Notebook: Kansas coach’s mentor cheers on Jayhawks

New Orleans ? OK, Kansas fans, hold your breath.

“I just decided to come here and talk about North Carolina,” said Dean Smith, minutes before tipoff of Kansas University’s national title game against Syracuse at the Superdome.

Then Smith, sporting a Tar Heel-blue dress shirt, peeled the backing off one of those Jayhawk stickers — one of the more than 5,000 brought to town by the Kansas University Alumni Association — and the 1953 KU graduate had shed his North Carolina persona.

It was time to bleed crimson and blue and to cheer for his former assistant, Kansas coach Roy Williams.

“I told Roy a month ago that if he was playing for a title I’d be there,” Smith said from his seat among KU supporters. “I’m here. I see a lot of old friends.”

But Smith, a member of KU’s 1952 national championship team, also just happens to be the patriarch of the Carolina basketball family — the one lacking a head coach after former KU assistant Matt Doherty resigned a week ago under pressure.

But if Smith came to the Superdome looking for a head coach, he didn’t show it. As game time approached, the NCAA’s winningest coach smiled and shook hands with a steady stream of KU fans and friends.

One of them, former KU athletic director Bob Frederick, holds a special place in Smith’s heart. Frederick’s son, Brad, played basketball for Smith and North Carolina.

And Bob Frederick also happens to be a pretty astute listener.

“Bob took my recommendation 15 years ago,” Smith said, alluding to Kansas’ hiring of Williams, then one of Smith’s assistants at North Carolina. “He was seventh choice, but he took him.”

So, just who is North Carolina’s first choice to replace Doherty?

“I told them I wouldn’t take it,” Smith said.

Looking ahead

Even after Monday’s draining loss, KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway is finding reason to be optimistic heading into next season.

The return of Keith Langford, Aaron Miles, Jeff Graves, Wayne Simien and Michael Lee gives KU fans a chance to hope for another strong tournament run next year, Hemenway said. Then there’s the “typical Roy Williams recruiting class,” filled with highly skilled incoming freshman.

And how about the possibility of Williams being sought by North Carolina?

“Nothing is absolutely certain in life, but we’ll sure try to — how should I say this? — we’re sure planning to do everything we can to support Roy Williams and the Kansas basketball program,” Hemenway said before the game.

Former players out in force

The former Kansas players came marching in for Monday’s championship game.

And Joanie Stephens, coach Roy Williams’ secretary, was at the Superdome to greet them with tickets.

“Let’s see, we have Scot, Jacque and Drew. They’re the ones coming in today,” Stephens said before the game, referring to current NBA players Scot Pollard, Jacque Vaughn and Drew Gooden. “I understand Danny (Manning) isn’t able to come.”

In all, Stephens filled nearly 300 ticket requests for members of the Kansas University basketball family. As she awaited opening of a special gate for the team’s family members and guests, Stephens ran down the list of former KU players attending the game.

“We go all the way back to Walt Wesley,” she said, of the 6-foot-11 center who played from 1963 through 1966.

Actually, Stephens went all the way back to 1950-53 — for Dean Smith, who played on the 1952 NCAA championship team and went on to coach North Carolina. His received a ticket in the lower level, among seats reserved for coaches’ wives.

Others among the former Jayhawks to receive tickets through Stephens: Kevin Pritchard, Mike Maddox, T.J. Pugh, Roger Morningstar, Eric Pauley, Chris Martin, Steve Ransom, Ron Kellogg, Al Lopes, Bud Stallworth, Chris Zerbe, Todd Kappelmann, Lewis Harrison, Greg Dreiling, Billy Thomas and Rex Walters.

Former coach Ted Owens was back, after attending Saturday’s semifinal against Marquette. A ticket also was left for former coach Larry Brown, although Stephens was unsure whether Brown would make the game.

Chamber chatter

Gary Toebben isn’t campaigning for the vacant president’s job at the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, but the former chamber president sure sounds like it.

Toebben, who headed the business organization from 1981 to 1999, spent Monday afternoon working the lobby at the Sheraton Hotel and its horde of KU big-timers and other fans.

The KU fan stood alongside his wife, KU graduate Janice Toebben, and could have been mistaken for attending a business development conference instead of the Final Four.

“This is just wonderful for the University of Kansas,” said Toebben, now head of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce.

No word yet on whether Toebben is being courted by the Lawrence chamber to take the spot vacated by his replacement, Bill Sepic, who resigned to take a job in Lansing, Mich.