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Williams Ponders ‘Huge Decision’

By Bill Dwyre
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Kansas Coach Roy Williams, attending the 27th Wooden Awards banquet Sunday night in Los Angeles, said he is struggling with the possibility of becoming coach at North Carolina, where he attended school and was an assistant under Dean Smith.

“I’m going to go home and get a good night’s sleep for the first time in two weeks,” said Williams, who was presented with the John R. Wooden Legendary Coaching Award on Sunday.

“I have a huge decision to make. Many people would think that this is a great situation, but this is the worst situation you can imagine.

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“I have two great institutions that I love, and I want to be at both, but the commute is too long.

“I look out in the crowd and I see people like Omar Wilkes [the son of Jamaal Wilkes and Loyola High player who has committed to play at Kansas], and I’m just torn.... I’m just hoping some rainbow will appear to help me.”

The North Carolina position opened when Matt Doherty resigned after the season, and word of Williams taking that job has intensified since Kansas’ NCAA championship game loss to Syracuse last Monday.

-- Bill Dwyre

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Bill Dwyre

Bill Dwyre was a three-times-weekly sports columnist for the Los Angeles Times from 2006-15. Before that, he was sports editor of the paper for 25 years. Dwyre was named national editor of the year by the National Press Foundation in 1985 for the paper’s coverage of the ’84 Olympics and winner of the Red Smith Award in 1996 by the Associated Press Sports Editors for sustained excellence in sports journalism. He was sports editor of the Milwaukee Journal from 1973 to 1981, when he joined The Times. Dwyre was named National Headliner Award winner in 1985, sportswriter of the year in Wisconsin in 1980 and sportswriter of the year in California in 2009.

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