UNC Basketball: Sports Illustrated names Roy Williams top coach in ACC

Sports Illustrated tabs Roy Williams as ACC’s top coach

The North Carolina Tar Heels are NCAA Tournament champions for the sixth time in program history, and the win moves head coach Roy Williams into elite company.

It’s his third title in the last 13 seasons at his alma mater. That’s one more than legendary coach Dean Smith, Williams’ friend and mentor.

Apr 3, 2017; Phoenix, AZ, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Roy Williams cuts down the net after defeating the Gonzaga Bulldogs in the championship game of the 2017 NCAA Men’s Final Four at University of Phoenix Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports /

Since returning to North Carolina, Williams has eight ACC regular season titles, eight Elite 8 appearances and five Final Fours. He’s been to the national title game on four occasions, winning it three times. He’s amassed 816 career wins, 398 of those coming during his time in Chapel Hill.

And although he has been undervalued and underappreciated for most of his career, perhaps he is finally beginning to get the recognition he deserves.

The Hall-of-Fame head coach was recently named the ACC’s top coach by Sports Illustrated.

"“Georgia Tech’s Josh Pastner certainly has a very compelling case here but Williams gets the nod after steering the Tar Heels to their sixth national title,” said Sports Illustrated’s Molly Geary.North Carolina hardly lost a step in 2016–17 despite losing both Marcus Paige and Brice Johnson, relying largely on a crop of junior and senior veterans in Jackson, Berry, Meeks and Hicks to not only get back to the national title game, but also finish the job this time.Williams pushed the right buttons and got his team to refocus after a 10-point loss to Duke in the ACC tournament semifinals, and again after a way-too-close scare against No. 8 seed Arkansas in the second round of the NCAA tournament. He also oversaw the emergence of and trusted in former walk-on Luke Maye, whose 33 combined points in March Madness wins over Butler and Kentucky (including the game-winner in the latter) were critical.”"

It’s true. Williams has been fantastic over the last two seasons at dealing with non-basketball related issues while still managing to excel on the basketball court.

The NCAA cloud that has been hanging over the program has failed to hold Williams or his teams back from having tremendous success on the hardwood.

And given all that we’ve seen to this point, there’s really no reason to believe that his best years are behind him.

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