Roy Williams

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Born
1950 (75 years old)
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Marion, North Carolina, USA

Position
Manager

Status
Active

Ethnicity
White

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Sport

Basketball

Team
North Carolina

2nd Team

League
NCAA Division 1

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Description

Roy Allen Williams (born August 1, 1950) is an American college basketball coach for the North Carolina Tar Heels. He started his college coaching career at North Carolina as an assistant coach for Dean Smith in 1978. In 1988, Williams became the head coach of the men's basketball team at Kansas, taking them to 14 consecutive NCAA tournaments, four final four appearances, two national championship game appearances, collecting a .805 win percentage and winning nine conference titles over his fifteen-year span.

In 2003, Williams left Kansas to return to his alma mater North Carolina, replacing Matt Doherty as head coach of the Tar Heels. Since returning to North Carolina, Williams has won three national championships, nine Atlantic Coast Conference conference titles, three ACC tournament championships, one AP National Coach of the Year award, and two ACC Coach of the Year awards. He is third all-time for most wins at Kansas behind Phog Allen and Bill Self, and second all-time for most wins at North Carolina behind his legendary mentor Dean Smith. On January 25, 2020, with a 94-71 win over Miami, Williams reached 880 wins surpassing Smith’s 879 win total.

With a total of 885 wins to date, Williams has taken his teams to nine Final Fours in his careers at Kansas and North Carolina. He is the only coach in NCAA history to have led two different programs to at least four Final Fours each and the only basketball coach in NCAA history to have 400 or more victories at two NCAA Division 1 schools. He is also tenth all-time in the NCAA for winning percentage among men's college basketball coaches.

Williams was an assistant coach for Smith when North Carolina won the 1982 national championship. As a head coach, Williams has coached in a total of six NCAA championship games (1991, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2016, and 2017). On April 4, 2005, Williams won his first national title as the Tar Heels defeated the University of Illinois in the 2005 NCAA championship game. He again led the Tar Heels to a national title on April 6, 2009, against the Michigan State Spartans (see 2009 NCAA championship game). Williams won his third national championship on April 3, 2017, when he led the Tar Heels to victory against the Gonzaga Bulldogs. Williams is one of six NCAA Men's Division I college basketball coaches to have won at least three national championships.

In 2006, Williams was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame. The following year, in 2007, Williams was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

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