Matt Doherty Fired...

[sensei_hanson]

Scary considering Sandman called this one a few weeks ago.

(Chapel Hill) AP - North Carolina basketball coach Matt Doherty, whose job status and relationship with his players have been in question for months, will not return next season, a source with knowledge of the decision has told ESPN's Dick Vitale.

A spokesman for the school would not confirm Doherty's fate. His job status will be discussed at an 8 p.m. ET news conference.

Sources have told ESPN.com that North Carolina athletics director Dick Baddour wanted to make a decision on Doherty's fate before the Final Four. Baddour has met with players and their parents in the past week about their relationship with Doherty, who just completed his third year as Tar Heels coach.

Speculation about Doherty's job status and potential player unrest dogged the program for much of the season.

Doherty was The Associated Press national coach of the year in his first season after leading the Tar Heels to a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. But the team slumped badly last season after sophomore Joseph Forte entered the NBA draft and Doherty was unable to prod football/basketball players Julius Peppers and Ronald Curry to join the team for the ACC season.

The Tar Heels finished 8-20 overall, 4-7 in the ACC. But the program took a huge swing upward this season with the addition of freshmen Raymond Felton, Rashad McCants and Sean May. The Tar Heels won the Preseason NIT and were on their way to a likely NCAA bid before May suffered a broken foot that forced him to miss the entire ACC schedule.

Nonetheless, North Carolina beat Duke at home to close the regular season, defeated Maryland in the first round of the ACC tournament and then advanced to the third round of the postseason NIT, where it lost to Georgetown and finished 19-16.

Kansas coach Roy Williams, who spurned the Tar Heels three years ago and remained at Kansas -- a decision that led to Doherty's hiring by Carolina -- told ESPN.com on Tuesday that he was extremely upset over the possibility that Doherty would lose his job. Doherty played for the Tar Heels in the 1980s when Williams was an assistant under Dean Smith and was on Williams' staff at Kansas.

Alright. 19-16 after an 8-20 record is a damn fine improvement and should have saved him for at least another season. I have major reservations about this move....I can only hope that Baddour already has a coach lined up to take Doherty's place (I'm really hoping for Larry Brown, who's contract is up with the 76ers at the end of the year.)

Either way, an interesting turn of events.

[Sandman]

Add George Karl to that list of potential replacements.

Sandman

[knvb]

Was that not Karl's dream job? Wasn't he up for it originally after Smith left?


18 questions left.

[Jinky]

Why do they call them coaches when obviously the most important part of their job discription is recruiter?

[Sandman]

Add Michael Jordan to the ever growing list of potential replacements.

Sandman

[Sandman]

He never won the big one in Kansas, he'll never win the big one in Chapel Hill

From the wire services:

In the end, Roy Williams knew it was time to return to his roots, to the storied program in powder blue where he learned his craft as an assistant at his beloved alma mater.

The coach who grew up in the North Carolina mountains went home Monday, rejoining the Tar Heels to try to win the national title that eluded him for 15 seasons at Kansas.

He resigned as Jayhawks coach exactly one week after losing in the NCAA championship game -- and almost three years after turning down the North Carolina job the first time he had a chance to take it.

"I was a Tar Heel born. When I die, I'll be a Tar Heel dead. But in the middle, I have been Tar Heel and Jayhawk bred, and I am so, so happy and proud of that," Williams said during a news conference inside a practice gym at the Smith Center, before a crowd of cheering boosters.

Former coaches Dean Smith and Bill Guthridge stood nearby, and the Tar Heels' players wore suits and sport jackets. Outside, a crowd of students gathered, and they could be heard cheering before the announcement.

Williams met with his Kansas players in Lawrence earlier in the day to tell them his decision. He left Allen Fieldhouse nearly in tears, and later flew by jet to Chapel Hill.

"Other than serious injury or death to my family, I've never had anything more difficult than what I've been through this afternoon with my team, and telling those 13 young men that I was leaving them," he said at the news conference.

When Matt Doherty resigned April 1, there was immediate speculation that Williams would be the front-runner, but he angrily refused to answer questions about the job after the Jayhawks lost to Syracuse in the title game.

Williams took the Kansas job only a few months after Larry Brown coached the team to the 1988 national title. After going 19-12 in his first season, Williams guided the Jayhawks to the NCAA Tournament 14 straight times.

The fourth-fastest coach in Division I history to reach 400 victories, Williams (418-101) won nine conference championships and took the Jayhawks to four Final Fours, including two appearances in the title game.

"It's sad for the program and the players who are here," said Jeff Boschee, who was a senior at Kansas last year and attended Monday's half-hour meeting. "It's tough for them."

Other players had different reactions. Wayne Simien, who dislocated his shoulder in January and later had season-ending surgery, appeared angry after the meeting.

"I gave my right arm for him, literally," said Simien, wearing a sling.

At North Carolina, meanwhile, there was elation. A school that saw Williams leave as a highly regarded assistant now welcomes him back as one of the most respected coaches in the country.

"Certainly, we have the entire package, in my opinion," Smith said. "He's proven he's an outstanding coach. He doesn't hide from tough games, and his teams play hard, they play together, they execute and they play smart."

Williams played for Smith as a freshman with the Tar Heels during the 1968-69 season and was his assistant from 1978-88. During that time, North Carolina advanced to the national title game in 1981 against Indiana and won the championship the following season, when Michael Jordan hit the winning shot.

Doherty, a former assistant to Williams at Kansas, had been coach at Notre Dame for just one season when he was hired at North Carolina, after Williams turned the school down. Doherty, who played for the Tar Heels in the early 1980s, had a terrific first season on the sideline, winning The Associated Press national coach of the year award in 2001.

But the Tar Heels slipped badly the next season, going a program-worst 8-20. Doherty's young team went 19-16 this season but missed the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year. Doherty also was criticized for alienating some players and athletic department staff.

Williams' fierce loyalty to his players kept him at Kansas when he was first offered the job in Chapel Hill, and many Jayhawks fans hoped he would stay in Lawrence for good.

In June 2000, Williams spent an agonizing week following the retirement of Guthridge, who had succeeded Smith. Williams was forced to choose between two programs that desperately wanted him.

After a weeklong vacation at his home in South Carolina, and a day spent in Lawrence thinking it over, Williams announced his decision to 16,000 Kansas fans at Memorial Stadium.

"I'm staying," Williams said simply.

Given a second chance at North Carolina, he decided to go.

"The last time I decided to stay, it was because I thought it was the right thing," Williams said Monday night. "This time, I decided to leave because it was the right thing."

Smith talked to Williams, his close friend and golfing buddy, about the job last week. On Wednesday, Kansas fired athletic director Al Bohl, with whom Williams had a chilly relationship, but the school said the move was not made to placate the popular coach

[knvb]

Double the reason to hate the Shit Heels now.

[sensei_hanson]

Don't like it, actually.

Shoulda pressed the envelope for Larry Brown once the Sixers were eliminated from the playoffs, although the timing wouldn't have been good for the 2003/4 season college season.

Sandman has a point - he hasn't won dick - and this has always been my major criticism of Williams at Kansas. Always a bridesmaid, never a bride. Still, his recruiting prowess is second probably only to Coach K, and he's still an excellent 'college' coach. So I think the Heels will benefit in the long-run, but I doubt next season will be any more impressive than this one. Give Roy a year to adjust.

Still, always good to bring a NC boy back to Chapel Hill. War Heels '03.
-Sensei.

[sensei_hanson]

SI.com talked with Sports Illustrated senior writer Grant Wahl about Roy Williams' decision to leave Kansas for North Carolina.

SI.com: What was it about UNC's offer that made it more appealing than the offer it made to Williams three years ago?

Grant Wahl: I think the situation at Kansas was different. In fact, both situations -- at KU and UNC -- were different. Clearly, UNC is in a pretty sorry state right now, at least on the basketball court. There is a lot of talent in that program, enough that they can be a top-10 team next year. And there are some pretty obvious differences in Lawrence, in that Bob Frederick, the AD who hired Williams, is gone, and he was there three years ago.

Roy's situation with players was a little different three years ago, too. Back then, he had three sophomores named Nick Collison, Kirk Hinrich and Drew Gooden who were coming back. That's a big part of it -- enough things had changed at KU to give him reason to think about leaving for North Carolina.

Also, I think Dean Smith had a huge, huge impact. You can be very sure that Smith had a huge role in all this. All you have to do is talk to Roy Williams a few times to realize that Smith is the most important person in Williams' professional life. He talks to [Smith] all the time, and he gets suggestions from him all the time.

After Kansas lost to Missouri in the Big 12 Tournament, Smith suggested that Williams write up a pledge on the team's briefing board in the locker room that said if they wanted to win a national championship, they had to block out on every play. Under the pledge, he had written, "DES '53." He said to the players, "This one comes from one of our alums; I don't normally listen to our alumni, but I listen to this guy."

SI.com: If Kansas had beaten Syracuse in the national title game, do you think it would have affected Williams' decision?

Wahl: I think it would have been more likely he would have gone. It might not have taken him this long to make the decision.

SI.com: Will Kansas regret firing athletic director Al Bohl, seeing that it didn't influence Williams' final decision?

Wahl: I don't think so. I think it was widely accepted that Al Bohl was a pariah in the KU athletic department whether Williams was there or not. Even the football coach, Mark Mangino, whom he hired a year ago, was estranged from him.

SI.com: Do you expect there to be any fallout in Lawrence because of this? Will any of the Jayhawks try to transfer?

Wahl: There could be fallout. It remains to be seen who they hire and how successful that person is at keeping those players around. I wouldn't pay attention to what players say now, when they're angry. I would pay attention to what they say once a new coach is in place. I would expect the new coach to come in and convince a lot of those guys to stay.

SI.com: And who do you think that new coach will be?

Wahl: There's already a list out there, but it's fair to say that the one name that gets mentioned above anyone else is Illinois' Bill Self. He's not only a great coach, but he's also good at getting people to buy into what he's doing. If that were the case, I think he would do a pretty good job of convincing [the current Jayhawks] to stick around.

If you're a Kansas fan, you've got to hope the interim athletic director and president will make the right decision. This is an athletic department in complete turmoil right now. Some people think that the chancellor, Robert Hemenway, who hired and fired Al Bohl, might be in trouble with his job as well.

SI.com: With the team UNC has coming back, what impact will an exceptional coach like Williams have on the program?

Wahl: It's hard to say. You've got some real challenges [at UNC]. Here are a bunch of freshmen who pretty much got their coach fired. That doesn't seem like something Roy Williams would want to walk into, but he's going to have to. You've got an athletic director in Dick Baddour who put Williams in a terrible position during the Final Four with the removal of Matt Doherty. And you've got the shadow of Dean Smith hanging over Roy Williams as he tries to get the program back to where it used to be. The level of expectations is going to be amazingly high.

SI.com: And what kind of impact will it have on the rest of the college basketball world?

Wahl: I know a lot of college coaches were looking forward to Williams doing this because there will be a huge domino effect in job openings, starting at KU and moving down. This sort of effect wouldn't have happened if UNC had hired, say, Larry Brown or George Karl from the NBA.

[ParkHead]

Dean Smith will share a little wisdom with Coach Williams and then all the criticism of him not winning the big one will disappear. He is the right man for the job. Coach Williams best attribute is he is a great recruiter and this is exactly what UNC needs. Watch out ACC the heels will be back sooner than later!!


Parkhead