Yes, Roy Williams is leaving Lawrence.

But no, City Manager Mike Wildgen isn’t going to order the city’s flag lowered to half-staff.

“It’s going clear to the ground,” Wildgen said Monday afternoon.

Wildgen was joking. But for many Lawrence residents and Kansas University fans, Monday’s news of Williams’ departure was no laughing matter.

For some, it was literally sickening.

“I don’t think it’s quite set in yet,” said Lauren Royall, a KU senior from Tulsa. “I’m kind of in denial. Actually, I’m kind of nauseous.”

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Beyond Xs and Os, city and state officials said Williams’ departure means Lawrence is losing a terrific ambassador to the rest of the nation.

KU basketball “generates a ton of national publicity for the university and the community, and those are things you can’t buy,” said Judy Billings, director of the Lawrence Convention and Visitors Bureau. “Obviously Roy brought that to us.”

But most were upbeat that KU’s long basketball tradition — which started with the game’s inventor, James Naismith, and produced a national championship the season before Williams’ arrival on campus — will continue regardless of who is at the helm.

‘Complete disarray’

Still, shock and disappointment were expressed by several KU students playing basketball on the courts at Veterans Park, 19th and Louisiana streets. They also said they were afraid KU would lose all of its top recruits.

“You hear rumors, but I didn’t think he’d leave,” said James Stevens, a Parsons junior. “It’s a coaching carousel.”

KU fans wave goodbye to Roy Williams as his plane taxis away bound for Chapel Hill N.C. Before leaving on the plane, Williams told the KU men's basketball team that he was leaving Kansas University to take the coaching job at the University of North Carolina.

KU “looks pretty bad now” after firing Al Bohl as athletic director, Evan Pope, a senior from Denver, said. Lyman Fox, a senior from Lawrence, agreed.

“Our sports program is in complete disarray,” Fox said. “We have no coach and no athletic director.”

Josh Hill, 20, Lawrence, who was pushing a baby stroller along 19th Street near Tennessee, didn’t think Williams would leave.

“I’m surprised he’d leave after building up the program here to this level,” he said. “But I wish him luck.”

Community leaders tried to put a good face on the debacle.

“It’s no surprise that every team in America wants a great coach like Roy Williams,” Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement. “We thank Roy Williams for 15 exciting seasons and wish him the best. Kansas has a longstanding tradition of excellent coaching, and we look forward to the next chapter.”

Changes galore

Mayor David Dunfield said he wasn’t worried Williams’ departure would harm the city’s image.

“I don’t think so,” Dunfield said. “The basketball program is not Roy Williams. We’re going to continue to have, I’m sure, a strong basketball program at KU.”

Not everybody was a Williams fan. Fired KU athletics director Al Bohl, who had blamed Williams for his firing, declined comment Monday afternoon.

“I’m not taking calls right now,” he said.

Jean Milstead, interim CEO of the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, said Williams departure is one more change for a city and university that are percolating with them.

“This community is the in the flux of change right now — the City Commission, the athletic director, the basketball coach and we’ll soon have a new Chamber CEO,” she said. “We’ll have the opportunity to see a lot of changes soon.”

J-W staff members contributed to this article.