Williams’ appointment ‘dream’

Jayhawks' coach joins U.S. Olympic staff

One of Roy Williams’s lifelong dreams is a reality.

Kansas University’s 15th-year men’s basketball coach will represent his country at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.

On Thursday, Williams was named an assistant coach on Larry Brown’s U.S. Olympic staff, which includes Oliver Purnell of Dayton and Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs

“It is a huge thrill for me,” Williams said. “It’s way up there. I’m excited. I’m getting cold chills (just talking about it).

“This is one of those things you dream about as a youngster and as a young coach, and to be able to do it with Larry is something special, too.”

Brown, like Williams a North Carolina graduate, coached at KU from 1983-88 and led the Jayhawks to the 1988 NCAA championship.

“I have such respect for him,” Williams said. “He’s been one of my heroes as you’ve heard me say for a long, long time.”

In order to qualify for the Olympics, the U.S. — in what should be a mere formality — must place in the top three at the 10-team Olympic qualifying tournament next Aug. 20-3 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

“This is a long-term project,” Williams said, “because we’ve got to go this summer to the qualifying tournament, and if we qualify we go to the Olympics the following summer. It will take a lot of time and a lot of effort.”

It’s effort the 52-year-old Williams is more than willing to exert.

“I can say that my golf game will suffer a great deal, but my duties as head coach at Kansas won’t suffer, I can promise everybody that,” Williams said. “I’m still fairly young. I don’t think I’ll get tired. When we get back, I’ll go right on the road recruiting. I can guarantee you that.”

Williams is driven to improve a U.S. squad that placed a dismal sixth at last summer’s world championships, where the top three teams received automatic berths to the 2004 Games.

“We’ve got a big challenge. We need to win. It will be the first time I’ve ever coached a team where there’s only one concern and that is winning,” he said.

Williams’s mentor at North Carolina, Dean Smith, led the 1976 U.S. Olympic squad to a gold medal.

“Coach Smith said in 1976 it’s the only time he coached a team where his only goal was winning,” Williams said.

“The biggest thing with me and Olympic basketball was in ’76. They were having the Olympic Trials and the practices were in Chapel Hill when coach Smith’s summer camp was going on. I was there as a high school coach working the camp.”

“We’d go in the afternoons and watch those practices. Then we watched the first exhibition game after he’d selected the team. I remember all the controversy it caused, people jumping on coach Smith for his selections.

“I remember how good I felt watching that gold medal game when Quinn Buckner had the ball under his arm and was dancing after we won in Montreal. At that point I said, ‘Man, doing something with the Olympics would be pretty awesome.”’

Williams worked as an assistant on the gold-medal winning 1991 World University Games team. In ’92, he helped coach the U.S. Olympic Developmental team, a squad of eight collegians who scrimmaged the U.S. Dream Team. In ’93, Williams coached USA Basketball’s Under 22 team to a 6-1 record and silver medal in a qualifying tournament in Arkansas.

Those experiences will not compare to the Olympic Games.

“To represent your country in the Olympics … I’ve always been a huge fan of the Olympics — as big a fan as you can possibly be,” Williams said.

“It goes all the way back to when I was in school in ’68, (North Carolina’s) Charlie Scott played on the team. In ’72 Bobby Jones played on the team.”

Williams does not think he will someday serve as U.S. head coach.

“I don’t think a college coach will ever be the head coach again,” he said. “When I was a kid I dreamed of playing at North Carolina and dreamed of coaching at North Carolina, I never dreamed of being the head coach at North Carolina. I was an assistant there.

“Being involved with the Olympics with USA Basketball, I am not saying when that’s over with I’m going to go to the first tee. I’m not quitting or anything like that by any means, (but) I don’t have any other goals or dreams like that that I’m thinking about at all.”

Brown and the USA Basketball Executive committee first contacted Williams “about a week ago,” and he quickly accepted.

“I think we are fortunate the committee selected such a great staff of quality guys,” Brown said. “I look forward to working with them. It’s a great honor and we are all fortunate to represent USA Basketball.

“He’s simply the greatest coach, I think in our sport,” Brown has said of Williams. “I spend as much quality time with Roy as I can. Watching his practices I see a lot of similarities with the man I played for (Smith). It’s the biggest compliment I can give.”