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UNC Basketball: Roy Williams to retire after 33 years as head coach

By Blake Cockrum

Feb 27, 2021; Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Roy Williams is honored for his 900 th career win after the game at Dean E. Smith Center. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 27, 2021; Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Roy Williams is honored for his 900 th career win after the game at Dean E. Smith Center. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports /
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UNC basketball Hall-of-Famer Roy Williams is retiring after 33 years as a head coach.

Roy Williams, winner of 903 games and three national championships, has announced his retirement from the game of basketball after 48 years, 33 of them spent as a head coach.

A press conference is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. EST today at the Dean E. Smith Center to address the media about his decision. The press conference, which will be closed to the public but viewable on GoHeels.com, will take place on the very court that is named after the 2006 College Basketball Hall-of-Fame inductee.

Williams was a 1972 graduate of the University of North Carolina prior to his time as an assistant coach to Dean Smith from 1978 to 1988. After 15 years as head coach at the University of Kansas, Williams returned to North Carolina in 2003.

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In his 18 years as head coach of the Tar Heels, Williams amassed 485 wins to just 163 losses, a winning percentage of .748. He led North Carolina to five Final Fours (2005, 2008, 2009, 2016 and 2017), cutting down the nets in 2005, 2009 and 2017. He guided the Tar Heels to nine ACC regular season titles, three ACC Tournament titles, 15 NCAA Tournament appearances, 79 NCAA Tournament victories and was named Associated Press Coach of the Year on two occasions.

Williams took over a struggling and downtrodden UNC program in 2003 that he quickly revitalized, and led to its first NCAA Tournament title in 12 years. He returned to the Final Four twice over the next four seasons, winning a second national title in 2009. He went to back-to-back national championship games in 2016 and 2017, winning the latter for his third and final national title.

A mentor, a teacher, a leader and a legend. Roy Williams is one of the greatest to ever coach the game of basketball at any level, and will be remembered as such. He will also be remembered as being one of the greatest human beings in the coaching profession, a spitting image of his own mentor, the beloved and legendary, Dean Smith.

We love you, Coach Williams. Good luck in retirement, and try to put those chips on the green.

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