Williams Will Stay With Jayhawks

Roy Williams found it harder to say no to his players than to Dean Smith.

So Williams, ending a week that kept two states and two great college basketball programs in suspense, gave up a chance to coach his beloved North Carolina and decided to remain at Kansas.

“I’m staying,” Williams said Thursday night at a news conference as more than 16,000 fans sitting in the football bleachers screamed and cheered.

“The decision I’ve made came after the toughest seven days of my life. I couldn’t trade my players. That became more important than my dream of being at North Carolina.”

Calling Smith to say he wasn’t going to succeed Bill Guthridge was “as painful an experience I could have.”

“I apologized to him, and just those words weren’t enough, said Williams, who was an assistant to Smith for 10 years. “Coach Guthridge was another hard call. He and Coach Smith are the reasons I’m here today. I can’t help but a part of me feeling I’ve let them down.”

Williams, a North Carolina native who went from his alma mater to Kansas in 1988, admitted he changed his mind several times and cried often while trying to make the decision.