Guthridge regrets silent treatment with UNC's Williams

Former North Carolina coach Bill Guthridge says he regrets not talking to current coach Roy Williams for three years after Williams first turned down the Tar Heels job, in 2000.

“When I retired, I had hoped that he would come back to coach, and when he didn’t, I should have handled it better,’’ Guthridge said Monday in a phone interview. “I should have communicated with him. I’m glad he took the job the second time around [in 2003] … but if I had it to do all over again, I’d do it differently.”

Williams reveals Guthridge’s silent treatment in his autobiography, written with former Sports Illustrated writer Tim Crothers, titled “Hard Work: A Life on and Off the Court.” It will be on sale Nov. 3, but an early copy was obtained by The News & Observer.

In the book, Williams said that after his decision to stay at Kansas in 2000, Guthridge - who coached Williams on the Tar Heels' freshman team, then was an assistant with him under Smith - "essentially" didn't speak to him for three years. In 2003, when Williams took the job the second time it was offered, Guthridge was among those at the airport in Chapel Hill welcoming him back. "That was a little uncomfortable for me; we hadn't really talked for three years and I knew he had been very mad at me,'' Williams says in the book. " ... I gave him some leeway because I would always think of him as my coach."

Eddie Fogler, who was also an assistant with Williams on coach Dean Smith’s staff, also only spoke with him two or three times during that three-year timespan, Williams said in the book.

Williams also said that both decisions – to stay at Kansas in 2000, then to leave in 2003 – were two of the hardest decisions he’s ever had to make.

And the book indicates that he now has good relationships with both Guthridge and Fogler.

“Roy has really been nice to me, and he's been great, and we have a good relationship,’’ Guthridge said Monday. “To me, he is the best coach in the country, bar none. There is nobody in his category. … I love Carolina basketball, and Roy Williams is the best coach, and that’s why I wanted him to come back. But I do wish I would have handled things differently.”

Guthridge said he knew Williams was writing the book, but didn’t know the part about him would be in there. “But I’m fine with it,’’ he added.