JULY 1, 2000: Bill Guthridge retires as head coach at UNC after three seasons and two Final Four appearances. He had replaced legendary coach Dean Smith after Smith retired.

JULY 2-5, 2000: Kansas head coach Roy Williams agonizes over an offer from UNC, saying it would be hard to turn down his alma mater and Smith, who was involved in trying to lure Williams back to Chapel Hill.

He later recalls flying back to Kansas from a vacation in South Carolina: "Every time we hit a bump, I'd change my mind."

JULY 6, 2000: Williams stands before 16,000 fans at the KU football stadium and declares, "I'm staying." Cheers of "Roy! Roy! Roy!" erupt.

In a letter to the Chapel Hill News, Kansas fan Mark Morrisey captures the sentiment: "You forget, the center of the basketball universe from which all programs have been created and evolve is Kansas University. ...[G]ood luck, we love y'all like a stepchild."

JULY 11, 2000: UNC hires Matt Doherty from Notre Dame. Doherty had been an assistant to Williams at Kansas for seven years.

DEC. 6, 2000: Williams' Kansas team plays at Wake Forest. "I think I disappointed some people, and that is hard to just forget," Williams says of rebuffing UNC in the summer.

APRIL 1, 2003: Doherty is fired amid player discord. His 2001-02 team had finished 8-20, worst in school history. He was 53-43 overall.

APRIL 7, 2003: Williams' Kansas team loses to Syracuse in the national championship game. Asked about the open North Carolina job on national television, Williams said: "I could give a [expletive] about North Carolina right now." T-shirts with the quote show up quickly on the campus of rival Duke.

APRIL 9, 2003: UNC asks to talk with Williams as the Kansas president abruptly fires the school's athletic director, Al Bohl -- who had clashed with Williams.

KU says the AD firing was not a move to keep Williams, but Bohl says in a news conference his tenure was ended by a "vindictive" Williams.

"[H]e chose to crush me," Bohl said.

APRIL 10-14, 2003: UNC acknowledges talks with Williams, but a long period of indecision follows, reminding fans of waiting for Roy in 2000. The Kansas football coach urges Williams to stay at KU.

APRIL 14, 2003: Williams informs his players he is leaving KU, then appears at a 10 p.m. news conference in Chapel Hill. He had led Kansas to the Final Four in 1991, 1993, 2002 and 2003.

"I wanted to coach both," Williams says.

Kansas fans are upset. Chad Freeman, a KU freshman, echoed others, saying he was "a little bitter, feeling betrayal and shock."

APRIL 4, 2005: UNC wins the NCAA championship with a 75-70 victory over Illinois. It is the first national title for Williams.

Get $150+ in coupons in every Sunday N&O. Click here for convenient home delivery.