Scot Pollard On Playing For Roy Williams At Kansas

Former Kansas Jayhawks Scot Pollard talks about his experience playing for Head Coach Roy Williams at Kansas.

Full Interview: https://youtu.be/vzFeAzKRmuo

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Your recruiting story with uh coach Williams what was that like what was what was it like having coach Williams Come and recruit you um well you know like everything else in my life uh hard work um garnered me the respect and and the opportunities that I’ve I’ve gotten in my life it wasn’t

Given um I’m the youngest of six all five of my siblings uh got scholarship offers uh and played division one with the exception of my sister who just didn’t want to play play uh College athletics but um I was on the I was known because of that uh

Because of my brothers uh but at the same time no one was recruiting me in San Diego I was just another big white guy you know um but then uh my sophomore year of high school I mean I was getting recruited I got letters and my first one

I got from Jim beheim at Syracuse in seventh grade uh cuz that was back when they mailed you letters you know you guys know what letters are yeah yeah I know it wasn’t an email uh it wasn’t Twitter um but uh um we uh I I was you know known because of of

My family and because of the size and all that but um you know I still wasn’t getting really looked at until I started beating up guys that were signed uh that were getting looked at and all of a sudden you know so I had Jerry green who is one of Roy’s assistants uh

That never was actually there when I was there uh he was the first one that saw me and then he took a job somewhere else I think Oregon or Tennessee I can’t remember which one he went to first uh and then it went to Kevin Stallings who was another

Assistant and uh Kevin said the same thing hey you got to check this kid out and then Roy showed up and Roy took over I was then I was just so it made me feel special because it I jumped from assistant to assistant to the head man

Himself and that’s who ended up that’s the only person I talked to from that point on once Roy took over so um I picked KU because of Roy um I I was GNA stay home I I grew up in San Diego and I wanted to go to UCLA really bad uh or

Arizona actually verbally committed to Arizona they uh had me out had one of my former colleagues he he didn’t we didn’t play together but a kid that went to my high school was my host at Arizona uh they took me to a party and there was a lot of pretty

Girls there and uh I I like that and so uh I I I verbally committed to Arizona uh lud olsson’s wife made me breakfast after the party uh I mean it was they they treated me very pretty special but I would say the one thing was at

Practice uh the team was down on the court practicing and lot was up up in the stands just sitting there just watching and then people would come in and start talking to him and he’d talk to him and the practice is going on and he’s just kind of like not really paying

Attention the assistants were running the practice I thought that was a little weird uh but Roy took a vested interest or at least it seemed like it and Roy made me feel special he made me feel like I was the only one uh that he was recruiting he said he wasn’t going to

Eat dessert until I committed somewhere uh and so that’s what how I committed to him actually is uh when we were I was out there for late night and back then it was midnight and being in San Diego you know it’s not really an indoor Sport City I’d

Never seen 177,000 people inside ever in my life and it was midnight I was like what what is wrong with these people you know I I just had never heard of that and it was amazing to me and so that helped for sure but it

Was also you know Roy was uh Roy and um back to my brothers they all went to college and all of their Co coaches changed during their time in college and they all ended up transferring and I didn’t want that and so I said coach if you promise me you’re

Not leaving and you’re not going to get fired I know that but you’re not leaving to go back to North Carolina then I’m coming here and he promised me he said I’m not I’m not going anywhere this is this is where I want to be um funny

Story I heard I don’t know if this is true you’d have to ask everybody since me but I heard that that promise uh was was told through generations and the last guys that he promised were um Kirk Hinrich and Nick Collison because everybody else made them made him promise that he wasn’t

Leaving and uh he made that promise and Nick and Kirk were the last guys that he promised that he wasn’t going to leave um so I like I said I think I heard that but I don’t know for sure if that’s true but Roy uh is he’s still is is like a

Father figured to me I lost my dad in high school uh so I kind of went through the recruiting part alone uh with my mom uh and uh I was homeless for a little while I was couch surfing my mom went to go live with one of my brothers and so I

Was stayed in San Diego my junior year and I was just kind of like living with whoever would live me I wasn’t like homeless on the street but I wasn’t in the house with my mom uh and you know so I definitely needed somebody that was going to be there and

Be a father figure for me uh and Roy was that guy he just called me a little while ago to check in on me um and uh so we’ve we’ve kept in touch even though he has no reason to keep in touch with me he’s still that guy for

Me that I mean that’s that’s super super cool I I’ve I’ve only heard good things about Roy I was obviously probably four or yeah around four years old when he left Kansas so I had a little bit of hatred for him but that was just because

He left and I knew everybody in my household was super upset about it he left the program leaves and Bounds ahead of where it was so Roy I mean he played a pivotal part in college basketball history oh I was pissed at him too by the way just so you

Know I was like you’re gonna go back and follow Dean Smith I there was actually a little bit of uh I was in the papers I got quoted I said some not so nice things about Roy I was pissed off that he left um and you know I wanted him to

Be the guy Forever at Kansas you know the guy that retired at Kansas and you know I I’ll never forget Danny Manning’s statement when when that happened the transition to Bill self and Danny said Kansas basketball was great before Roy Williams Kansas basketball was great with Roy Williams and Kansas

Basketball’s going to be great after Roy Williams and he’s right yeah