North Carolina’s men’s basketball media guide arrived in the mail the other day, so naturally I thumbed through it looking for familiar faces.

When Roy Williams left Kansas University to take over the stumbling program of his beloved Tar Heels, he took practically his entire KU staff with him — Joe Holladay, Steve Robinson, Jerod Haase, C.B. McGrath. Heck, he even lured Wayne Walden of the KU academic support staff to Chapel Hill.

Sure enough, all of ’em are pictured in the 2003-2004 North Carolina media guide almost exactly as they were in the 2002-2003 Kansas media guide.

A strange feeling, to say the least … and yet really just additional proof that time marches on, and the longer things stay the same the more likely they are to change.

Since media guides are also recruiting guides, I wasn’t surprised to find two full pages in the UNC publication devoted to bouquets from an assortment of coaches and players about Williams.

Mitch Kupchak, general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers, calls Williams “one of the finest basketball coaches in the world.”

Brad Daugherty, who played for the Tar Heels when Williams was a UNC aide, says, “If I had to go to war, I’d grab him for my foxhole without question.”

Dean Smith, who needs no introduction, says: “He’s like Tiger Woods in golf. They have the whole package. I don’t know anyone else who does. I certainly consider him to be the best college coach in the country.”

Included, too, is former Jayhawk Nick Collison’s memorable comment after the 2003 NCAA championship game. “Even for a million dollars, I wouldn’t want to be in Syracuse’s locker room right now. They won a ring, but I wouldn’t trade places with them. I played for the best man in college basketball.”

And so on. Williams is, after all, the winningest active coach in the country.

Reading all those accolades made me wonder what they were saying when Williams, then such an unknown that some people thought his name was Ron Williams, was hired by Kansas University.

So I went digging into our Fibber McGee’s closet of files to find the 1988-89 Kansas media guide to quench my curiosity.

Williams, you recall, was hired by the Jayhawks after Larry Brown bolted for the NBA San Antonio Spurs. Or was it the New Jersey Nets? No, Brown came to Kansas from the Nets. Pardon me, but keeping track of the mercurial Brown is as tough as unpackaging a store-bought DVD.

Surprisingly, I found the ’88-89 guide rather quickly. Seniors Milt Newton, Scooter Barry, Lincoln Minor and Sean Alvarado are pictured on the cover.

Inside I also found a section titled “What They Say About Roy Williams.” Maybe section is the wrong word. Half of a small page contained a handful of quotes and one was from Bob Frederick, the athletic director who hired Williams and called him “one of the great young minds in the game.”

Dean Smith, who was a member of KU’s 1952 NCAA championship team and the man who more or less brokered the Williams-to-Kansas deal, also is quoted.

“I’m confident he’ll continue to develop Kansas as one of the outstanding programs in the country,” Smith says on page 33 of that guide. “I know he’ll do a great job.”

So great a job, it turned out, that Smith tried twice to hire Williams back, the first time in 2000 and finally with success in 2003.

I’m looking forward to Bill Self’s official debut as the new KU coach Friday night against Tennessee-Chattanooga and I’m confident he’ll do a great job, but I’m also going to try to watch the North Carolina-Davidson game Monday night on ESPN2.

I know many Kansas University fans have hard feelings about Williams leaving and would rather his name never appear in the Journal-World again. I don’t believe in revisionist history, however. I don’t believe in burning the books.

In time, memories will fade. But right now a TV dose of Williams’ sideline histrionics ought to be worth a smile at least.