Roy Williams to retire from coaching after 33 seasons

By Lauren Brownlow, WRALSportsFan columnist/reporter

Chapel Hill, N.C. — It's not an April Fool's joke — Roy Williams is going to retire after 33 years as a head coach, per a release from the university.

There has been speculation the last few years about when Williams' career would end, but the 70-year-old had shown no signs of slowing down, becoming the fastest-ever coach to reach 903 wins earlier this season.

Still, the last two seasons hadn't gone as well as Williams would have liked as the Tar Heels went 14-19 last year and 18-11 this year with the season ending in an 85-62 loss to 9th-seed Wisconsin, giving Williams his first ever first-round NCAA Tournament loss.

But the last two seasons aside, Williams has had incredible success as a head coach both at his alma mater and at Kansas before that; he's the only coach in NCAA history to have 400 wins or more at two different schools. Even with the recent struggles, his winning percentage (.774) is sixth-highest in NCAA history. And of course Williams won three national titles, all at North Carolina, and went to nine Final Fours, five at North Carolina. His 79 total NCAA Tournament wins rank third all-time.

Twelve of Williams' 33 seasons were 30-win seasons, and after completing his 18th season at North Carolina, he now ranks third all-time in ACC regular-season wins with 212.

Williams, a native of Marion, N.C., graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1972 and played for the freshman team while he was there. He studied the game under Dean Smith during that time and then took a job as a basketball and golf coach at Owen High School in Black Mountain, where he coached for four years. He then went on to be an assistant for Smith, starting at the lowest possible level, from 1978-88 before taking the head coaching job at Kansas.

At Kansas, he replaced another former UNC assistant in Larry Brown who had just won a national title and was on probation due to NCAA violations. During his time there, he went 418-101 and reached four Final Fours but did not win a title there. He was asked to come to North Carolina when Bill Guthridge retired in 2000 but declined, only to accept after Matt Doherty was let go after just three years.

Williams' return to Chapel Hill quickly bore fruit as he got the Tar Heels back to the NCAA Tournament after a two-year absence during his first season and then won his first-ever national title in 2005, the very next year. In 2008, he'd get back to the Final Four again only to lose to his former school in the national semifinals. Then in 2009, his team won every single NCAA Tournament game by at least 12 points and dominated on their way to his second title.

In 2010, UNC missed the NCAA Tournament but made the NIT championship game and then were back in the NCAA Tournament every season after that. The Tar Heels were absent from the Final Four until 2016, when Kris Jenkins' game-winner prevented a chance at a third national title. But he'd get that chance the very next season, and his team would take home the title that time.

UNC would exit in the second round of the Tournament in 2018 and in the Sweet 16 in 2019 before getting in this year as a No. 8 seed and taking the lopsided loss to Wisconsin.