
Don’t believe the myths at Duffy Daugherty’s expense about Bear Bryant’s motivation to play the 1970 USC-Alabama game or myths about the Charlie Thornhill-for-Joe Namath trade. Bear Bryant knew nothing about black talent in the South while he dragged his feet on segregation.
http://www.shanahan.report/a/forty-four-underground-railroad-legacy-facts
http://shanahan.report/a/myths-that-grew-out-of-1970-alabama-game-with-usc
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