UNC Basketball: A Tribute To Roy Williams

To a die-hard UNC basketball fan, there are countless memories over a lifetime and we all have personal ones that still stand out to this day. Regardless of how long ago it was, we remember them like they were yesterday.

What are yours? Walter Davis completing a comeback from eight points down within 17 seconds against Duke in 1974? How about Dudley Bradley’s steal against State in 1979? Michael Jordan’s jumper against Georgetown that gave Carolina the 1982 National Championship? Is it Donald Williams hitting the two technical free throws against Michigan that secured Dean Smith’s second championship in 1993?

Dean Smith’s retirement announcement in 1997? Who can forget Roy Williams’ first title in 2005 or the 2009 team storming through the tournament to secure Roy’s second title? Not to mention Tyler Zeller capping a 19 point comeback against Miami in 2011 or Kennedy Meeks securing the rebound on a missed free throw in 2017 to send Carolina to the championship game against Gonzaga that would be Roy’s third championship.

There are too many more that I could mention.

We now have another memory to our own personal list. April 1, 2021… The day that Roy Williams announced his retirement as the Head Coach of the Carolina men’s basketball team. This is a tribute to the man that has lead the program since 2003.

Williams has lived and breathed UNC basketball. There will be no shortage of stories written about Roy’s retirement announcement and they will mostly focus on his coaching achievements from 48 years of coaching. Things like his three national championships, his 485-163 record at Carolina, nine ACC regular-season championships and three ACC Tournament titles.

His 903 wins rank third all-time among Division 1 coaches and he reached the 900 win mark in fewer games than any coach in NCAA history. He had twelve 30 win seasons and 29 seasons with at least 20 wins. Roy coached 32 NBA first-round picks that includes 22 while he was at North Carolina. Four National Players of the Year, 10 consensus first team All-Americans and three Cousy Award winners will always know him as Coach.

At his retirement announcement, Roy stated that the main reason that he was resigning was because he no longer felt like he was the right man for the job. Granted the college game has changed to more of a dribble-drive philosophy than a traditional two big men on the court at a time. The thing is that the game is still the same. A player still has to be able to shoot, pass, dribble, rebound and defend to be successful. They also, and this is the most important, have to be able to take instructive criticism.

Roy mentioned five one-score games that Carolina lost during the past two seasons in which he claimed that he did not get the job done by not giving the proper instructions. Is that the case or was it simply that the players decided that they could do it better? Only the team will ever know.

The rapid ascension of transfers in college basketball has also been linked to possible reasons that Roy was dis-satisfied. The NCAA reports that by their sophomore year 40% of Division 1 basketball players transfer from their initial school. With that being said, one of Roy’s greatest strengths was his ability to develop players. Players would come in their freshman year with limited skills due to their dominance against weaker competition on the high school level.

If they stayed at least three or four years, they would have developed into exceptional players. Just some of the many names from the Roy Williams era that come to mind are Danny Green, David Noel, Deon Thompson, John Henson, Tyler Zeller, Kendall Marshall, Reggie Bullock, Marcus Paige, Brice Johnson, Kennedy Meeks, Isaiah Hicks, Joel Berry, Theo Pinson, Kenny Williams, Luke Maye and Garrison Brooks.

The players that have come through the UNC basketball program were given an opportunity. That is all that anyone can really ask for and what a person does with that opportunity is solely on their shoulders. I mentioned earlier that one of Roy’s greatest strengths was his ability to develop players that would listen to him and follow his instructions. That is in the game of basketball. In the game of life, he has an even greater achievement.

He has developed men when they came to him as boys. They are better sons, fathers, husbands, employees, business owners and just better people in general. Roy that is your legacy. The banners and trophies are just icing on the cake. Best of luck in retirement.

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