For a guy who, doggone it, likes to claim he is above the fray, the soap opera of How the Roy Turns sure keeps spinning and claiming victims.

Wednesday it was Al Bohl, the Kansas athletic director, who was fired. Bohl and basketball coach Roy Williams had been at odds for more than a year. Although the school claims this was a decision that was a long time coming, it appears to be a thinly veiled attempt to appease Williams and keep him from bolting to North Carolina.

Roy Williams hasn't told anybody if he is staying at Kansas or going to North Carolina. (AP)

Although coaches have condemned the firing of Doherty across the country, Williams has yet to make a statement in support of Doherty or against the move. Williams not only recruited and coached Doherty for the Tar Heels while he was an assistant at Chapel Hill, Doherty was a tireless and loyal assistant under Williams during seven seasons at Kansas.

Could Williams' support have saved Doherty? Would it have mattered letting Carolina know that he wouldn't succeed a person he called a close friend and had done a good job rebuilding the Tar Heels?

We'll never know. But his silence on the subject was interesting.

It is why just about every college coach in the country believes Williams is Chapel Hill bound. Why would he do that to Doherty if he weren't?

What we have now is Williams working at a school that fired its athletic director because he didn't like him in an effort to keep Williams from taking a job at another school that fired Doherty because the players didn't like him.

In essence, Rashad McCants just got Al Bohl fired.

No one knows what the future will bring, but if you happen to like getting paid every two weeks, just be glad you don't know Roy Williams.

Maybe Williams had nothing to do with anything and couldn't have prevented any of these moves going down. But that's only if you believe no one is interested in Williams' opinion. Maybe the schools really made all these moves without thinking of the talented coach, and this is all just one big coincidence.

But you'd have to be aw-shucks naïve to believe that.

Powerful people have the opportunity to do two things, say something and say nothing. But both actions say something.

Will Bohl's firing keep Williams in Lawrence? It's difficult to say. Certainly Kansas thinks so, because it is highly unusual for a school to fire an athletic director less than 48 hours after an appearance in the basketball national championship game.

Kansas chancellor Robert Hemenway said the move was timed as such because firing Bohl during the NCAA Tournament would have been a distraction. He said Williams never directly asked for Bohl's dismissal. But he also said the school will do whatever it takes to retain Williams.

"Roy Williams has never said to me, 'Al Bohl should be fired,'" said Hemenway. "He never once said to me, 'If Al Bohl doesn't go, I will go.' He never uttered those words to me or in any way tried to indicate to me this is what should guide the decision."

Hemenway announced A. Drue Jennings, a member of the school's alumni association board and someone Williams called "an outstanding individual" and "extremely ethical" is the interim athletic director.

Bohl is convinced Williams sold him out, hung him out to dry and ruined his reputation.

"This is the result of Roy Williams' hatred and vindictiveness," Bohl said, insinuating some in the Kansas media served as Williams' yes men to wipe him out. "I've been beaten up maliciously."

He claimed Williams wanted Kansas to go back to the days where the school fielded a strong basketball program, with other sports "barely surviving."

Bohl admitted that his relationship with Williams has not been strong since he fired football coach Terry Allen, a Williams friend, with three games left in the 2001 season. Allen went 20-33 in four seasons at Kansas and was annually crushed by archrival Kansas State.

"The Kansas basketball coach had his athletic director in his hands like a dove," said Bohl. "He could crush me with his power of influence or let me fly with my vision."

Williams was unavailable for comment but issued the following statement:

"It is always sad for the individual involved when a situation such as this occurs and a change is made. We had difficulties, and we were not as cohesive as the athletic department needs to be. This made the atmosphere somewhat difficult. Dr. Bohl tried extremely hard, and it is important now that we stop blaming individuals and pull together to be as successful as we can be."

The move was no surprise considering the power structure of college athletics. Bohl may have been the boss in Lawrence, but Williams is a state icon. Just the media speculation about a feud with Williams had made Bohl unpopular. Just last weekend he was booed during a Final Four pep rally in New Orleans.

So the ball is now in Williams' court. The Kansas move might help or hurt.

Maybe Bohl's dismissal will be enough to keep Williams happy. But if he stays, it looks like he laid out an ultimatum. That may be troubling to him and his well-crafted image.

If he goes to North Carolina he can wash his hands of it, pretend he had nothing to do with it and shrug off suggestions that he should have been more supportive of his former assistant.

Right now no one knows what Williams will do.

But two schools appear more than willing to fire people, buy out contracts and slam reputations to improve their chances that he paces their sideline next season.

One of them is being played like a pack of fools.