Roy Williams forever will remember where he was when the lights went out in New York City.

“As a matter of fact, I was exercising in the middle of Central Park,” said Williams, the former Kansas University basketball coach who Thursday afternoon was jogging with U.S. national team head coach Larry Brown and fellow U.S. assistant Gregg Popovich — two other coaches with KU ties — when a blackout hit the Big Apple.

“Me, Larry and ‘Pop’ had finished six miles, and a guy pulled up in a van and said, ‘You may not have heard, but power is out everywhere,'” Williams explained.

“Ten minutes later, people were coming out of buildings, coming out of everywhere. It was like one of those disaster movies. It was eerie. People were walking through the park to get to their homes.”

Williams has been in New York the past week serving as an assistant for the team which today heads to Puerto Rico for the Olympic qualifying tournament.

He said his most vivid memory of the blackout won’t be doing without hot water at the Ritz Carlton hotel for 24 hours.

It will not be having no electricity at the hotel until 4 a.m. Friday.

He’ll most remember the spirit of cooperation in New York during the crisis.

“I was stunned and proud of the way everybody handled the thing in New York,” Williams told the Journal-World in a phone interview Sunday night. “Everybody was gracious, helpful. My only problem was ‘Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream Parlor’ was giving away free ice cream before it melted, and I wasn’t there to get any.

“People were everywhere,” the new North Carolina coach continued in a serious tone. “We went out that (Thursday) night looking around, and people were continually walking on the streets. The street lights were out, so with the people walking, the cars couldn’t turn, and there was gridlock.”

The blackout forced a two-day delay of an exhibition game between the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Sunday at Madison Square Garden, the Americans rolled to a 101-74 victory behind the 21-point, 15-rebound effort of Tim Duncan.

“We are not a real good team yet. We scrimmaged today and won fairly easy, but we were only up six at half,” Williams said. “The biggest thing is we’ve got to go from a collection of talented players to being a team.

“We do have guys trying to share the ball and not acting the same as they do on their teams where they are the stars. The guys are starting to move together on the defensive end. We’re going to get our identity from rebounding and the defensive side.”

Brown, a former KU head coach, and San Antonio Spurs’ coach Popovich, who took sabbatical from Pomona-Pitzer to work for Brown one season at KU, are allowing college coaches Williams and Oliver Purnell of Clemson to speak their minds at practices and games.

“It’s going really well,” Williams said. “Larry and ‘Pop’ are allowing us to have input. It’s been a lot of fun.”

Williams has enjoyed working with former KU player Nick Collison, the Seattle SuperSonics’ rookie who just completed his Jayhawk career.

“Nick is doing well. He is overwhelmed by the experience, but not overwhelmed when playing,” Williams said. “They (NBA veterans) have kind of adopted him. They call him the young guy and the rook. He’s fit in well.”

The U.S. team must place in the top three in the upcoming 10-team Olympic qualifying tournament to advance to the 2004 Olympic Games.

As for the KU flavor of the U.S. coaching staff, Williams said, “I bring it up a lot, what a great 15 years it was for me (at Kansas). With Larry being there five years and ‘Pop’ there on sabbatical … yes, we talk about it a lot.”

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Last year’s slate tough: KU’s 2003-04 basketball schedule has not yet been released, but there is some news regarding last year’s slate.

The NCAA Tournament committee recently released the information it used when seeding the teams in last year’s 65-team event. The committee deemed KU’s 2002-03 slate the toughest schedule in the country.