Dick Vitale puts UNC’s Roy Williams on ‘Mount Rushmore’ of college hoops

Dick Vitale names Roy Williams to his ‘Mount Rushmore’ of college hoops

For nearly 40 years, Dick Vitale has been announcing and analyzing college basketball for the ESPN family of networks. In doing so, he’s become a household name, and an icon of the sport.

Since the first game that he announced on December 5th, 1979, Vitale has been on the sideline for hundreds of games, and relied upon for his expert analysis for thousands more. In that time, he’s been up close and personal with the sport and its biggest stars. And that’s exactly what Vitale writes about in his latest book, Dick Vitale’s Mount Rushmores of College Basketball.

In the book, Vitale discusses a number of topics, including the game’s top coaches over the past 40 years. Keep in mind that Adolph Rupp died two years prior to Vitale’s first game as a commentator, and legendary UCLA coach John Wooden walked away from basketball in 1975 when Vitale was still head coach at the University of Detroit.

Among the coaches that the longtime TV personality named were Mike Krzyzewski, Dean Smith and Bob Knight. Those three, Vitale noted, were automatic. The fourth name on the ‘Mount Rushmore’ of coaches, in his mind, came down to four or five other coaches. For his money, it’s UNC head coach Roy Williams who is most deserving of the fourth and final spot among the greatest coaches of the past four decades.

"“Coaches was easy to do,” Vitale said during the Champions Classic last week. “I think three of them are automatic. Three are automatic … you do have Mike Krzyzewski, Bob Knight, Dean Smith, and the fourth was a little bit of four or five guys. But we went Roy Williams because three national titles, plus an average of 28 wins a year for 15 years at Kansas. I mean, so he was our fourth. The great thing about that, you’ve got a mentor and a pupil. Dean Smith, Roy Williams, Bob Knight, Mike Krzyzewski.”"

With 845 wins, a .788 winning percentage, nine NCAA Final Fours and three national championships, Williams has certainly earned his spot among the game’s greats. And at 68 years of age, the Hall-of-Fame coach doesn’t seem to be slowing down any. His most recent recruiting class ranked among the top-15 nationally, and his Tar Heels are currently ranked seventh in the nation.

If he continues on his current pace, and coaches for a few more seasons, he’ll almost surely win 1,000 games, and be in the mix for a couple more national titles. If he does, it may solidify him as one of the greatest coaches in the past 40 years, and of all time.