STANFORD — The first face-to-face meeting between Stanford coach Jerod Haase and North Carolina legend Roy Williams didn’t offer the promise of what would become a nearly quarter-century long friendship.

“A fiasco,” Haase called it.

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Explaining the California restrictions governing practice for the Pac-12 teams: From a practical standpoint, it’s impractical Haase had decided to leave Cal after his freshman basketball season in the spring of 1993 and Williams, then the coach at Kansas, made a home recruiting visit to South Lake Tahoe.

Jerod’s mother, Carol, immediately offered Williams a meal. There were two choices: Canadian bacon and pineapple pizza or veggie pizza.

Williams swallowed hard. “I’m one of the few guys in the world who does not eat pizza. At all,” he said. “There was this little voice in my head that said, ‘How badly do you want this boy?’”

If Williams was doing his best to be a gracious guest, Haase was mortified by the scene.

“I remember my niece was throwing up throughout,” he said. “Needless to say, I was pretty excited he was still willing to recruit me after we fed him pizza. The whole thing from my standpoint was a fiasco with all the chaos.”

Haase and Williams will reunite Monday night at Maples Pavilion when Stanford (3-1) faces No. 9 North Carolina (2-0), the defending national champion. It’s the latest reunion between the two, who spent 17 years together at Kansas and North Carolina, through Haase’s playing career and his formative years as a young assistant coach.

“It’s a little bit of a father-son,” Williams said.

The two first crossed paths in the 1993 NCAA tournament, after Cal advanced to the Sweet 16 with an upset of two-time defending champ Duke.

Williams knew all about Cal’s star point guard, Jason Kidd. But while watching tape of the Bears beforehand, he asked then-assistant Kevin Stallings about a different player.

“Who’s that guy? ” Williams said.

“It’s the other guard,” responded Stallings, who did not know Haase’s name.

The Jayhawks ended the Bears’ NCAA run with a 93-76 win in St. Louis, but Haase made an impression. He scored 10 points and played hard, especially on defense.

It had been a painful season for Haase. His father died while the Bears were on a road trip in Los Angeles, and coach Lou Campanelli, who recruited him to Berkeley, was fired in February, replaced by Todd Bozeman.

When it was over, Haase needed time to re-think his path. “My tank was completely and totally empty,” he said.

His career was re-booted at Kansas, where Haase was a three-year starter and a two-time captain on teams that won three conference titles. Haase became a favorite at Allen Fieldhouse for his all-out style and as a senior was part of a lineup that featured future NBA players Paul Pierce, Raef Lafrentz, Jacque Vaughn and Scot Pollard.

Haase was the heartbeat of those teams. “More than any player I’ve ever coached, I felt that if we lost it would hurt him almost as badly as it did me. And I loved that characteristic,” Williams said. “There’s nothing he did wrong. He played his tail off, he did the job in the classroom, he was a model citizen.”

The feeling was mutual. When Senior Day arrived, Haase told the crowd “nobody would ever replace my father, but he was like a father to me … And to this day.”

Recounting the moment, Williams called it “one of the nicest things anyone’s ever said about me.”

Once the ball goes up Monday night, both men said, the game will be like any other. But their special relationship endures. Haase said they talk or text on a regular basis, and Williams is always available when Haase needs advice.

Williams is just happy his reluctance to take a slice of pizza wasn’t a deal-breaker.

“I ate the Canadian bacon and the pineapple off the top,” he said.

* Stanford is 0-10 all-time against North Carolina. This is the first time the teams have played at Maples since Dec. 3, 1983, when coach Dean Smith won his 500th game with an 88-75 victory over the Cardinal in the final of the Stanford Invitational. Sam Perkins was MVP of the event, but Michael Jordan, a junior All-American, played just 7 1/2 minutes before fouling out with four points — the second-lowest point total of his Tar Heels career.