Keeping It Heel
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With UNC win at Louisville, Roy Williams passes…himself?

By Blake Cockrum

CHAPEL HILL, NC - JANUARY 20: Head coach Roy Williams of the North Carolina Tar Heels reacts during their game against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at Dean Smith Center on January 20, 2018 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
CHAPEL HILL, NC - JANUARY 20: Head coach Roy Williams of the North Carolina Tar Heels reacts during their game against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at Dean Smith Center on January 20, 2018 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /
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Win No. 837 is a big one for Hall-of-Fame head coach

Roy Williams’ tenure at North Carolina has been a successful one, to say the least. So successful, in fact, that his teams have won more national championships during that time span than any other program.

Williams’ Tar Heels have won three national titles – 2005, 2009 and 2017 – in the past 13 seasons. And the 2006 Hall-of-Fame inductee has racked up better than 400 wins since returning to Chapel Hill in 2003.

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It’s often easy for North Carolina fans, particularly those who were eager to put the Matt Doherty era behind them, to forget that Williams wasn’t always at the University of North Carolina.

The 67-year-old Williams, formerly long-time assistant of North Carolina head coach Dean Smith, spent 15 years in Lawrence, Kansas with the Jayhawks. During his time as the Jayhawks’ leading man, Williams’ teams won 418 games and made four Final Four appearances.

And despite all of his success with Kansas, Williams came to North Carolina and made his time with the Jayhawks seem mediocre, at best.

His list of accomplishments is vast, but highlighted by his 837 wins, nine Final Fours and three NCAA Tournament titles. He’s one of just three active head coaches with 800 or more Division I victories, and the only coach in history with 350 wins at two different schools.

Now, in his 15th season at North Carolina, Williams has reached another milestone in his legendary career.

Thanks to a victory over the Louisville Cardinals on Saturday night, Williams recorded his 419th win at North Carolina; one more than he had at Kansas.

In the history of college basketball, 112 coaches have won 418 or more games. Williams, though, has done it twice.

And sure, both were accomplished with already well established programs, but one was placed on probation just weeks after his arrival, and the other had just suffered one of the most disappointing three-year stretches in program history.

Next: Tar Heels control pace, hit threes against Cardinals

Williams has long been one of the most undervalued individuals in the coaching profession, often called overrated in anonymous polls of his peers. But now, will a growing list of accolades, and more titles than anyone not named Wooden, Rupp or Krzyzewski, Williams’ detractors have become the silent minority.

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