Men's Basketball
Williams, Roy
Roy Williams
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Phone:
- 919-962-1154
ROY WILLIAMS CAREER SUMMARY
MAY 2021
Roy Williams retired on April 1, 2021, with the third-most wins by a Division I head coach and the sixth-highest winning percentage in college basketball history.
Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007, Williams was a college head coach for 33 seasons at two of the three winningest programs in the sport’s history. He won 418 games in 15 seasons at Kansas from 1988-2003 and 485 games in 18 seasons at UNC, his alma mater, from 2003-21. He is the second-winningest coach all-time at Carolina and is now third at KU. He is the only coach in college basketball history to win 400 games at two schools.
Williams is one of 11 Tar Heels enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, joining a group that includes Dean Smith, Michael Jordan, James Worthy, Larry Brown, Billy Cunningham, Bob McAdoo, Charlie Scott and Bobby Jones.
ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Sporting News and Fox Sports named Williams the Coach of the Decade for 2000-09, a 10-year span during which he won 33 NCAA Tournament games, including two national titles among five Final Four appearances at KU and Carolina.
The Asheville, N.C., native won his 900th game when the Tar Heels beat Florida State on February 27, 2021, reaching 900 wins in fewer games and fewer seasons than any other coach in history. His 903rd and final win came against Virginia Tech in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament on March 11, 2021. He finished his career with a 903-264 record. The 903 wins rank third behind only Mike Krzyzewski and Jim Boeheim and his winning percentage of .774 is sixth all-time, third highest in the last 45 seasons and the highest in his 33 seasons among Power 5 conference coaches.
Williams grew up in the Biltmore neighborhood in Asheville. He attended Roberson High, where he played for Coach Buddy Baldwin. He played on Carolina’s freshman team in 1968-69, earned a bachelor’s degree in education in 1972 and a master’s degree in teaching in 1973. After five seasons as the head coach at Owen High School in Black Mountain, N.C., Williams joined Dean Smith’s UNC staff, where he served as an assistant coach from 1978-88.
Williams led UNC to NCAA championships as a head coach in 2005, 2009 and 2017 and was an assistant when the Tar Heels won the title in 1982. He is the only head coach to win three national championships at his alma mater and one of six – with John Wooden, Krzyzewski, Adolph Rupp, Bob Knight and Jim Calhoun – to win at least three titles.
In 2018, the University of North Carolina officially named the playing floor at the Dean E. Smith Center, home of the Tar Heels, Roy Williams Court.
Williams is second all-time in college basketball in 30-win seasons (12) and fourth in 20-win seasons (29), has the most wins over No. 1-ranked teams in the AP poll (8) and averaged more wins per season (27.4) than any coach with 800 or more wins. His teams won 18 regular-season conference championships, tied for the fifth most all-time.
He won national coach-of-the-year honors nine times (1990, 1991, 1992, 1997, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2017, 2019) and was the conference coach of the year nine times (1990, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2011). His teams were ranked in 84.4 percent of the AP polls, including 61.5 percent in the top 10 and 29 weeks at No. 1. His teams earned a No. 1 ranking in 13 seasons and in 18 years were ranked at least second in the nation.
Williams won 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800 and 900 games in fewer seasons than any coach in college basketball history.
Williams ranks with Smith and Krzyzewski as the most accomplished coaches in ACC history, ranking third in wins (485), third in ACC regular-season and Tournament wins (241), third in regular-season ACC titles (9), third in road wins (93), fourth in road winning percentage in league play (.621) and fifth in regular-season winning percentage (.693).
His teams defined success in NCAA Tournament play, where he retired second in wins (79), games (106) and No. 1 seeds (13); third in appearances (30), winning percentage (.745), Final Four wins (9) and championship game appearances (6); and fourth in titles (3) and Final Fours (9). Over his last 20 years, Williams’ teams won 54 NCAA Tournament games, more than any other coach in the nation. Carolina’s 45 NCAA Tournament wins in the Williams era were more than any other school in those 18 seasons. Carolina was a No. 1 seed in 2016, 2017 and 2019 and a No. 2 in 2018, the best four-year stretch of seeding in school history.
Only Kentucky, UNC, Duke, UCLA and Kansas have more NCAA Tournament wins than Williams. His teams went 29-1 in the first round, 19-10 in the second, 13-6 in the Sweet 16, 9-4 in the Elite 8, 6-3 in the national semifinals and 3-3 in the championship game.
Carolina went 45-13 in the NCAA Tournament under Williams, a winning percentage of .776 that is the highest in ACC history. The 45 wins under Williams are more than 13 current or former ACC schools have won in their NCAA Tournament histories. He is the only coach to win an NCAA Tournament game in 20 consecutive seasons (1990-2009) and the only coach to win 29 straight first-round games.
In 2005, Carolina went 33-4 and won the NCAA title in Williams’ second year as head coach, just two years removed from back-to-back seasons when the Tar Heels failed to make the NCAA Tournament field.
The 2009 squad is considered one of the most dominant championship teams, becoming the first NCAA champion to win all six games by a dozen or more points. Carolina won by an average of 20.2 points, the highest margin in 13 years, trailed in the second half just once and led Michigan State by a record 21 points at halftime in the national championship game.
Williams led the Tar Heels to back-to-back national championship games in 2016 and 2017. UNC lost the title to Villanova on a last-second three-pointer in ’16, but beat top-seed Gonzaga, 71-65, to win the 2017 title. It marked the fourth time in NCAA history a school won the championship a year after losing in the finals.
Under Williams, Carolina earned 10 No. 1 or No. 2 NCAA Tournament seeds, won three ACC Tournament championships and averaged 26.9 wins and 11.8 regular-season ACC wins per season. Carolina had 11 top-10 finishes in the Associated Press poll, and produced 21 All-Americas, 17 first-team All-ACC selections, 22 first-round NBA Draft picks, six ACC scholar-athletes of the year and seven Academic All-Americas. Five times multiple Tar Heels were selected in the first round of the NBA Draft, including four players in 2005 and 2012 and three in 2009 and 2019.
Williams set UNC records for most wins in one year (36 in 2007-08), two years (70 in 2008-09), three years (101 from 2007-09), four years (124 from 2006-09), five years (157 from 2005-09), six years (177 from 2005-10), seven years (206 from 2005-12), eight years (228, 2011-18 and 2012-19), nine years (263 from 2005-13), 10 years (292 from 2008-17) and 15 years (434 from 2004-19).
His teams dominated at home, posting a record of 444-57 (.886). He led the Jayhawks to a 201-17 record (.922) in Allen Fieldhouse, at one point winning 62 consecutive games. The Tar Heels went 243-41 at home under Williams (including 241-40 at the Smith Center) and set the UNC record for consecutive home wins with 31.
In 15 seasons at Kansas, the Jayhawks averaged 27.9 wins, including 35 in 1997-98. He also won 30 in 1989-90, 34 in 1996-97, 33 in 2001-02 and 30 in 2002-03. The Jayhawks reached the Sweet 16 nine times and the Final Eight on five occasions. In seven years of Big 12 Conference play, his teams went 94-18, capturing the regular-season title in 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2003 and the postseason tournament crown in 1997, 1998 and 1999. In 2001-02, KU became the first Big 12 team to go 16-0 in league play. From 1995-98, Kansas was a combined 123-17 – an average of 30.8 wins per season.
Williams’ players won numerous awards:
• four National Players of the Year – Drew Gooden (2002), Nick Collison (2003), Sean May (2005) and Tyler Hansbrough (2008);
• 17 first-team All-Americas, including 10 consensus first-team All-America honors – KU’s Raef LaFrentz (1997 and 1998), Paul Pierce (1998), Gooden (2002) and Collison (2003); UNC’s Hansbrough (2007, 2008, 2009), Brice Johnson (2016) and Justin Jackson (2017);
• nine conference player or athletes of the year, including five Tar Heels – May (2005), Hansbrough (2008), Ty Lawson (2009), Tyler Zeller (2012) and Jackson (2017);
• three Bob Cousy Award winners – Raymond Felton (2005), Lawson (2009) and Kendall Marshall (2012);
• 34 first-team all-conference players;
• seven first-team Academic All-Americas, including Marcus Paige, who became UNC’s first three-time Academic All-America;
• 33 NBA first-round draft picks – 22 at Carolina and 11 at Kansas;
• 46 academic all-conference selections;
• and he is the only coach with two Academic All-Americas of the Year (Jacque Vaughn at Kansas, Tyler Zeller at UNC).
His players have earned nearly $1.3 billion in NBA salary. Paul Pierce was the 2008 NBA Finals MVP after leading the Boston Celtics to the title; Danny Green set the NBA Finals record with 27 three-pointers in 2013 and has won three NBA titles; Harrison Barnes won a title with Golden State in 2015 and was a starter with the Warriors when they set the NBA single-season record with 73 wins in 2016.
Tyler Hansbrough became the most decorated player in Carolina Basketball history and set the all-time ACC scoring mark with 2,872 points. He is the only player in ACC history to earn first-team All-America and first-team All-ACC honors in each of his four seasons. He also became Carolina’s all-time leading rebounder, set the NCAA record for free throws made, won an NCAA title and National Player of the Year honors and earned his degree.
Carolina ranked in the top four nationally in scoring seven times and his teams averaged 80 points or more 23 times. Overall, his teams finished in the top 10 nationally in scoring 13 times, in scoring margin 18 times, in field goal percentage 12 times, in win-loss percentage 13 times and in field goal defense four times. Also, his teams finished in the top seven nationally in assists in 14 of the last 20 years and in the top 10 nationally in rebounding margin in 18 of the last 25 years. The Tar Heels led the nation in rebounds and rebound margin in three of his last five seasons.
In 43 seasons on the bench as a college head and assistant coach, Williams was part of 1,178 wins in 1,503 games, a win percentage of .784.
MAY 2021
Roy Williams retired on April 1, 2021, with the third-most wins by a Division I head coach and the sixth-highest winning percentage in college basketball history.
Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007, Williams was a college head coach for 33 seasons at two of the three winningest programs in the sport’s history. He won 418 games in 15 seasons at Kansas from 1988-2003 and 485 games in 18 seasons at UNC, his alma mater, from 2003-21. He is the second-winningest coach all-time at Carolina and is now third at KU. He is the only coach in college basketball history to win 400 games at two schools.
Williams is one of 11 Tar Heels enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, joining a group that includes Dean Smith, Michael Jordan, James Worthy, Larry Brown, Billy Cunningham, Bob McAdoo, Charlie Scott and Bobby Jones.
ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Sporting News and Fox Sports named Williams the Coach of the Decade for 2000-09, a 10-year span during which he won 33 NCAA Tournament games, including two national titles among five Final Four appearances at KU and Carolina.
The Asheville, N.C., native won his 900th game when the Tar Heels beat Florida State on February 27, 2021, reaching 900 wins in fewer games and fewer seasons than any other coach in history. His 903rd and final win came against Virginia Tech in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament on March 11, 2021. He finished his career with a 903-264 record. The 903 wins rank third behind only Mike Krzyzewski and Jim Boeheim and his winning percentage of .774 is sixth all-time, third highest in the last 45 seasons and the highest in his 33 seasons among Power 5 conference coaches.
Williams grew up in the Biltmore neighborhood in Asheville. He attended Roberson High, where he played for Coach Buddy Baldwin. He played on Carolina’s freshman team in 1968-69, earned a bachelor’s degree in education in 1972 and a master’s degree in teaching in 1973. After five seasons as the head coach at Owen High School in Black Mountain, N.C., Williams joined Dean Smith’s UNC staff, where he served as an assistant coach from 1978-88.
Williams led UNC to NCAA championships as a head coach in 2005, 2009 and 2017 and was an assistant when the Tar Heels won the title in 1982. He is the only head coach to win three national championships at his alma mater and one of six – with John Wooden, Krzyzewski, Adolph Rupp, Bob Knight and Jim Calhoun – to win at least three titles.
In 2018, the University of North Carolina officially named the playing floor at the Dean E. Smith Center, home of the Tar Heels, Roy Williams Court.
Williams is second all-time in college basketball in 30-win seasons (12) and fourth in 20-win seasons (29), has the most wins over No. 1-ranked teams in the AP poll (8) and averaged more wins per season (27.4) than any coach with 800 or more wins. His teams won 18 regular-season conference championships, tied for the fifth most all-time.
He won national coach-of-the-year honors nine times (1990, 1991, 1992, 1997, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2017, 2019) and was the conference coach of the year nine times (1990, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2011). His teams were ranked in 84.4 percent of the AP polls, including 61.5 percent in the top 10 and 29 weeks at No. 1. His teams earned a No. 1 ranking in 13 seasons and in 18 years were ranked at least second in the nation.
Williams won 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800 and 900 games in fewer seasons than any coach in college basketball history.
Williams ranks with Smith and Krzyzewski as the most accomplished coaches in ACC history, ranking third in wins (485), third in ACC regular-season and Tournament wins (241), third in regular-season ACC titles (9), third in road wins (93), fourth in road winning percentage in league play (.621) and fifth in regular-season winning percentage (.693).
His teams defined success in NCAA Tournament play, where he retired second in wins (79), games (106) and No. 1 seeds (13); third in appearances (30), winning percentage (.745), Final Four wins (9) and championship game appearances (6); and fourth in titles (3) and Final Fours (9). Over his last 20 years, Williams’ teams won 54 NCAA Tournament games, more than any other coach in the nation. Carolina’s 45 NCAA Tournament wins in the Williams era were more than any other school in those 18 seasons. Carolina was a No. 1 seed in 2016, 2017 and 2019 and a No. 2 in 2018, the best four-year stretch of seeding in school history.
Only Kentucky, UNC, Duke, UCLA and Kansas have more NCAA Tournament wins than Williams. His teams went 29-1 in the first round, 19-10 in the second, 13-6 in the Sweet 16, 9-4 in the Elite 8, 6-3 in the national semifinals and 3-3 in the championship game.
Carolina went 45-13 in the NCAA Tournament under Williams, a winning percentage of .776 that is the highest in ACC history. The 45 wins under Williams are more than 13 current or former ACC schools have won in their NCAA Tournament histories. He is the only coach to win an NCAA Tournament game in 20 consecutive seasons (1990-2009) and the only coach to win 29 straight first-round games.
In 2005, Carolina went 33-4 and won the NCAA title in Williams’ second year as head coach, just two years removed from back-to-back seasons when the Tar Heels failed to make the NCAA Tournament field.
The 2009 squad is considered one of the most dominant championship teams, becoming the first NCAA champion to win all six games by a dozen or more points. Carolina won by an average of 20.2 points, the highest margin in 13 years, trailed in the second half just once and led Michigan State by a record 21 points at halftime in the national championship game.
Williams led the Tar Heels to back-to-back national championship games in 2016 and 2017. UNC lost the title to Villanova on a last-second three-pointer in ’16, but beat top-seed Gonzaga, 71-65, to win the 2017 title. It marked the fourth time in NCAA history a school won the championship a year after losing in the finals.
Under Williams, Carolina earned 10 No. 1 or No. 2 NCAA Tournament seeds, won three ACC Tournament championships and averaged 26.9 wins and 11.8 regular-season ACC wins per season. Carolina had 11 top-10 finishes in the Associated Press poll, and produced 21 All-Americas, 17 first-team All-ACC selections, 22 first-round NBA Draft picks, six ACC scholar-athletes of the year and seven Academic All-Americas. Five times multiple Tar Heels were selected in the first round of the NBA Draft, including four players in 2005 and 2012 and three in 2009 and 2019.
Williams set UNC records for most wins in one year (36 in 2007-08), two years (70 in 2008-09), three years (101 from 2007-09), four years (124 from 2006-09), five years (157 from 2005-09), six years (177 from 2005-10), seven years (206 from 2005-12), eight years (228, 2011-18 and 2012-19), nine years (263 from 2005-13), 10 years (292 from 2008-17) and 15 years (434 from 2004-19).
His teams dominated at home, posting a record of 444-57 (.886). He led the Jayhawks to a 201-17 record (.922) in Allen Fieldhouse, at one point winning 62 consecutive games. The Tar Heels went 243-41 at home under Williams (including 241-40 at the Smith Center) and set the UNC record for consecutive home wins with 31.
In 15 seasons at Kansas, the Jayhawks averaged 27.9 wins, including 35 in 1997-98. He also won 30 in 1989-90, 34 in 1996-97, 33 in 2001-02 and 30 in 2002-03. The Jayhawks reached the Sweet 16 nine times and the Final Eight on five occasions. In seven years of Big 12 Conference play, his teams went 94-18, capturing the regular-season title in 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2003 and the postseason tournament crown in 1997, 1998 and 1999. In 2001-02, KU became the first Big 12 team to go 16-0 in league play. From 1995-98, Kansas was a combined 123-17 – an average of 30.8 wins per season.
Williams’ players won numerous awards:
• four National Players of the Year – Drew Gooden (2002), Nick Collison (2003), Sean May (2005) and Tyler Hansbrough (2008);
• 17 first-team All-Americas, including 10 consensus first-team All-America honors – KU’s Raef LaFrentz (1997 and 1998), Paul Pierce (1998), Gooden (2002) and Collison (2003); UNC’s Hansbrough (2007, 2008, 2009), Brice Johnson (2016) and Justin Jackson (2017);
• nine conference player or athletes of the year, including five Tar Heels – May (2005), Hansbrough (2008), Ty Lawson (2009), Tyler Zeller (2012) and Jackson (2017);
• three Bob Cousy Award winners – Raymond Felton (2005), Lawson (2009) and Kendall Marshall (2012);
• 34 first-team all-conference players;
• seven first-team Academic All-Americas, including Marcus Paige, who became UNC’s first three-time Academic All-America;
• 33 NBA first-round draft picks – 22 at Carolina and 11 at Kansas;
• 46 academic all-conference selections;
• and he is the only coach with two Academic All-Americas of the Year (Jacque Vaughn at Kansas, Tyler Zeller at UNC).
His players have earned nearly $1.3 billion in NBA salary. Paul Pierce was the 2008 NBA Finals MVP after leading the Boston Celtics to the title; Danny Green set the NBA Finals record with 27 three-pointers in 2013 and has won three NBA titles; Harrison Barnes won a title with Golden State in 2015 and was a starter with the Warriors when they set the NBA single-season record with 73 wins in 2016.
Tyler Hansbrough became the most decorated player in Carolina Basketball history and set the all-time ACC scoring mark with 2,872 points. He is the only player in ACC history to earn first-team All-America and first-team All-ACC honors in each of his four seasons. He also became Carolina’s all-time leading rebounder, set the NCAA record for free throws made, won an NCAA title and National Player of the Year honors and earned his degree.
Carolina ranked in the top four nationally in scoring seven times and his teams averaged 80 points or more 23 times. Overall, his teams finished in the top 10 nationally in scoring 13 times, in scoring margin 18 times, in field goal percentage 12 times, in win-loss percentage 13 times and in field goal defense four times. Also, his teams finished in the top seven nationally in assists in 14 of the last 20 years and in the top 10 nationally in rebounding margin in 18 of the last 25 years. The Tar Heels led the nation in rebounds and rebound margin in three of his last five seasons.
In 43 seasons on the bench as a college head and assistant coach, Williams was part of 1,178 wins in 1,503 games, a win percentage of .784.