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Men's Basketball
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Phone:
- 919-962-1154
WILLIAMS HIGHLIGHTS
• Inducted in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007
• Fourth all-time in wins by a Division I coach with 885, behind only Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim and Bob Knight
• Second-winningest coach in UNC history and third in Kansas history
• Only coach with 400 wins at two schools
• Sixth-highest winning percentage (.778) in NCAA history
• Led UNC to three NCAA championships (2005, 2009, 2017)
• Consensus National Coach of the Decade (2000-09)
• Led UNC and Kansas to nine Final Fours, fourth most all-time
• Second in NCAA Tournament wins (79), second in No. 1 seeds (13), second in games (105), third in NCAA Tournament winning percentage (.752) and tied for fourth in NCAA championships
• Eight wins over AP No. 1 ranked teams are an NCAA record
• Second in NCAA history in 30-win seasons (12) and tied for fourth in 20-win seasons (29)
• Tied for fifth all-time with 18 regular-season conference championships
• Has 885 wins after 32 seasons – 110 more than any other coach in NCAA history
• Second-highest ACC road winning percentage all-time (.621) and third-most ACC road wins (90)
• Third in regular-season wins by an ACC coach (202)
• 32 NBA first-round draft picks (22 at UNC, 10 at Kansas)
• Cole Anthony will be his 52nd former player to play in the NBA
• Four National Players of the Year, six ACC Scholar-Athletes of the Year, 10 consensus first-team All-Americas, 17 first-team All-Americas and three Bob Cousy Award winners
• Only coach to coach two Academic All-Americas of the Year (Jacque Vaughn at Kansas, Tyler Zeller at UNC)
Hall of Famer Roy Williams won his 879th game as a college head coach when the Tar Heels beat Yale on Dec. 30, 2019. It moved Williams into a tie for fourth place all-time in wins by a Division I head coach with Dean Smith, under whom Williams served as an assistant at Carolina for 10 seasons from 1978-88.
When he was asked to stay at midcourt after the teams shook hands so Tar Heel captains Garrison Brooks and Brandon Robinson and Smith’s son, Scott, could present the coach a framed portrait of Smith and Williams in recognition of the milestone, Williams was visibly uncomfortable and more than mildly upset.
The reasons illustrate why he is widely regarded as the perfect choice to be Carolina’s head coach and one of the sport’s best-ever coaches: first, any mention of Williams tying and eventually surpassing his mentor’s win total makes him cringe, because, regardless of the facts and figures, Williams feels undeserving of such high praise; and second, on that December night, his only priority was to rush off the court and check on freshman guard Anthony Harris, who had seriously injured his knee in the second half. Harris had missed most of his high school senior season due to a knee injury, and the initial diagnosis indicated he had just torn the ACL in his other knee.
Achievements, awards, photo ops and cheers from the Tar Heel faithful aside, all Williams wanted to do was to go hug his fallen player and help him deal with the disappointment and pain of another rehab he almost certainly faced.
“The only thing I’m thinking about right now is that young man,” Williams said in his postgame news conference. “He’s worked his tail off to get back in this position. My team is hurting for him right now.”
Scott Smith told Williams his father would have been happy to have Williams match his total. “I think Coach Smith would be. I’ve been very fortunate,” Williams said. “I have been able to stay relatively healthy and I’ve had really good kids who made me look good for a long time and I’m very appreciative of them.”
Carolina’s 94-71 win over Miami on Jan. 25, 2020, gave Williams win No. 880 and sole possession of fourth on the wins list behind only fellow Hall of Famers and national championship-winning coaches Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim and Bob Knight.
Williams enters the 2020-21 season, his 33rd as a college head coach, with an overall record of 885-253. He is 15 wins from 900 and 18 from passing Knight for third place.
The Asheville native and 1972 Carolina graduate has led his alma mater to national championships in 2005, 2009 and 2017 and two other Final Four appearances. A 2007 inductee in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, Williams is second among active coaches and sixth all-time in winning percentage (.778), second in 30-win seasons (12), fourth in 20-win seasons (29), has the most wins ever over No. 1 ranked teams in the AP poll (8) and has averaged more wins per season (27.7) than any coach with 800 or more wins.
Among ACC coaches all-time, he is second in winning percentage on the road in league play (.621), third in wins by an ACC coach (467), third in ACC regular-season and Tournament wins (229) and third in regular-season ACC titles (9).
On Feb. 25, 2020, Carolina beat NC State for his 200th regular-season ACC win in 287 games. He reached 200 wins in the second-fewest games in ACC history (Smith won his 200th in 278 games).
Williams is one of the most successful coaches in NCAA Tournament history, standing second in games (105), wins (79) and No. 1 seeds (13); third in appearances (29), winning percentage (.752), Final Four wins (9) and championship game appearances (6); and fourth in titles (3) and Final Fours (9). Over the last 19 years, spanning his last two seasons at KU and 17 in Chapel Hill, Williams’ teams have 54 NCAA Tournament victories, more than any other coach in the nation. Carolina’s 45 NCAA Tournament wins in the Williams era are more than any other school has in that 17-year span (Kansas is second with 38).
His UNC teams have earned 10 No. 1 or No. 2 seeds, won three ACC Tournament championships and averaged more than 27 wins and nearly 12 ACC wins per season. In the last 17 years, the Tar Heels have produced 11 Associated Press top-10 finishes, 21 All-Americas, 17 first-team All-ACC selections, 21 first-round NBA Draft picks, six ACC scholar-athlete of the year awards and seven Academic All-America honors.
Carolina beat Syracuse in 2017 for his 800th victory. That came in his 1,012th game in his 29th year. The previous record for 800 wins was 33 seasons by Smith and Krzyzewski; Rupp is the only coach to reach 800 wins in fewer games (972).
He is the only coach in college basketball history to win 400 games at two schools – 467 at Carolina and 418 at Kansas. He is second in wins at UNC and third at KU.
On Aug. 24, 2018, the University of North Carolina officially named the playing floor at the Dean E. Smith Center, home of the Tar Heels, as Roy Williams Court.
“Roy Williams is one of the greatest coaches of all-time, and in a society that judges things by counting championships, he’s right there on the top shelf with the greatest of all-time,” ESPN analyst Jay Bilas said after the Tar Heels won the 2017 national title, UNC’s third in a 13-year span.
PLAYER IMPACT
Even greater is the impact he makes on the lives of the young men he coaches.
“Coming to UNC has been a dream come true,” says Cole Anthony, who earned ACC All-Rookie team honors in 2020. “There’s no group of coaches and teammates I’d rather go to battle with day in and day out.”
“Coach Williams was more than just a coach to me—he was more like family,” says Coby White, who was selected in the first round of the 2019 NBA Draft after becoming the first Tar Heel freshman to score 30 points three times and earned NBA All-Rookie honors as a Chicago Bull. “He helped me through a lot while I was in high school. He helped me not only become a better player on the court but a better man off the court. I am forever thankful for the way Coach Williams has, and continues to, impact my life.”
“Coach isn’t going to come into your home and say you’ll be the face of the program,” says 2020 captain Brandon Robinson. “That’s not Carolina Basketball. Carolina Basketball is about team. It’s about all of us in the locker room chasing a national championship. Coach always tells us if we do what he tells us and we win, our personal goals will take care of themselves. Certain programs just care about one individual or a certain group. Coach cares about every single guy and he’s going to coach you. He will help you with anything no matter who you are. When you leave here, you’re still going to be family. When guys come back to games, they’re treated like they are one of the family.”
“Coach treats everyone the same,” says Luke Maye, 2017 NCAA South Regional MVP and an All-America and All-ACC selection. “Everyone gets the same opportunities. If you play well, he plays you. That’s what I respect most about him. I had to earn my time. Coach wanted to make me the best I could be. I can’t thank him enough for the man and the player I’ve become.”
“If I tried to put this into words, it wouldn’t do it justice,” said Kenny Williams on Senior Day in 2019. “To really know the feeling, the joy that you get playing here. You have to be a part of it to actually know the feeling. You come in with expectations and these past four years have blown that away.”
“I look back now and I can clearly see Coach Williams has done a wonderful job helping raise Joel in a critical time in his life,” said Joel Berry Sr., father of the 2017 Final Four Most Outstanding Player. “These are the years of 18 to 22, and they are such important years. Coach Williams has kept his promise to us, because he has made Joel a better man than when Joel first arrived at Carolina.”
“He’s made me become a man,” said Kennedy Meeks, who finished his career fifth at UNC in rebounds and had 25 points and 14 rebounds in the 2017 national semifinal win over Oregon. “That hug (after the national championship game) was all for being grateful for the opportunities, putting me in the right positions, and also for being one of the greatest coaches that I’ll ever be around. He’s been a major figure in my life that I’ll always remember.”
“The biggest thing about Coach Williams is his loyalty,” said Isaiah Hicks, who scored a key basket in the final minute of the 2017 title game vs. Gonzaga. “Coach would never lie to you. He is someone who is going to be straight up with you and be honest with you. He cares for us. When Coach says he’s going to do something, he does it. He really listens to us and really takes time for the people he cares about.”
“He always puts his players and his coaches before himself and he treats us like we’re one of his sons, and you don’t find that at too many programs,” said Berry II. “When he promises us something, he really means it and he puts his all into it. A lot of coaches say they have it, but they really don’t mean it like Coach Williams does.”
“I feel like everything he says is for the good of me,” said 2017 ACC Player of the Year and consensus first-team All-America Justin Jackson. “There’s no agenda with Coach. He is here to win basketball games, that’s his No. 1 job. But, at the end of the day, he always considers us like his sons. And that’s the way he tries to treat us. That’s a big reason why I came here, and a big reason why I wouldn’t change a single thing that I did.”
Marcus Paige, who concluded his brilliant career in 2016 as Carolina’s all-time leader in three-pointers and 11th in career scoring, said, “He cares about us as people, almost as much as he does about us as players, and that’s one thing that separates him as a coach. He’s a great coach. He develops our game and our skills, but at the end of the day he cares about us being ready for any aspect of life.”
“Coach Williams has meant a lot to me; he’s the closest thing I’ve had as a role model to my father,” said 2016 consensus first-team All-America Brice Johnson. “My dad coached me in high school and Coach Williams tried to replicate how my dad pushed me as a coach for the past four years. He got on me more than anyone else on the team, but I thank him for that because he got me to be the player I am today because of his motivation and the little talks we would have here and there. But what I really appreciate even more is that he not only taught me to be the player that I am on the court, but the person I am off the court.”
“A lot of people were doubting me as a freshman, but one thing is you always believed in me,” Paige said in a memorable and emotional Senior Night speech in 2016 that was viewed more than 5 million times online. “You always told me: ‘I believe in you, son. You’re going to make shots; you’re going to do fine. You’re going to be a great player.’ You just believed in me, and I can’t thank you enough for that, because that allowed me to be a confident person and helped me grow as a person…And I’ve tried to be every bit the player you wanted me to be, but you’ve made me a better man. And that’s the most important thing. I’m 10 times a better man than when I got here. Thank you.”
“It starts with the kind of man Coach Williams is,” says 2009 Final Four Most Outstanding Player Wayne Ellington. “Everyone talks about basketball when it comes to Carolina, but it’s who Coach Williams is that is important. He really cares about his players, his staff and this University. Coach is an amazing coach, but he’s also one of the best people I’ve been around in my life.”
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
The 2020-21 season is Williams’ 48th as a basketball coach – five years as head coach at Owen High School in Swannanoa, N.C., 10 years as Smith’s assistant at Carolina, 15 as head coach at Kansas and now 18 as head coach in Chapel Hill. UNC named him head coach on April 14, 2003, 10 days after he led Kansas to the NCAA championship game against Syracuse.
His teams have won regular-season titles 18 times in 32 seasons, which equals the fifth-most by any coach in college basketball history. Williams won nine titles at Kansas and nine at UNC, the third most in ACC history behind only Smith and Krzyzewski.
His Hall-of-Fame ledger also includes:
• 1,160-314 record in 42 seasons as a collegiate head coach and assistant coach
• 30-win seasons: 12, second most in NCAA history
• 20-win seasons: 29, tied for the fourth most in NCAA history
• national coach of the year: nine times (1990, 1991, 1992, 1997, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2017, 2019)
• conference coach of the year: nine times (1990, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2011)
• Associated Press rankings: the Tar Heels have been ranked in the Top 25 in 270 of 328 polls, including 183 Top-10 rankings, 105 times in the Top 5 and 29 weeks as the No. 1 team in the country
• number one rankings: 13 seasons ranked No. 1 and 18 seasons ranked No. 1 or No. 2
• milestone wins: reached 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700 and 800 wins in fewer seasons than any coach in college basketball history
USA Today named Williams its National Coach of the Year in 2019 after he led the Tar Heels to 29 wins, a 16-2 ACC record that earned at least a share of the regular-season title in the best conference in America for the ninth time, and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Midwest Regional. Carolina ended the season ranked No. 3 in the country by the Associated Press, the 15th time his teams have finished in the top five in the AP poll.
NBA teams selected three Tar Heels in the 2019 NBA Draft. White (No. 7), Cameron Johnson (No. 11) and Nassir Little (No. 25) were the 19th, 20th and 21st Tar Heels to play for Williams to be selected in the first round. Overall, 32 of Williams’ players have been drafted in the first round. It was the fourth time (2005, 2009, 2012 and 2019) three or more of his Tar Heels were drafted in the first round.
Williams has set UNC coaching records for most wins in one year (36 in 2007-08), two years (70 in 2008-09), three years (101 from 2007-09), four years (124 from 2006-09), five years (157 from 2005-09), six years (177 from 2005-10), seven years (206 from 2005-12), eight years (228, 2011-18 and 2012-19), nine years (263 from 2005-13), 10 years (292 from 2008-17) and 15 years (434 from 2004-19).
Williams’ teams play their best basketball late in the season when champions are crowned. The Tar Heels are 92-39 (.702) in the month of February and 102-35 (.745) in March and April.
His UNC and KU teams have dominated at home, posting a record of 434-56 (.886). He led the Jayhawks to a 201-17 record (.922) in Allen Fieldhouse, at one point winning 62 consecutive games. The Tar Heels are 233-40 at home under Williams (including 231-39 at the Smith Center) and set the UNC record for consecutive home wins with 31.
NCAA TOURNAMENT SUCCESS
ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Sporting News and Fox Sports named Williams the Coach of the Decade for 2000-09 after he led Kansas and Carolina to 33 NCAA Tournament wins in that span, eight more than any other coach. The Tar Heels won a pair of national titles and Williams’ teams played in three other Final Fours in the decade.
Remarkably, only five schools (Kentucky, UNC, Duke, UCLA and Kansas) have more NCAA Tournament wins than Williams. His teams are 79-26 in 29 appearances. In addition to nine Final Fours, the fourth most ever, his teams have reached the Sweet 16 in 19 seasons and the Elite Eight 13 times. The 2019 season marked the 13th time his teams entered the NCAA Tournament as a No. 1 seed (five times at Kansas and eight times at Carolina). That’s the second-most No. 1 seeds all-time.
Williams led the Tar Heels to back-to-back national championship games in 2016 and 2017. UNC lost the title to Villanova on a last-second three-pointer in ’16 but overcame the loss of Johnson and Paige to return to the title game the following season, when it beat Gonzaga, 71-65. It marked the fourth time in NCAA history a school won the championship a year after losing in the finals.
The 2017 national title was Carolina’s first in eight years, since his 2009 Tar Heels overpowered the field, winning six NCAA Tournament games by an average of 20.2 points, the highest margin in 13 years. The 2009 squad is considered one of the most dominant championship teams, becoming the first national champion to win all six games by a dozen or more points. Carolina trailed in the second half just once in those six contests and led Michigan State, 51-30, at halftime in the national championship game.
In 2005, Carolina went 33-4 and won the NCAA title in just Williams’ second year as head coach, just two years removed from back-to-back seasons in which the Tar Heels failed to make the NCAA Tournament field.
Carolina is 45-12 in the NCAA Tournament under Williams, a winning percentage of .789 that is the highest in ACC history. The 45 wins under Williams are more than 13 other current or former ACC schools have won in their NCAA Tournament histories.
His teams made 20 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances from 1990 to 2009, which is now the fifth-longest streak in NCAA history. He is the only coach to win an NCAA Tournament game in 20 consecutive seasons (1990-2009) and is the only coach to have won 29 straight first-round games, an unprecedented feat UNC extended in 2019 with its win over Iona.
Although his teams are known for high-scoring offense, Carolina’s defense paved the way to three NCAA titles under Williams. In the 2017 NCAA Tournament, the Tar Heels allowed only 70.5 points and the opponents shot a collective 39.6 percent from the floor. In Carolina’s six Final Four wins en route to the 2005, 2009 and 2017 national championships, the Tar Heels held their opponents to a combined 35.9 percent from the floor; only Michigan State in the 2009 title game shot as high as 40 percent.
IN THE ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE
The Tar Heels are 202-88 in ACC regular-season play under Williams, the fifth-highest winning percentage (.697) in ACC history.
Williams has led UNC to ACC regular-season titles in 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2016, 2017 and 2019, claiming the top spot outright seven times. UNC’s average ACC regular-season finish under Williams is 3.1, second best in the league over his tenure. In Williams’ 17 seasons, only six schools – UNC (9), Virginia (5), Duke (3), Florida State (1), Maryland (1) and Miami (1) – have won outright or shared the regular-season title.
Carolina went unbeaten in nine ACC road games in 2019, tying the best road record in ACC history. Williams has an 90-55 record in ACC road games, a winning percentage of .621 that is the second-best in ACC history. The 90 road wins are the third most in league history behind Krzyzewski and Smith. The Tar Heels have posted winning ACC records on the road in 12 of his 17 seasons, including 9-0 in 2018-19, 8-0 in 2007-08 and 7-1 in 2005-06 and 2011-12.
PLAYER HONORS
Williams’ players have won numerous individual awards:
• four National Players of the Year – Drew Gooden (2002), Nick Collison (2003), Sean May (2005) and Tyler Hansbrough (2008)
• 17 first-team All-Americas, including 10 consensus first-team All-America honors – Raef LaFrentz (1997 and 1998), Paul Pierce (1998), Gooden (2002), Collison (2003), Hansbrough (2007, 2008, 2009), Brice Johnson (2016) and Justin Jackson (2017)
• nine conference player or athletes of the year, including five Tar Heels – May (2005), Hansbrough (2008), Ty Lawson (2009), Tyler Zeller (2012) and Jackson (2017)
• three Bob Cousy Award winners – Raymond Felton (2005), Lawson (2009) and Kendall Marshall (2012)
• 34 first-team all-conference players, including Cameron Johnson, who transferred to Carolina after playing three seasons at Pitt and developed into a first-team All-ACC and first-round NBA Draft pick in 2019
• 44 academic all-conference selections
• two Academic All-Americas of the Year
• seven first-team Academic All-Americas, including Paige, who became UNC’s first three-time Academic All-America
• 32 NBA first-round draft picks – 21 at Carolina and 11 at Kansas
His players have earned nearly 1.3 billion dollars in NBA salary. In both 2005 and 2012, four Tar Heels were chosen in the first round. Pierce was the 2008 NBA Finals MVP after leading the Boston Celtics to the title; Danny Green set the NBA Finals record with 27 three-pointers in 2013, won a title with San Antonio in 2014 and a second ring with Toronto last season; Harrison Barnes won a title with Golden State in 2015 and was a starter on the Warriors when they set the NBA single-season record with 73 wins in 2016.
Hansbrough became the most decorated player in Carolina Basketball history and set the all-time ACC scoring mark with 2,872 points. He is the only player in ACC history to earn first-team All-America and first-team All-ACC honors in each of his four seasons. He also became Carolina’s all-time leading rebounder, set the NCAA record for free throws made, won an NCAA title and National Player of the Year honors and earned his degree.
On March 8, 2009, Senior Day at Carolina, an emotional Hansbrough thanked Williams for living up to a promise Williams made during his recruitment that the coach would always be honest with him.
“He always tells you the straight-up truth about what you need to hear, not just what you want to hear,” said Hansbrough. “That helped me not only as a player but also as a person.”
Green started at small forward for the 2009 Tar Heels and at shooting guard for the San Antonio Spurs when they won the 2014 NBA championship, joining Hall of Famers Michael Jordan and James Worthy as players who won NCAA titles at UNC and NBA rings. Green said the winning cultures of the Tar Heels and the Spurs were similar.
“It starts with the coaches – Coach Williams and Coach Pop (Gregg Popovich) are very professional in the way they carry themselves,” said Green, who averaged 13.1 points for the 2009 national championship team and played in more wins (123) than any Tar Heel in history. “They recruit not just great players, but great people. They want people who have the mentality of wanting to win and compete and not just be about the individual. Coach Williams gets kids who will buy into the message of winning, being a team and doing things the right way without worrying about individual accolades.
“Coach Williams does a great job of getting everyone on the same page and molding them a certain way and doing things the right way,” adds Green. “I learned that at Carolina. It was easy for me to adjust to the Spurs organization, because I was doing those same things here.”
Williams is the only coach whose players have won more than one Bob Cousy Award as the best point guard in the nation. Felton led the Tar Heels to the 2005 NCAA title; Lawson won a national championship in 2009 and set the ACC single-season record for highest assist-error ratio; and Marshall led UNC to back-to-back regular-season league titles, set ACC records for most assists, highest assist average and most double-figure assist games in a season and posted the highest career assist-error ratio in ACC history.
Berry, a two-time Cousy Award finalist, was the ACC Tournament’s Most Valuable Player in 2016 and became the first Tar Heel to ever earn All-Final Four honors in back-to-back seasons in 2016-17. Berry scored 20 points against Villanova in the 2016 title game and a game-high 22 in 2017 against Gonzaga, making him the first player to score 20 points in consecutive finals since Bill Walton in 1972-73.
Carolina averaged 85.8 points in 2019, third highest in the NCAA. Williams’ teams have averaged at least 80 points per game in a season 23 times. Carolina has ranked in the top four nationally in scoring seven times and either first or second in the ACC in points per game in all but four seasons. Overall his teams have finished in the top 10 nationally in scoring 13 times, in scoring margin 18 times, in field goal percentage 12 times, in win-loss percentage 13 times and in field goal defense four times. Also, his teams have finished in the top seven nationally in assists per game in 14 of the last 19 years and in the top 10 nationally in rebounding margin in 17 of the last 24 years.
The Tar Heels have led the nation in rebounds in three of the last four seasons and in rebound margin in 2017 and 2019. The 2019 team was No. 1 in the country in total rebounds and rebound margin despite its shooting guard (6-9 Cameron Johnson) being the tallest player in the starting lineup.
Williams is one of 11 Tar Heels enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, joining a group that includes Smith, Michael Jordan, Larry Brown, Billy Cunningham, Worthy, Bob McAdoo, Charlie Scott and Bobby Jones. Twenty-three of his former players from Carolina and Kansas attended the induction ceremony in Springfield, Mass., in 2007.
“Carolina is number one,” said Worthy, the 1988 NBA Finals MVP, at the ring ceremony for the 2017 national champions. “This is where it started for me. It all started with Coach Smith, with him treating every individual player and manager the same and reminding us to give back to the community in addition to being a basketball player. All of us from my era, we came back for Coach Smith. And we also came back to honor Roy, because what he’s doing right now is an amazing feat.”
COACHING CAREER PRIOR TO 2003
Williams was an assistant coach at Carolina from 1978-88. Working for Dean Smith, he helped coach such standouts as Mike O’Koren, Al Wood, Worthy, Sam Perkins, Matt Doherty, Jordan, Brad Daugherty, Kenny Smith, Joe Wolf, Steve Hale, Jeff Lebo, J.R. Reid and Scott Williams. Carolina won the NCAA title in 1982, finished second in 1981 and won or shared six ACC regular-season titles and three ACC Tournament championships.
Kansas hired Williams on July 8, 1988. Williams coached a number of the finest Kansas players in history, including Mark Randall, Adonis Jordan, Rex Walters, Greg Ostertag, Scot Pollard, Jacque Vaughn, Raef LaFrentz, Paul Pierce, Drew Gooden, Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich.
The Jayhawks averaged 27.9 wins per season, including 35 in 1997-98. He also won 30 in 1989-90, 34 in 1996-97, 33 in 2001-02 and 30 in 2002-03. The Jayhawks reached the Sweet 16 nine times and the Final Eight on five occasions.
In seven years of Big 12 Conference play, his teams went 94-18, capturing the regular-season title in 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2003 and the postseason tournament crown in 1997, 1998 and 1999. In 2001-02, KU became the first Big 12 team to go 16-0 in league play. From 1995-98, Kansas was a combined 123-17 – an average of 30.8 wins per season.
ACADEMICS A PRIORITY
Williams emphasizes academic and personal development. He is the only NCAA coach to have two players (Zeller and Vaughn) earn Academic All-America of the Year honors. In 2016, Paige became the seventh to play for Williams to earn first-team Academic All-America. Williams is tied with Smith for fourth among coaches all-time whose players have earned first-team Academic All-America honors behind Wooden (13), Knight (10) and Ted Owens (9).
“What makes Coach Williams one of the great coaches isn’t just his extraordinary record, but his dedication to his players,” President Barack Obama said when the Tar Heels visited the White House after winning the 2009 championship. “He’s just as serious about making these guys into men and into leaders as he is into making them champions.”
Marvin Williams, who went to the NBA in 2005 after just one season, returned to Chapel Hill for classes in seven subsequent summers, and earned his degree in 2014.
“I think about what Coach Williams means to me a lot and I hope he’s proud of me,” said Marvin Williams. “I can’t really put into words what he means to me. He came to Bremerton (Wash.) and gave a kid a chance to be something. I can’t thank him enough for what he’s meant to my family. I could never pay Coach Williams back for what he’s done for me, and I mean that genuinely. He told my mother if I worked hard, I could get a degree from this university. When I called my mom to tell her (I was graduating), she instantly started crying. I hope I made my parents and my coach proud.”
Williams’ players have won first-team Academic All-America honors five times – the Jayhawks’ Vaughn (twice), Jerod Haase and Ryan Robertson and Carolina’s Zeller (twice) and Paige. Forty-four have made academic all-conference, including four-time recipients Zeller, Paige and Maye. Zeller is the only Tar Heel to be first-team Academic All-America twice and Paige is one of only three players in ACC history to earn first- or second-team Academic All-America honors three times.
In 2018 and 2019, Maye was a second-team Academic All-America and ACC Scholar-Athlete of the Year, two of six times since 2011 one of Williams’ players won the award.
“I respect and admire Coach Williams—as a champion for the students we serve through the Carolina Covenant; as a leader and teacher of young men; as a person of great integrity,” said Stephen M. Farmer, UNC’s Vice Provost for Enrollment and Undergraduate Admissions. “I also respect and admire his love for this great university and his deep appreciation of the difference it makes in North Carolina and far beyond.”
Zeller majored in business administration and became the first Tar Heel to be named the National Academic All-America of the Year.
“Coach Williams always emphasizes that we have to go to class and get an education, because that’s why we are here,” Zeller said during his senior year. “There might be times we wish we didn’t have to do it. But down the road, we’ll appreciate it. He lets us know that if we take it seriously, we will have a career outside of basketball.”
The North Carolina Foundation for Public School Children honored Williams in 2018 at its Champions for Children Gala.
PERSONAL
Williams grew up in the Biltmore neighborhood in Asheville. He attended Roberson High, where he played for Coach Buddy Baldwin. He played on Carolina’s freshman team in 1968-69 and earned a bachelor’s degree in education in 1972 and a master’s degree in teaching in 1973.
He began his coaching career in 1973 at Owen High School and was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2010. He coached for USA Basketball teams in the 1991 World University Games, the 1992 U.S. Olympic Development Team, a U-22 tournament in Argentina in 1993 and the 2004 Olympics in Greece.
Several of his staff and players have gone on to head coaching positions, including Matt Doherty, Neil Dougherty, Jerry Green, Steve Robinson, Kevin Stallings, Mark Turgeon, Rex Walters, Wes Miller, Haase and C.B. McGrath.
“My dream is to have relationships with my players and my former players similar to what Coach Williams has with his players,” said Haase, the fifth-year head coach at Stanford. “The way I look at him and respect him—the dream scenario is that someday my players look at me the same way.”
Williams was born on August 1, 1950. He and his wife, Wanda, a 1972 Carolina graduate, have a son, Scott, and a daughter, Kimberly.
Scott earned a business degree from UNC and played point guard for the Tar Heels in 1997-98 and 1998-99. Scott and his wife, Katie (Wolford), live in Charlotte, with their sons, Aiden and Court. Katie is a 2001 Carolina graduate and former cheerleader. She earned a doctorate in physical therapy from Boston University.
Kimberly is a 2002 Carolina graduate with a degree in English, was a member of the UNC dance team in 2000 and 2001 and owns The Dance Spot in Huntersville. In 2016, she married Kurt Newlin, a 2003 UNC graduate who earned his master’s in health administration from UNC Charlotte. They live in Huntersville with their son, Kayson Alexander, and daughter Kenzie Lyla.
The Williamses have contributed more than $425,000 to the Carolina Covenant, an initiative at UNC that allows low-income students to attend the University debt free. Roy and Wanda serve as honorary chairs of a multi-million-dollar campaign to endow the program. He hosts the annual Fast Break vs. Cancer breakfast that has surpassed $2.6 million in donations and directs the autographed basketball program that has directed more than $1.6 million to local charities.
In 2020, the Williamses gave more than $600,000 to Carolina Athletics to cover the funding so spring sport student-athletes whose seasons were canceled due to the pandemic could return to play another season in 2021.
