By Eddie Pells
The Associated Press

Final Four head coaches Jim Boeheim of Syracuse and Roy Williams of Kansas smile as they prepare for an interview Sunday. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

NEW ORLEANS - A near miss here, a bad bounce there. Just like Jim Boeheim, Roy Williams knows what it's like to come up short of a dream.

"Jim's a much, much better long-iron player than I am - much more consistent," Williams said, his eyes glazing over, his mind wandering to a different time and place.

Before they were rivals on the sideline, the coaches at Kansas and Syracuse were buddies on the golf course.

On Monday, one man will finally break through and win the national championship that has eluded both over a combined 42 years of coaching. A few months later, the single-digit handicappers will compare scorecards, most likely from their rounds at the famous Pine Valley Golf Club in New Jersey.

Win or lose at either venue, life will go on.

"I'll be just the same next year," Boeheim guaranteed.

That's not to play down the importance of Monday night's game. Williams and Boeheim would agree with the obvious - that winning the NCAA basketball title is the pinnacle of the sport.

"When you coach at this level, that's what you want to do," Boeheim said.

But will they coach differently? Put more pressure on themselves? Buy into the well-circulated notion that they need a championship to validate careers that have been nothing less than stellar?

"Sure, the game is tremendously important," Boeheim said. "The problem I have, though, is the thought that all of the sudden, you're a good player or a good coach because you win this game. That's foolishness."

Williams agrees.

Both coaches have the resumes to back their confidence.

This season, the 52-year-old Williams reached the 400-victory plateau, and he did it faster than all but three men - Adolph Rupp, Clair Bee and Jerry Tarkanian. Williams has guided the Jayhawks to their fourth Final Four and their second championship game in his 15 years at Kansas.

But the numbers don't tell the whole story. He is a coach in much more than an Xs and Os sense. In the style of his old boss and mentor, Dean Smith, Williams is a mentor, too. He considers his players family.

Three years ago, he had a handshake agreement to take the job at his alma mater, North Carolina. But he changed his mind when he went to the gym and ran into three of his former players, including Greg Gurley, all of whom had children.

"Greg said, 'How does it feel to have your grandchildren in the gym with you?"' Williams said. "That was something that really hit me pretty hard at the time."

Undoubtedly, Williams will cry when it's over Monday night - not just because of the winning or losing, but because it's the last college game for Kirk Hinrich and Nick Collison.

"I would hate to think that my son played for somebody who didn't care," Williams said. "I do deeply care."

With a 652-226 record in 27 seasons at Syracuse, Boeheim ranks second in winning percentage among all active coaches. He took the Orangemen to 10 straight NCAA tournaments from 1983-92, the fourth-longest streak of all time.

Twice, he has taken the Orangemen to the final, only to come up short - in 1987, at the Superdome, they lost 74-73 to Indiana on Keith Smart's basket with four seconds left.

"I had a tremendous experience for five days, 39 minutes and 56 seconds there," Boeheim said. "I want to try to get those other four seconds in this time."

The 58-year-old coach isn't as touchy-feely as his counterpart, but that shouldn't diminish his real emotions.

"He is always trying to push me, and he goes about it in a funny way sometimes," Syracuse sophomore forward Hakim Warrick said. "It has helped me. I know he's just trying to get the best out of me."

By almost any account, Boeheim has done one of his best coaching jobs this season. It's not that he doesn't have talent - quite the contrary. It's just that the talent is young. Freshman of the year Carmelo Anthony, classmate Gerry McNamara and Warrick account for 63 percent of Syracuse's offense.

Boeheim has nurtured them and used his tricky 2-3 zone defense more than he normally would. It's his way of masking inexperienced players' defensive shortcomings, and the system has worked.

"At this point in the year, we're not freshmen anymore," McNamara said.

Still, Kansas is the more seasoned team. Collison and Hinrich are two top-notch seniors who get significant playing time, something of a rarity in this era of early departures.

While Boeheim calls almost every play for Syracuse, Williams takes pride in not being much of a micromanager; he likes his players to run and push and play man-to-man.

"My personality is I want to be a little more aggressive," Williams said. "If you feel comfortable doing something, it's easier to do."

That, both Williams and Boeheim agree, is part of their coaching handbook: Do what you're most comfortable with. Have a good time. Keep things in perspective.

"As much as I would like to win, I don't feel it would make any difference in my feeling about what I do," Boeheim said. "Some people think you have to win it. Those are the people I really don't care what they think."