About Roy Williams

23nd season overall, eighth season at Carolina

In seven years as North Carolina’s head coach, Roy Williams has directed the Tar Heels to unprecedented heights of success, a remarkable run even for one of the most historic programs in college basketball.

The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame member has led Carolina to two national championships, three Final Fours, four Elite Eights, four NCAA Tournament No. 1 seeds, five Associated Press Top 10 final rankings, four Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season titles, two ACC Tournament crowns, four 30-win seasons and nine first-round NBA draft picks.

ESPN, Sports Illustrated, The Sporting News and Fox Sports named the Asheville, N.C., native the Coach of the Decade for 2000-2009. Williams led Kansas and Carolina to 33 NCAA Tournament wins in the 2000s, eight more than any other coach.

Williams is one of only 11 coaches in NCAA history to lead his teams to the NCAA Tournament 20 or more times and he has the second-highest winning percentage (75.3) among those elite coaches.

Over the last nine years, Williams has won 259 games, second-most in the country, and coached four National Players of the Year. He won 30 NCAA Tournament games and led Kansas and UNC to the Final Four five times. That’s more NCAA Tournament victories and more Final Fours than any coach in the nation. In that span (2002-2010) no other coach won more than 21 NCAA Tournament games.

On Nov. 29, 2009, Carolina beat Nevada for Williams’s 600th win. No other coach in NCAA history had won 600 games in fewer than 24 seasons and his winning percentage of 79.8 is the third-highest after 22 years as a head coach.

Williams has a 614-155 record in 22 seasons as a college head coach. His winning percentage of 79.8 is the highest among active coaches with 20 years experience and the fifth-best in history. He has the third-highest winning percentage in NCAA Tournament history (75.3) among coaches whose teams have played at least 30 games.

On April 6, 2009, the Tar Heels beat Michigan State to capture UNC’s second NCAA Tournament title in five years. In 2005, Carolina beat top-ranked Illinois to win Williams’ first national title. He is one of 13 coaches to win multiple national championships, joining an illustrious list that includes only two other ACC coaches – Dean Smith and Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski.

In 2010, The Sporting News surveyed a panel of 50 former ACC standout players and asked them which current ACC coach they would want to play for other than their alma mater’s – Williams received 19 votes. No other coach received more than 8.5 votes.

His Tar Heel teams have a 196-54 mark and set UNC records for most wins for 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) and six years (176 from 2004-09).

At Carolina, Williams has coached two National Players of the Year (Sean May in 2005, Tyler Hansbrough in 2008), two Bob Cousy Award recipients as the best point guard in the country (Raymond Felton in 2005, Ty Lawson in 2009), two ACC Players of the Year (Hansbrough in 2008, Lawson in 2009), two ACC Athletes of the Year (May in 2005, Hansbrough in 2008), three ACC Rookies of the Year (Marvin Williams in 2005, Hansbrough in 2006, Brandan Wright in 2007), two Final Four MOPs (May in 2005, Wayne Ellington in 2009) and 12 NBA Draft picks.

The NBA has selected 20 of his players in the first round, including Hansbrough (13th), Lawson (18th) and Ellington (28th) in 2009 and Ed Davis (13^th) in 2010. In 2005, UNC became the first program to have four players chosen in the NBA Lottery.

Williams emphasizes academic development, as well. Every Carolina senior in his tenure has either received his degree or is on track to do so. Sean May, the 2005 Final Four MVP, entered the NBA Draft after his junior year but earned his degree in 2009. Marvin Williams, who went to the NBA in 2005 after just one season, has taken summer classes in Chapel Hill each year since and is now a junior in academic standing.

Three players have earned first-team Academic All-America honors – Vaughn (twice), Haase and Ryan Robertson – and 34 have earned first-team academic all-conference honors, including Tyler Zeller in 2009 and 2010.

Williams grew up in Biltmore, in south Asheville. He attended Roberson High, where he played basketball and baseball. He played basketball for Coach Buddy Baldwin, was named all-county and all-conference in 1967 and 1968, all-region in 1968 and served as captain in the North Carolina Blue-White All-Star Game.

Williams played on Carolina’s freshman team in 1968-69 under Bill Guthridge and earned two degrees from Carolina — a bachelor’s in education in 1972 and a master’s in teaching in 1973.

He began his coaching career in 1973 at Owen High School in Swannanoa, N.C., coached for USA Basketball teams in the 1991 World University Games, the 1992 U.S. Olympic Development Team, a U-22 tournament in Argentina in 1993, and the 2004 Olympics in Greece. He was NABC president in 2001-02 and served on the NCAA rules committee for six years.

Several of his staff and players have gone on to head coaching positions, including Matt Doherty, Neil Dougherty, Jerry Green, Steve Robinson, Kevin Stallings, Mark Turgeon and Rex Walters.

Born August 1, 1950, he and his wife, Wanda, a 1972 Carolina graduate, have a son, Scott, and a daughter, Kimberly. Scott earned a business degree from UNC and played point guard on the basketball team in 1997-98 and 1998-99. He and his wife, Katie (Wolford), live in Charlotte, with their son, Aiden, who was born on Jan. 1, 2010. Katie is a 2001 Carolina graduate and former cheerleader. She earned a doctorate in physical therapy from Boston University. Kimberly, who also lives in Charlotte, is a 2002 Carolina graduate with a degree in English and a former member of the UNC dance team.

The Williams family has contributed more than $400,000 to the Carolina Covenant, an initiative at UNC that allows low-income students to attend the University debt free. Roy and Wanda serve as honorary chairs of a $10 million campaign to endow the program. Coach Williams hosts an annual Coaches vs. Cancer breakfast that has raised more than $1 million and directs the autographed basketball program that has contributed more than $650,000 to local charities.