Tar Heels' Roy Williams Earns Illustrious Honor

Former North Carolina Tar Heels coach Roy Williams was listed as the second best men's college basketball coach of the quarter century according to a story by The Athletic. The only coach listed above him was current Kansas Coach Bill Self.

Williams coached Kansas from 2000-2003 and then coached the Tar Heels from 2003-2021. He won three national titles during the span and reached the Final Four seven times. Williams won 11 conference regular season championships, while winning tournament titles on three different occasions. In 21 seasons, he went to the NCAA TOurnament 19 times.

Williams had 574 wins over that span, an average of 27.3 per season.

"Williams built a juggernaut at Kansas, and while he was a beast in the regular season in the 1990s at KU, he was finally starting to be equally as dominant in March in the early 2000s," author CJ Moore said. "Williams made back-to-back Final Fours in his final two seasons in Lawrence, then took a core that missed the NCAA Tournament in 2003 and won the national title in his second season at North Carolina.

"Williams is tied for the most titles this century and is a Kris Jenkins buzzer-beater away from four. Williams had a great eye for recruiting to his system and there were few things in basketball more aesthetically pleasing than the Carolina break," Moore said. "He just edges Coach K because he reached two more Final Fours and more than doubled him on conference titles this century."

Coach K from Duke coached until 2022. He won three national titles and reached the Final Four five times. They were perhaps North Carolina's greatest rival. Coach K and Duke won five conference titles and 10 tournament titles. They made the NCAA Tournament 20 times. Coach K also won 631 games during that span.

"Coach K is on the Mount Rushmore of all-time greats, and he never lost the coolness factor with players, likely helping himself later in his career with the decision to coach Team USA. Krzyzewski was right there with Calipari as the best recruiter in the game. Sure, the Duke brand helped, but he created the brand.

"You could make an argument for any of the top three on this list for best coach of the century. Coach K’s argument: Tied for most titles and tops for highest average win total," Moore said. "The other two are significantly ahead in regular-season conference titles, and that’s why he’s third. If we were including the previous decade, it’d be no debate."

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