UNC Basketball: ESPN’s top coaching hire of the past 25 years is…

See where UNC basketball coach Roy Williams landed on ESPN’s list of the top 25 coaching hires of the past 25 years.

If there’s a head coach in the college basketball ranks that rarely gets the respect that he deserves, its North Carolina’s Roy Williams. The 69-year-old UNC legend has won 885 games in his illustrious Hall-of-Fame career, one that dates back to 1988 when he took his first head coaching job at the University of Kansas.

And while Williams has always been one of the most successful coaches in college hoops, it wasn’t until the past 15 years that the fruits of his labor really began to show. It was in 2005 when he led the Tar Heels to their first national championship victory in better than a decade, and the first of his 17 years as a head coach. He followed that up with a couple more Final Four appearances in the late 2000s and his second national title in 2009. Eight years and a whole bunch of victories later, Williams hoisted his third NCAA Tournament trophy after knocking off the Gonzaga Bulldogs in Glendale, Arizona.

And his success at North Carolina hasn’t been limited to the NCAA Tournament. He’s won 467 games with the Tar Heels, and has a winning percentage of 75.4 as a member of the best conference in college basketball. He’s led the Tar Heels to nine ACC regular season titles during that span — more than any other program in the conference — and captured three ACC Tournament titles. The Tar Heels have made five Final Four appearances with Williams at the helm, and made four trips to the championship game.

Apparently, that was enough for ESPN’s John Gasaway to rank the Tar Heels’ hire of Williams as the No. 1 coaching hire of the past 25 years. He did as much in a recent piece, putting the UNC head coach ahead of Villanova head coach Jay Wright, Michigan State’s Tom Izzo, Kansas’ Bill Self and Kentucky’s John Calipari, who rank two through five, respectively.

"“North Carolina swung and missed on Williams in 2000, then came back around three years later and got its man. The sum total of what we’ve seen over the past 17 years (yes, even including last season) says the Tar Heels were right to try the first time and then to keep on trying. Since the day Williams was hired in Chapel Hill, no Division I men’s basketball coach has won more national titles. Williams has put three trophies on the shelf, making this the No. 1 hire over the last 25 years.”"

Williams’ three national titles are more than any other college basketball coach since the time of his hiring in 2003. And while Williams has three titles to himself, the other 24 members of ESPN’s list have just seven combined. And sure, Williams and the Tar Heels struggled through injury and inconsistency to a 19-loss 2019-20 season, but a pair of returning big men and the nation’s No. 3-ranked recruiting class should get them back on track next season.

Stick with Keeping It Heel for all the latest on the UNC basketball program.