Sept. 27, 2004

by Adam Lucas, Tar Heel Monthly

They fit right in to the college crowd, dressed in t-shirts and shorts, looking like nothing more than graduate students enjoying a Saturday afternoon at Kenan Stadium. But Carolina basketball fans everywhere owe a large debt of gratitude to the pair of Chapel Hill visitors in the press box this weekend.

As the calendar approached 2000, Roy Williams wasn't sure how much he enjoyed college basketball anymore. Some players were starting to care more about their pro potential than their college success, and there was a growing sentiment in the coaching world that times had changed, that players had to be coddled.

Roy Williams is not a coddler. But the class he recruited to Lawrence in the fall of 1999, which included Drew Gooden, Kirk Hinrich, and Nick Collison, convinced him he didn't have to be.

"They were part of a class that changed my attitude," Williams says. "I was getting very disenchanted with the recruiting process. I was wondering if I should go to the NBA. But because of Nick, Kirk, and Drew, they showed me I could do it the way I want to do it with the right kinds of families."

Collison and Hinrich were in Chapel Hill this weekend, working out in the Smith Center alongside most of the current Tar Heels, taking in a women's soccer game and Saturday's football game, and spending some quality time with the coaching staff that was a major part of their lives for four years.

Hinrich spent this past season with the Chicago Bulls, where Williams was able to see him play one game in person. Collison is on the roster of the Seattle Sonics but sat out the year after undergoing shoulder surgery. Both players will report to their respective training camps shortly, but wanted to stop by Chapel Hill first. The only previous trip to the area for both players was an AAU Tournament during their high school careers.

Although both could be spotted getting some hands-on tutelage from Williams Friday afternoon, it was more of a social visit than a basketball visit.

"We haven't seen these guys in a long time," Collison said. "Not only Coach Williams, but also all the assistants and Jonas Sahratian, who was our strength coach. It was good to see all the guys and their families again. We picked right back up where we left off, including getting on Coach Holladay about everything. It wasn't different at all."

Collison and Hinrich won a pair of Big XII titles and went to two Final Fours during their KU careers. Their freshman season, however, ended with a 24-10 record and a disappointing second-round loss in the NCAA Tournament. Both believe that although it was frustrating at the time, that year played a critical role in their understanding of how to play for Williams.

"That first year is the first time you're going through anything like that," Hinrich said. "You have to have a season to experience the season and the practices and conditioning Coach Williams expects. It makes everything so much more natural after that."

Both players have seemingly been intertwined ever since their high school careers in Iowa. They announced their intention to play for the Jayhawks within a month of each other, and both had suitors from across the country for their services.

But looking back on their college careers, neither can imagine it turning out differently.

"When you're being recruited, a lot of coaches promise you a lot of things," Hinrich said. "Coach Williams only promises to give you a chance. He'll give you all he's got and he expects the same from you. If I had a son, I'd tell him to go play for Coach because of that trust and honesty."

Collison also appreciated that honesty, but as a 6-foot-9 post player appreciated Williams's preferred style of play just as much.

"Coach Williams is so good at working with post players," Collison said. "He's one of the few coaches left who wants his teams to try and throw it inside on every trip. He's a great coach for big guys."

But big guys, little guys, or any technical basketball talk wasn't the purpose of the weekend. Collison and Hinrich will probably always call Williams "Coach." But Williams talks often about the way player-coach relationships change upon graduation, and it was clear watching them interact that his guests had long ceased being mere "players"--and started being friends.

"I'm always going to care about these guys and they're always going to care about us," Williams said. "I've tried to help develop the North Carolina basketball family, and I tried to do the same thing at Kansas. For these guys, Kansas is always going to be their number-one school. But we're always going to be family."

Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. To subscribe to Tar Heel Monthly, click here.