Ku’s Williams Gets His Just Desserts
If the children of Kansas ever find out about the contents of coach Roy Williams’ desk drawer, he will have a long line of trick-or-treaters waiting outside his office door on Halloween.
Three of the biggest bags of candy imaginable were stashed in that drawer last week. Bigger than king-size. More chocolate than any place west of Hershey, Pa.
Williams opened the drawer and pulled out an enormous bag of M&M’s. Then he lifted out two more bags - one filled with Reese’s peanut butter cups, the other with Snickers bars.
What does he do with it all? He eats it, of course.
“I love dessert,” Williams said. “I don’t mind telling you. Butterfingers and Mars bars are my favorite.”
Why is Williams so open about being a candy-holic? Because he has turned his sweet tooth into an incredible recruiting tool.
Every year, Williams identifies his top recruit, then makes a statement of discipline to that player. He tells the recruit he won’t eat any candy or desserts until that player decides on a school.
Two years ago he waited on Scot Pollard, a 6-foot-10 center who prepped at Kamiakin of Kennewick. Last year it was Raef LaFrentz, a highly regarded 6-11 pivot man from Monona, Iowa. The Jayhawks got both players and Williams got his dessert.
“For five or six years, I did that with one recruit every year,” Williams said. “Last year, when I would start to eat that Snickers bar, I’d see Raef LaFrentz’s face. That would make me stop. I had promised him I wasn’t going to do that.”
LaFrentz said Williams often reminded him of the sacrifice he was making.
Said Pollard: “I gave him a German chocolate cake when I gave my verbal commitment. He said, ‘I’m not supposed to eat desserts yet.’ And I said, ‘Coach, that’s what (the cake) means. I’m coming.’ He retreated to another room and ate about half of it.”
Williams said he got the idea from a saying North Carolina coach Dean Smith taught him.
“Coach Smith used to say a truly disciplined person is the truly free person,” said Williams, a former Tar Heels assistant. “You make all your own decisions.”
It’s a good thing Williams also has the self-discipline to jog every day. His ritual on game day is especially sure to burn a lot of extra calories - he jogs at least 40 minutes before every game.
“We were in Stillwater (to play Oklahoma State),” Williams said. “That day we jogged right at 40 minutes and 10 seconds and then stopped. That night I told the team, ‘I’ve already done my 40 minutes.’ We ended up going into overtime and lost. I wondered if I should have jogged 45 minutes that day.”
All for one?
The Big East began its winter meetings Sunday in West Palm Beach, Fla., and again will discuss realignment. The conference expands from 10 to 13 teams next season.
There doesn’t appear to be much of a decision left, even though an announcement isn’t expected until spring. Conference sources say work has already started on a schedule based on one conference with no divisions. The schedule will remain at 18 league games. Each team will play every other team once; six opponents will be played twice, on an alternating basis.
Pitino madness?
The Cincinnati Post reported that 2,000 to 4,000 Kentucky fans showed up for coach Rick Pitino’s radio show at a mall in Florence, Ky. “They skip weddings for basketball, and funerals have to wait,” Pitino said. Said mall marketing manager Ed Draud: “I’ve never seen quite so many here. Maybe for our Sesame Street characters, or when we brought in soap opera stars. But that was a few years ago.”
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