You want to know how loyal Roy Williams is?

Williams announced this week that he was having his right knee replaced to rid him of the pain that dogged him through the past basketball season due to the bone-on-bone deterioration of the joint. But Williams knew he was going to do it all along. He just did not want to disappoint his golf posse that he takes on an annual trip every spring.

Williams makes all the plans – which courses they play, arranges their tee times, what hotel they all stay at and makes dinner reservations every night. And he picks up the whole friggin’ tab. The group, friends from Carolina and Kansas, call Ol’ Roy the “Committee” as in committee of one because he decides everything. I guess he couldn’t envision them being able to negotiate the trip without him.

So he said he was going to see if he could play golf before deciding whether to have the surgery. He knew the answer after consulting six different orthopedic surgeons and getting the same diagnosis and prognosis from all of them. He arranged to have a golf cart with a handicap flag, allowing him to ride up to his ball wherever he hit it. He just couldn’t scuttle the trip when all he had to do was endure the pain for one more month and take his golfing buddies away.

So now Williams joins Mike Krzyzewski in the joint replacement competition of the Blue Blood rivalry. Coach K has already had his new knee sewn in right after Duke’s season ended, but Roy believes the recuperation time is up to the individual – how hard he works at rehab. And everyone knows Williams is the hardest, dad-gum worker in coaching.  So whether or not he plays another round of golf this summer, he will be ready to hit the recruiting trail when the summer tournaments begin.

Could he have had the operation already and been rehabbing as I speak? Of course. But that meant having to call off a golf trip that has been a tradition among Ol’ Roy’s inner circle for going on 30 years. He toughed it out, played lousy golf for three days and probably lost more bets this time than in any other year. But they all played 18 to 36 holes a day, laughed their way through dinner and had a good night’s sleep. Except for Roy, who doesn’t drink or take sleeping pills. For him, this time, no pain was no gain.