People tend to look at coaches like Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski and just assume that they were always going to be great. They forget about the struggles.
It took Coach K a few years to establish his Duke program, and plenty of people wanted him gone before he did.
Roy Williams took the Kansas job in 1988, after Larry Brown fled Lawrence, leaving Williams with probation for his first season. Williams got the job with a strong recommendation from his boss at UNC, Dean Smith.
And in his first season,
Williams brought his Jayhawks to Cameron on a six-game losing streak. Worse, this was the game when Duke would retire Danny Ferry’s jersey.
It was asking a lot, and, true to form, Duke kicked Kansas when it was down.
The Blue Devils hammered Kansas, 102-77, sending the Jayhawks to their seventh consecutive loss and dropping them to 16-10.
Williams’s first season in Lawrence was a bit bumpy, but the teams would meet again in the NCAA Finals two years later, a game the Blue Devils won, 72-65.
Williams, of course, would ultimately return to Chapel Hill, where he would win three national championships. He and Coach K kept the Duke-UNC rivalry at a very high level.
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