Bringing The World Home To You

© 2024 WUNC North Carolina Public Radio
120 Friday Center Dr
Chapel Hill, NC 27517
919.445.9150 | 800.962.9862
91.5 Chapel Hill 88.9 Manteo 90.9 Rocky Mount 91.1 Welcome 91.9 Fayetteville 90.5 Buxton 94.1 Lumberton 99.9 Southern Pines 89.9 Chadbourn
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

UNC Men's Basketball Coach Roy Williams Retires After 33 Seasons

North Carolina head coach Roy Williams directs players during the second half of a first-round game against Wisconsin in the NCAA men's college basketball tournament, Friday, March 19, 2021, at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Ind. (AP Photo/Robert Franklin)
Robert Franklin
/
AP
North Carolina head coach Roy Williams directs players during the second half of a first-round game against Wisconsin in the NCAA men's college basketball tournament, Friday, March 19, 2021, at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Ind.

Updated at 5:03 p.m. on April 1, 2021.

After 33 seasons as a head coach in men’s college basketball, Roy Williams is hanging up his whistle and calling it quits. The head coach at UNC-Chapel Hill announced his retirement Thursday morning.

"I never had any day where I didn't give my absolute best. Not one single day."
Roy Williams

The 2007 Naismith Hall of Fame inductee led the UNC Tar Heels to three national championships, winning titles in 2005, 2009 and 2017. Williams also guided UNC to two other Final Fours, nine ACC regular season titles and three ACC tournament championships.

"It's been a thrill. It's been unbelievable. I've loved it," Williams said at a press conference at the Smith Center on Thursday. "No one has ever enjoyed coaching like I have... I no longer feel that I am the right man for the job.

"I never had any day where I didn't give my absolute best. Not one single day. I cared deeply for my school. I cared deeply for every player. I'm really proud of what we accomplished."

Williams, 70, is a native of Marion, North Carolina and a 1972 UNC-Chapel Hill graduate. He leaves his post on the Tar Heels’ bench as one of the most accomplished college basketball coaches of all-time.

Across his coaching career – which also included 15 seasons at the University of Kansas – he won 903 games. He hit that mark faster than any coach in men’s college basketball history and he is the only coach to win at least 400 games at two schools. Among Division I men’s head coaches, he is third all-time in total victories, trailing only Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim and Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski.

Roy Williams before a game in 2018.
Mitchell Northam
/
WUNC
Roy Williams retires as UNC men's basketball coach with 903 wins, which is third-most all-time.

“Roy’s fingerprints will forever be on the sport of college basketball, and specifically, the Atlantic Coast Conference,” ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips said in a statement. “We wish him, (his wife) Wanda and his entire family all the best as he begins this next chapter of an amazing life.”

Williams coached 52 players who would go on to play in the NBA, 32 of which were first-round picks. Williams also coached 17 first-team All-Americans.

“I’m sad that he’s leaving because he has meant so much to basketball,” Tar Heel basketball legend Michael Jordan told the Charlotte Observer. “(Williams) and my father formed an unbelievable bond that meant so much to me.”

Before he became the head coach at Kansas, Williams was an assistant at UNC under the legendary Dean Smith for 10 seasons. And before that, he was the head coach at Owen High School in Black Mountain. In all, he's been coaching young men in the game of basketball for 48 years.

"I could never come close to matching what Coach Smith did, but every day I tried to make him proud," Williams said.

He took the reins of the Jayhawks in 1988 and led Kansas to four Final Fours and four conference tournament championships across 15 seasons.

Williams was finally lured back to UNC in 2003, six seasons after Smith ― his mentor ― retired. Under Williams’ watch, UNC had a 444-57 record at home, an 88.6 winning percentage. His last game in the Dean Smith Center was an 18-point win over rival Duke. In the the span of his 18 seasons at UNC, the Tar Heels were the only men's team to win three national championships. Williams had just one losing season in his tenure at North Carolina, a 14-19 record in the 2019-20 season. In his 33 years as a head coach, he only missed the NCAA tournament two other times: his first season at Kansas and in 2010, a run to the NIT final with UNC.

In his final game leading the Tar Heels, UNC lost to Wisconsin in the first round of the NCAA tournament last month. It was Williams’ only loss in the opening round and his 30th overall appearance in the tourney. Williams was 45-13 all-time in the NCAA tournament with the Tar Heels.

Roy Williams at a press conference before the start of the 2019-20 season.
Mitchell Northam
/
WUNC
Roy Williams, a 2007 Naismith Hall of Fame inductee led the UNC Tar Heels to three national championships, winning titles in 2005, 2009 and 2017.

"The last two years have been really hard," Williams said.

Through it all, as his hair turned from black to silver, Williams always had the respect of his peers.

"He has been a fantastic ambassador for our great sport," Florida State head coach Leonard Hamilton said in a statement. "The landscape of college basketball has changed tremendously but the Carolina tradition because of Roy Williams is as strong as it has ever been. He is a Hall of Famer in every sense of the title."

Williams said he doesn't know what the future holds, whether he'll be involved in basketball in any form going forward, but he knows that he won't coach again.

"I'd love to be an ambassador for the game and an ambassador for coaches," Williams said. "Because coaches are my heroes."

Mitchell Northam is a Digital Producer for WUNC. His past work has been featured at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, SB Nation, the Orlando Sentinel and the Associated Press. He is a graduate of Salisbury University and is also a voter in the AP Top 25 poll for women's college basketball.
More Stories