Williams Has Jayhawks Out of Their Press

CHICAGO —  Kenny Gregory, a sophomore swingman for Kansas, was suddenly confronted by a smallish man, no more than 5 feet 8 or so, a 48-year-old with a bit of a paunch, sliding in front of him, knees bent, hands waving and an evil grin breaking out.

It was Gregory’s coach, Roy Williams, daring the 6-5 player to beat Williams, come on by and show the coach something. Gregory looked surprised, then confused. Do you show up the coach? Is this serious?

Well, no, it wasn’t serious. Williams was kidding, having a little fun at the end of a loosey-goosey 30-minute shootaround Tuesday morning before a nationally televised game against another legendary college basketball program, Kentucky, at the two-day Great Eight Classic at the United Center here.

Williams will take Kansas to the Arrowhead Pond on Saturday to play Pepperdine in another classic, the Wooden Classic. The Jayhawks have already played in the Tip-Off tournament in Springfield, Mass., and that is how it is when your basketball program is filled with tradition and when every season begins with the idea that a national championship would not be unexpected.

And maybe those expectations had grown too large for Williams. That’s how it seemed last year when the Jayhawks were stunned by Rhode Island in the second round of the NCAA tournament. A year earlier, after having spent most of the season undefeated and ranked No. 1, the Jayhawks lost to eventual national champion Arizona in the regional semifinals. Last season, with NBA first-round draft picks Raef LaFrentz and Paul Pierce in the lineup, the Jayhawks spent a large portion of the season at No. 1 as well.

But after two years in which the overall record was 69-6, there was a gaping, aching hole instead of Final Four appearances.

In an extraordinary display of humbleness and honesty, a tearful Williams blamed himself for his team’s uptight NCAA performance after the Rhode Island loss. In his own very public, very open quest for an NCAA title, Williams said, his team had become the victim, trying to win one for the coach instead of just playing basketball and having fun. It would not happen again, Williams said, his face pale, his lips clenched tightly between his teeth.

So now another season has started.

Tuesday , Kansas lost to eighth-ranked and defending national champion Kentucky, 63-45. The Jayhawks are 4-1 and ranked seventh in the country.

Not bad, but not the same as the last two seasons, when Williams was considered to have the best talent in the country but was considered a failure when he did not win enough NCAA tournament games.

This relative lack of pressure, Williams says, will be a blessing if “it’s better for the players. If it takes the pressure off of them, fine. If I had a choice, I’d rather be picked No. 1 all the time. It means people think you have No. 1 talent.” There was an edge to that last part, as if to make sure that no one thought Roy Williams was backing away from anything.

That is how Williams is. Upfront and with his emotions close to the surface.

As his players walked off the practice court Tuesday morning, some slapping Williams on the butt, one patting Williams on the head, Williams smiled a little even as he said, “I made a mistake last year. The players will say they disagree with me, but I made a mistake. I put more pressure on them because of my own goal, and that is wrong.

“When people saw my emotions, the tears, some of them misunderstood. They weren’t tears for myself. I’m going to have other chances [for a title]. But there were a group of kids who were leaving Kansas and who would never have another chance. Raef LaFrentz, Paul Pierce, kids who had given everything for Kansas.”

That loss to Rhode Island was not the only low moment for Williams last season. After getting an oral commitment from JaRon Rush, a star senior at Kansas City’s Pembroke Hill School, Williams watched as Rush publicly questioned his decision by saying “Roy substitutes too much.” Before Rush said much more, Williams announced that Kansas would no longer be recruiting Rush or offering him a scholarship, which didn’t seem to bother Rush much.

Rush is now part of a heralded UCLA freshman class, and if it seemed that Williams was making some sort of moral statement, there were background snickers about Williams trying to save face when he knew that Rush was going to dump Kansas anyway. It seemed too easy for Williams to criticize Rush after the high schooler seemed clearly to have decided against Kansas.

As Williams pointed out afterward, it had been Rush who had said “it would take an act of God for me” to not attend Kansas. And all Williams will say now is that the whole episode was “distasteful,” but that “I have no hard feelings toward JaRon and I hope he has a great career.”

When Williams arrived at Kansas, after Larry Brown had taken the Jayhawks and Danny Manning to a national title, Williams was a no-name No. 2 assistant from North Carolina. He was not given much chance for success.

Eleven years later, Williams has been to two Final Fours (1991 and 1993) and has won at least 25 games each of the last nine seasons.

That’s all wonderful, but Williams will not hide from what’s missing. The NCAA title. He won’t hide, but he is absolutely not going to make his quest his team’s quest.

So there will be no pressure, no title talk. There will be laughter. There has to be.

*

Diane Pucin can be reached at diane.pucin@latimes.com

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Williams’ Mark

How Coach Roy Williams has fared at Kansas (286-63 overall): *--*

Year Record Postseason 1988-89 19-12 None 1989-90 30-5 NCAA 2nd Round 1990-91 27-8 Final Four (2nd) 1991-92 27-5 Final 2nd Round 1992-93 29-7 Final Four 1993-94 27-8 NCAA Sweet 16 1994-95 25-6 NCAA Sweet 16 1995-96 29-5 NCAA Elite 8 1996-97 34-2 NCAA Sweet 16 1997-98 35-4 NCAA 2nd Round 1998-99 4-1

*--*

JOHN R. WOODEN CLASSIC

SATURDAY

* Game 1: Pepperdine (5-1) vs. No. 7 Kansas (4-1), 2:30 p.m.

* Game 2: No. 18 UCLA (2-2) vs. No. 11 Oklahoma State (4-1), 4:30 p.m.

*

INSIDE

GREAT EIGHT

Connecticut and Kentucky are winners over Washington and Kansas in sloppy games. Page 5

ELSEWHERE

Oklahoma State’s long home-court win streak against nonconference opponents ends. Page 5