Interesting

Breaking News: Williams Not Offered North Carolina Job

Nick Athan (Editor in Chief)
4/10/2003

Despite reports and rumors that Roy Williams was offered the North Carolina job, Fanstop.com has learned from a source inside the North Carolina Athletic Department that Athletic Director Dick Baddour did not offer the job to Williams on Wednesday afternoon. Our source told Fanstop.com that Baddour did not ask Williams to take the job because he beleived that Williams would turn it down.

The report that Baddour did not offer the job to the Kansas coach was confirmed by Roy Williams this morning when a local TV reporter at Fox 4 contacted the Kansas coach earlier this morning.

Rumors were running rampant on ESPN that Roy Williams was already in Chapel Hill last night. Williams is still in Lawrence this morning and those close to Roy Williams believe that if he stays in Lawrence today and departs for California tomorrow as expected, that North Carolina will be focusing on another coach.

Our primary source, who is inside the North Carolina family, says that Larry Brown will be the next North Carolina coach. Brown has a contract and has agreed to all the terms set forth by North Carolina including bringing back Phil Ford to be the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. The only holdup has been the fact that Brown wanted Dean Smith to first offer the job to Roy Williams before he officially accepts the job at North Carolina.

The Philadelphia 76ers have games today and Friday but have an off day on Saturday. That could be the day that North Carolina officially makes an announcement that Brown is the next head coach.

Dean Smith did speak with Roy Williams on Tuesday and Wednesday. The conversations according to sources were to gauge the interest level of Williams. Smith did not ask Williams to take the job.

With the media circus swirling about the firing of Kansas Athletic Director Al Bohl yesterday afternoon, some people thought this was a desperate attempt to please Williams.

This was not the case. Bohl alienated everyone in the Athletic Department. The Chancellor and prominent boosters had concerns that the financial wrong doings at Fresno State might occur at Kansas.

Nothing has come to light that Bohl was responsible or had knowledge of the cheating and the cooked books at Fresno State. But he was in charge of the program during the infractions and that was the primary reason along with complaints from the other sports programs that Bohl was removed.

Bohl made it abundantly clear that Williams was the person who orchestrated his termination. That simply is not true either. If anyone listened to the garbage that Bohl was slinging out on his driveway yesterday afternoon, knows the man has no credibility whatsoever. He’ll never be an Athletic Director at any school after his outbursts and personal attacks on Roy Williams.

As for Williams, he remains in Lawrence this morning. There are no team meetings scheduled with his players today. All reports indicate that Williams will be leaving tomorrow for California with Senior Nick Collison to attend the John Wooden award ceremonies on Saturday. Williams will be staying at the home of Dana Anderson who is the largest contributor to the Athletic Department.

Anderson is a staunch supporter of Williams and he will do whatever it takes to make sure that Roy Williams remains the head basketball coach at Kansas.

You can reach the Editor in Chief, Nick Athan at the Fanstop.com Sports Desk

 

Just heard it on ESPN radio...

Brodeour is looking at other candidates now also...

 

I agree about the crap Bohl was putting out. What an idiot.

 

I can't comment.

 

Translation: Williams would be an idiot to turn down what historically has been a great program but currently isn't worth diddly-squat.

 

Translation: Carolina is always on the way up. No one can step to Carolina......yeah right....

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE
THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 2003
CONTACT: Steve Kirschner
BADDOUR CONFIRMS TALKS WITH WILLIAMS



CHAPEL HILL --- University of North Carolina Director of Athletics Dick Baddour released the following statement today regarding conversations between University of Kansas head men¹s basketball coach Roy Williams and Baddour:

³I have had several very good conversations with Roy Williams over the last two days. Those talks will continue through the weekend. The Final Four ended just a few days ago. Coach Williams and I feel the timing is too near the end of the Final Four and there is too much going on in Lawrence (Kan.) at this time for us to conclude our talks. I have not offered the job to Coach Williams, but we have had good conversations that will continue over the next few days. He understands we will continue to proceed with other candidates, as well.

³Typically I do not comment on job searches. However, this is obviously not a typical situation. Coach Williams and I both felt there was so much misinformation out there that an update to confirm our talks was both responsible and necessary.²

 

I hope that this is true...

Larry Brown, although 62 yrs. old, is an outstanding coach and actually wants the job. He will get the job done for a short while. Roy is a good coach too, but I really never bought into him leaving Kansas. Bring on Larry Brown!

 

Again, not that I really care, but why would you want a 62 year old guy who has a history of not staying anywhere for any length of time. Seems to me they need a little stability.

 

This makes sense... with Roy scheduled to go to LA on Friday with Collison for the College Awards... it'd look tacky if he accompanied a Kansas player as the UNC coach.