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Numbers often paint a picture, especially in a competitive cauldron such as major college basketball. For a Hall of Fame coach like Roy Williams, numbers can summarize a career. Wins, championships, honors ... all tell the story of what makes a coach stand out among his peers. In Williams' case, few have numbers as distinguished as his - 524 wins in 19 seasons, a win percentage that is fourth-best in history, a national championship, 11 regular-season conference titles, five Final Fours, 16 first-round draft picks and so on. But if you ask Williams, the number that may mean the most would be 23. That is the number of players - both from Kansas and Carolina - who joined Williams, his family and close friends in September at the 2007 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Springfield, Mass. Not only was it one of the largest turnouts for a coach that Hall of Fame observers ever recall seeing, it brought together some of the finest college basketball players of the last 25 years. For that weekend, players like Paul Pierce, Sean May, Jacque Vaughn, Raymond Felton, Raef LaFrentz, Marvin Williams and Kirk Hinrich weren't just Jayhawks and they weren't just Tar Heels. They were Roy's boys. Williams became the eighth coach or player from Carolina to be enshrined in the Naismith Hall of Fame, joining an elite group that includes Dean Smith, Larry Brown, Billy Cunningham, James Worthy, Bob McAdoo, Frank McGuire and Ben Carnevale. Over the last six seasons, Williams has won as many games as any coach in the country and led his teams to three Final Fours and two national championship contests. Williams and Duke's Mike Krzyzewski both have won 169 games in that time, most nationally. On Dec. 9, 2006, Carolina defeated High Point for his 500th win as a head coach, a mark Williams reached in fewer seasons than any coach in history. And he's not ready to ride off into an extended Hawaiian golf vacation any time soon. In the spring, Williams inked a four-year contract extension that runs through the 2014-15 season. "This (the Hall of Fame) will fuel my competitiveness even more to make those people that chose me to be in the Hall of Fame feel they made the right decision," Williams told ESPN's Andy Katz. The Asheville, N.C., native has led the Tar Heels to a 106-30 record, the 2005 national championship, two ACC regular-season titles, an ACC Tournament crown and two NCAA No. 1 seeds in the last four years. But as gaudy as his coaching numbers are, Williams is quick to say he coaches for the relationships with his players and staff, the journey and the opportunity to compete. Two of his former players at the induction ceremony - one who played at Kansas and another who was a Tar Heel - described what Williams means to them. "Coach Williams helped me become a man," says Marvin Williams, who was the ACC Rookie of the Year at UNC in 2005 and the second player selected in that year's NBA Draft. "He always held me accountable for my actions on the court. He's a father figure and he's my coach. He'll always be my coach." Wayne Simien, who played two seasons for Williams at Kansas and was on the team that Williams left for Chapel Hill, echoes those thoughts: "Coach means so much to me. He's been not only a coach, but a positive role model and a father figure, as well." "As a coach, I remember him as just an easygoing guy," Michael Jordan told Tar Heel Monthly in a recent interview. "You could definitely sit down and talk to him and he wasn't intimidating at all. He seemed like a guy right down the street. "My father and he really connected," says Jordan. "I think it was Roy's down-homeness. It was his whole background and his understanding for where we were coming from. He made the transition so much easier. At that time I was totally unknown. Coach Williams was the best educator about what we were going through. "His willingness to understand the athlete and get the best out of the athlete is what makes Roy a Hall of Famer," adds Jordan. "His patience, his knowledge for the game, his effort and diligence to understand the game and understand the player and how they can co-exist. To me, that's a Hall of Fame-type guy, someone who makes adjustments according to the personnel rather than forcing his way of thinking on a team or a player. That's not Coach Williams. He will make adjustments and do it within the confinement of what the game represents. He holds high standards for the game and doesn't believe in a lot of things that deteriorate the game. I respect that. I'm sure those are things he learned from Coach Smith and other coaches." A September 16, 2007, editorial in the Lawrence (Kan.) Journal- World stated: "Williams is a winner, not only on the basketball court but also as a person. Collegiate sports need more coaches such as Williams, men and women who set an example for others to try and match." A poignant moment in the Hall of Fame speech was when Williams apologized to Jayhawk players from the mid-90s for not leading them to a Final Four, de-spite winning almost 33 games a year from 1996-98. "That tells you the type person he is," said Pierce, a KU All-America and current NBA All-Star with the Boston Celtics. "He didn't fail me, he aided me," added All-America and 10-year NBA veteran Raef LaFrentz. "That's him in a nutshell. He's always thinking about his players. He was the biggest aid I can think of. He got me to where I am at." Williams enters 2007-08 with a career mark of 524-131, averaging more than 27 wins per season. His win percentage of 80.0 is the best among active coaches with at least 10 seasons as a head coach and stands behind only Clair Bee, Adolph Rupp and John Wooden in history. He is the only coach to win a game in 18 consecutive NCAA Tournaments and is third all-time behind Dean Smith and Lute Olson for most consecutive years playing in the NCAA Tournament. He is second all-time in 30-win seasons (seven), tied for fifth in NCAA Tournament victories (45) and tied for sixth in Final Four appearances (five). Combining his 10 seasons as an assistant at Carolina and 19 years as head coach, Williams has been part of 799 wins and just 192 defeats. In four seasons at the helm of his alma mater, Williams has led the Tar Heels to a 45-19 record in ACC regular-season action, the most wins ever by a coach in his first four years competing in the ACC. Williams has been a college head coach for 19 years, the first 15 at Kansas from 1988-2003. He won 418 games and is the Jayhawks' second-winningest coach behind only KU legend Phog Allen. He has won more games than any coach after eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19 seasons as a head coach. He has won national coach of the year honors in six of his 19 seasons, conference coach of the year eight times and was the 2003 recipient of the John Wooden Legends of Coaching award. Last year, Williams led the Tar Heels to a 31-7 record. Carolina won a share of the ACC regularseason title and won the ACC Tournament, the fourth conference postseason title of his career. UNC was a No. 1 seed in the NCAA East Regional and came within an overtime of advancing to another Final Four. Tyler Hansbrough was a consensus first-team All-America, Brandan Wright became the third Tar Heel in as many years to win ACC Rookie of the Year honors and Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington joined Wright on the ACC All- Tournament Team. That marked the first time in ACC history more than one freshman made the prestigious all-tournament team. Carolina led the ACC and was second in the nation in scoring at 85.7 points per game. That was the fifth time in the last six years Williams' teams at Kansas and UNC have been in the Top four nationally in scoring (first in 2002 and 2005, second in 2007, third in 2003 and fourth in 2004). His teams have averaged 80 points or more in 16 of 19 seasons and have averaged 83.8 points in his four years at UNC. Williams earned National and ACC Coach of the Year honors in 2005- 06, leading the youngest team in Carolina history to 23 wins, a second-place finish in the ACC, a win at topranked Duke and a No. 3 regional seed in the NCAA Tournament. What made that year so unexpected was the fact Carolina was defending its national championship after losing its top seven scorers, unprecedented in ACC history, and started two and sometimes three freshmen. Sports Illustrated predicted Carolina would miss the NCAA Tournament and the Tar Heels were picked by the media to finish sixth in the ACC. However, the inexperienced Tar Heels turned heads with an early win at 10th-ranked Kentucky, went 7-1 on the road in conference play, finished the year 12-4 in the ACC and were No. 10 in the final Associated Press ranking. Despite a lineup that scored one point in the 2005 NCAA title game against Illinois, Carolina led the ACC in field goal percentage defense, assists and rebounding, and was second-best in the league in field goal shooting and scoring. The Associated Press, the United States Basketball Writers Association of America, ESPN.com, SI.com and the Commonwealth Club of Kentucky named Williams the 2005-06 National Coach of the Year. Carolina's performance, set against the backdrop of losing juniors Raymond Felton, Sean May and Rashad McCants and freshman Marvin Williams to the 2005 NBA Draft, did not go unappreciated: "UNC's starting lineup consists of two true freshmen, two former walk-ons and a guy who wasn't even first-team all-state in high school," wrote David Glenn at ACCSports.com. "All of this is a tribute to the players, of course, but it's an even bigger tribute to their leader. Williams wasn't the only coach in America who lost all five starters from last season. He's the only one who's winning big anyway." "Roy's really a bright man," says Dean Smith. "He has the whole package of what you want as a college head coach. You want somebody who knows basketball, can judge talent, is a competent leader and can teach it in practice, makes good decisions in the game, is highly organized, and also is honest in recruiting. "He's like Tiger Woods in golf - they have the whole package," Smith adds. "I don't know anyone else who does. I certainly consider him to be the best college coach in the country." Williams became the UNC head coach on April 14, 2003, 10 days after leading Kansas to the NCAA championship game against Syracuse. "Roy Williams is one of the select few of the greatest coaches in the entire game of basketball," says Bill Walton, NBA Hall of Fame player and TV analyst. "His move to North Carolina ensures for the foreseeable future excellence both on and off the court. The championships will now fall time after time to Chapel Hill. More importantly Coach Williams' impact on young people's lives throughout this great land will change the course of history. We love Coach Williams and admire and respect everything that he does - except for the fact that he's not coaching at UCLA." Williams led the Tar Heels to their fourth NCAA championship as UNC defeated the Illini, 75-70, on April 4, 2005. "Coach Williams allowed me to be successful - he put me in positions to be successful," says May, the MVP of the 2005 Final Four. "He pulled out my strengths, hid my weaknesses and taught me how to run the floor. I never wanted to run until I came here, now I love it." The 2005 national championship capped a season in which the Tar Heels went 33-4, including a 14-2 mark in the ACC. Carolina finished first in the ACC regular-season standings for the first time since 2001 and won the league outright for the first time in 12 years. Carolina went 15-0 at home - Williams' seventh unbeaten home record. The Tar Heels won the Maui Invitational by an average of 21 points per game; led the nation in scoring average, scoring margin and assists; scored 100 or more points six times and 90 or more points on 16 occasions; went 9-3 against ranked teams; and became the third team in history to lead the nation in scoring and win the NCAA championship. "We all wanted to win for the seniors, but I especially wanted a national championship for Coach Williams," May said. "He's a great person and a great coach and I wanted to be on his first national championship team. I know he's going to win more, but we can always say we were on his first." Williams takes great pride in his teams playing unselfish basketball, taking the best shots available, hitting the boards and playing tenacious, man-to-man defense. The 2005 Tar Heels exhibited all of those traits. To wit: five different players averaged double-figure scoring, despite just one player averaging more than 30 minutes played per game; the Tar Heels averaged 19.1 assists per game; UNC shot 50 percent or better from the floor 20 times (and won all 20 games) and held the opposition to less than 40 percent shooting 20 times; the Tar Heels went 28-1 in games in which they out-rebounded the opponents; and Carolina held Michigan State and Illinois under 40 percent shooting from the floor in three of four halves played at the Final Four. "Winning the national championship means all the preparation we had done to get to that point paid off," said McCants. "You sit back and think, all the things we did in practice every day were perfect for us. You have to commend a coach to understand that - he just designed something perfect for a bunch of players who had never won anything and for us to do everything that we've done in this short period of time is amazing." Williams, whose teams are 257- 24 at home (91.5), has established himself as one of the top coaches and premier program builders in America. He is one of the most respected men in college basketball among coaches, players, parents, administrators and media. It was evident by the number of wellwishes, congratulatory calls and letters Williams received before and after winning the national championship and being elected to the Naismith Hall of Fame, including many from former Kansas players and parents. "I know so much more about basketball," said Marvin Williams. "Coach Williams has so much knowledge about the game it is unbelievable. He is a great coach and he loves to teach. He's taught me so much about basketball, especially the little things. I didn't know little things made that big of a difference in a basketball game." Williams has taken five teams to the Final Four, including 1991, 1993, 2002 and 2003 at Kansas and 2005 at Carolina. He is one of 12 coaches to lead two schools to the Final Four and the third (with Larry Brown and Frank McGuire) to direct two schools to the championship game. "I have so much respect for him and I am so glad that he's our coach," says former Tar Heel All- America and NBA All-Star Jerry Stackhouse. "I really feel with him the tradition that we all felt when I played here. He has a discipline he learned from Coach Smith and that discipline is back here now. That's why we were able to have success [in 2005] and win the national championship." "I always thought if Coach Williams came back to Carolina he was going to get us a national championship," says George Lynch, captain of the 1993 NCAA champions and a 13-year NBA veteran. "He has a great personality and he's fair to his players. He tells them like it is. He came back and got guys to play the right way and come together as a team." "He's the best coach in college basketball," says Antawn Jamison. "He reminds me a lot of Coach Smith. Not just in terms of basketball, but as far as knowing the importance of having good people, caring about making sure they are successful after basketball. He'll have a big influence over every player that comes through the program, preparing them for life. That's what it's all about. It's not just about being a coach, but being like a father figure." Williams has won 20 or more games 17 times in 19 years (winning 19 in his first seasons at Kansas and Carolina), including 14 straight seasons at Kansas, a streak that equals the third longest in NCAA history. "Coach Williams is a great coach," says Jackie Manuel, who twice earned ACC All-Defensive Team honors and now plays with the Boston Celtics. "He's going to teach you the fundamentals of the game and off the court he cares about his kids. He wants the best for his kids. He's going to push you; he's trying to bring the best out of you. If I have a son, I would definitely let him play for Coach Williams." In 2003-04, Williams led the Tar Heels to a 19-11 record, with a win over No. 1-ranked and eventual national champion Connecticut. Carolina returned to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in three years and beat Air Force in the opening round before falling to Texas, 78-75. Carolina averaged 80.2 points per game, an increase of 10.0 points from the previous year and UNC's highest scoring average since 1994-95. "Roy is as good as it gets in a person," says Hall of Fame guard and NBA executive Jerry West. "There's nothing deceptive about him. He is what he is - a wonderful person and a great coach. If you watch his teams, you know they've been coached. If you go to his practices, you know why his teams are successful. His players play the right way. They're team-oriented. They play a fun way offensively. They're aggressive. He changes defenses. He does it all. He's just a wonderful coach." Williams spent 10 seasons as an assistant coach under Smith at Carolina. From 1978-88, he helped coach such Tar Heel standouts as Mike O'Koren, Al Wood, James Worthy, Sam Perkins, Matt Doherty, Michael Jordan, Brad Daugherty, Kenny Smith, Joe Wolf, Steve Hale, Jeff Lebo, J.R. Reid and Scott Williams. The Tar Heels played in the NCAA Tournament in each of Williams' 10 seasons as an assistant. Carolina won the NCAA title in 1982, finished second in 1981 and won or shared six Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season titles and three ACC Tournament championships (1979, 1981, 1982). "When I think of him, I think of his honesty, integrity and tremendous work ethic," says Daugherty, a five-time NBA All-Star with the Cleveland Cavaliers. "He is a classy, classy individual. But he is also one of the toughest people I have ever met in my life. No one is tougher than Roy Williams, but he is fair. That's why the kids love him so much. When you have played four years for him he will be a friend for life and you will be a better man, and appreciate every ounce of the experience when you are gone. "If I had to go to war, I'd grab him for my foxhole without question." Williams was named head coach at Kansas on July 8, 1988, replacing another former Tar Heel, Larry Brown. The pair teamed together to coach Team USA to a bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. "He's as good a coach as our sport has," says Brown. "If you ask people around the country, they'll say there's no better college coach than Roy Williams." In addition to his 2006 national coaching honors, he earned National Coach of the Year honors at Kansas in 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1997 and was Big Eight/Big 12 Coach of the Year seven times (1990, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2002 and 2003). The New York Athletic Club presented him with its National Coach of the Year award in 2005. Williams coached a number of the finest Kansas players in history, including Mark Randall, Adonis Jordan, Rex Walters, Greg Ostertag, Scot Pollard, Jacque Vaughn, Raef LaFrentz, Paul Pierce, Drew Gooden, Nick Collison, Kirk Hinrich and Wayne Simien. The Jayhawks went 94-18 in conference play over his last seven years and averaged 27.9 wins per season with a high of 35 in 1997-98. He also won 30 in 1989-90, 34 in 1996-97, 33 in 2001-02 and 30 in 2002-03. He led Kansas to the Final Four in 1991, 1993, 2002 and 2003. The Jayhawks reached the Sweet 16 nine times and the Final Eight on five occasions. Kansas went 30-8 in 2002-03, his final year in Lawrence. Led by Collison, the NABC National Player of the Year, and Hinrich, another All- America, the Jayhawks beat Duke, Arizona and Marquette en route to the national championship game. It was KU's first back-to-back appearance in the Final Four since 1952- 53. Kansas won nine regular-season conference championships over his last 13 years. In seven years of Big 12 Conference play, his teams went 94-18, capturing the regular-season title in 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2003 and the postseason tournament crown in 1997, 1998 and 1999. In 2001-02, KU became the first Big 12 team to go 16-0 in league play. From 1995-98, Kansas was a combined 123-17 - an average of 30.8 wins per season. He was hired just months after the Danny Manning-led Jayhawks won the 1988 NCAA championship. Weeks after taking the position, KU was placed on probation for violations that took place prior to his arrival. Williams' teams went 201-17 (92.2) in Allen Fieldhouse, and won 62 consecutive games in Allen from February 1994 to December 1998. Kansas was a regular in the Associated Press Top 25 from 1991 to 1999, placing in the AP poll for 145 consecutive weeks. Williams' teams were ranked in the Top 10 in 194 AP polls since 1990. Williams had Kansas in the AP Top 25 in 242 of 268 weekly polls. Kansas reached the No. 1 ranking in the country in six different seasons and was ranked at least No. 2 in the nation in 11 of the 15 seasons. The Tar Heels finished 2004-05 ranked No. 1 in the coaches' poll and No. 2 in the Associated Press poll. The 2005-06 Tar Heels began the year out of the Top 25, but finished the year ranked No. 10. Last year, Carolina was fourth in the final media poll, the 12th time in 19 years his teams have finished in the Top 10 in the AP poll. Williams has coached 22 players to first-team all-conference honors, including five Tar Heels in the past four years. McCants was the ACC's leading vote getter in 2003- 04, May and Felton were selected in 2004-05, and Hansbrough was a unanimous selection in both 2005- 06 and 2006-07. Hansbrough became the first freshman in league history to be unanimously selected to the All-ACC team. Five Jayhawks won conference player-of-the-year honors and May was named the 2005 ACC Male Athlete of the Year. Hansbrough became the first UNC freshman to ever earn firstteam All-America honors after leading the Tar Heels in scoring, rebounding, field goal percentage and steals in 2005-06. Hansbrough then became the fifth sophomore in Carolina history to earn consensus first-team All-America honors and was a finalist for National Player of the Year honors. Hansbrough's second honor was the 10th first-team All-America selection by one of Williams' players and it marked the third straight year that Carolina's top inside threat earned first-team All-America honors (also May in 2005). Two players - Gooden and Collison - were voted the best player in the country by the NABC. He coached four KU players to consensus first-team All-America honors - LaFrentz in 1997 and 1998, Pierce in 1998, Gooden in 2002 and Collison in 2003. "I was just coming (to Kansas) to play basketball for a man I knew I could trust and a man I hoped would make my dreams a reality," said LaFrentz, a two-time Big 12 Player of the Year. "Thanks to Coach Williams for doing that. Thanks to him for always being there, for always being an example for every player who has come into his program and, most importantly, thanks for being a friend." Sixteen of his players have been selected in the first round of the NBA Draft, including the four Tar Heels who were selected in the first 14 picks in the 2005 draft: Randall (1991), Walters (1993), Ostertag (1995), Pollard (1997), Vaughn (1997), LaFrentz (1998), Pierce (1998), Gooden (2002), Hinrich (2003), Collison (2003), Marvin Williams (2005), Felton (2005), May (2005), McCants (2005), Simien (2005) and Wright (2007). Kansas led the nation in field goal percentage and scoring in 2002 and in scoring margin in 2003; held opponents to the lowest field goal percentage in the country in 2001 (37.8 percent); led the nation in winning percentage in 1997 and 2002; shot better than 50 percent from the floor seven times and led the country in field goal percentage in 1990 at 53.3 percent and in 2002 at 50.6 percent; shot a combined 49.4 percent from the floor in 15 seasons; led the nation in assists in 2001 and 2002 and was seventh in the nation in 2003; scored 100 or more points 71 times (once every 13 games); averaged 82.7 points per game in 15 years; averaged 90 or more points in two seasons (92.1 in 1990 and 90.9 in 2002). Academic priority is an important characteristic of Williams' program. Each Carolina senior in his tenure has either received his degree or is on track to do so. Two players - Byron Sanders and Melvin Scott - have earned Academic All-ACC honors. Three Kansas players were named first-team Academic All- America- Ryan Robertson in 1999, Vaughn and Jerod Haase in 1997 and Vaughn in 1996 - and 31 Jayhawks earned first-team academic all-conference honors. "He will win with class and dignity because that's what the man is about," says Joe Posnanski, who covered the Jayhawks for the Kansas City Star. "He will have the Tar Heels running fast and scoring in bunches, and he will build on the legacy of the man he admires most." Williams grew up outside of Asheville, N.C., in the small community of Biltmore. He attended T. C. Roberson High School, where he earned letters in basketball and baseball for four seasons. In basketball, playing for Coach Buddy Baldwin, he was named all-county and all-conference for two years (1967 and 1968), all-western North Carolina in 1968 and served as captain in the North Carolina Blue- White All-Star Game. Much of Williams' coaching style comes from spending so many years observing and then coaching with Smith. Williams played on Carolina's freshman team in 1968-69 under Guthridge. Williams often sat in on Smith's varsity practice sessions taking notes and furthering his knowledge of the game, notes Williams maintains even today. Williams' practices are intense, instructive and precise. "Practices are very intense, you get a lot done in a small amount of time," says 2005 Tar Heel tri-captain Jawad Williams. "When you put fun and hard work together, that's very nice. We get a lot more accomplished." Roy Williams earned two degrees from Carolina -- a bachelor's degree in education in 1972 and an M.A.T. in 1973. In 1973, Williams began his coaching career at Owen High School in Swannanoa, N.C. He coached basketball and boys' golf for five years, ninth-grade football for four years and served as athletic director for two years. He joined Smith's staff as an assistant coach in 1978, adding to his income by traveling all over the state selling basketball team calendars and delivering Smith's weekly TV show to affiliates. While a member of Smith's staff, the Tar Heels went 275-61. Williams has been active in international circles, as well. The 2004 U.S. Olympic Team assignment was his fourth with USA Basketball. In 1991, Williams worked under P.J. Carlesimo at the World University Games in Sheffield, England, where the USA won the gold medal. In 1992, he helped coach the United States Olympic Development Team, a squad of eight college all-stars who scrimmaged the first U.S. Olympic Dream Team. In 1993, Williams served as head coach of the USA Under-22 Team in a qualifying tournament in Argentina. He also served as a lecturer and camp director for the West German National Junior Team. He served on the board of directors of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, and was president in 2001-02. In addition, Williams served on the NCAA basketball rules committee for six years, chairing the committee in 2000-01. Several of Williams' assistants have gone on to head coaching positions, including Neil Dougherty (in his sixth year at TCU), Kevin Stallings (in his ninth season at Vanderbilt), Mark Turgeon (in his eighth year overall and first at Texas A&M), Matt Doherty (formerly the head coach at Notre Dame, Carolina and Florida Atlantic, now in his second year at SMU), Steve Robinson (at Tulsa and Florida State) and Jerry Green (at Oregon and Tennessee). Williams (born August 1, 1950) and his wife, Wanda, a 1972 Carolina graduate, have a son, Scott, and a daughter, Kimberly. The Williams family has contributed $200,000 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 co-chairs of a $10 million campaign to endow the program. Scott earned a business degree from UNC and played point guard under Bill Guthridge on the basketball team in 1997-98 and 1998- 99. He and his wife, Katie (Wolford), live in London. Katie is a 2001 Carolina graduate and former cheerleader. She earned a doctorate in physical therapy from Boston University. Kimberly, who lives in Charlotte, is a 2002 Carolina graduate with a degree in English and a former member of the UNC dance team. |
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