RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina men’s basketball coach Roy Williams is retiring after 33 seasons of coaching, the school announced in a release Thursday morning. Williams, UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz and athletic director Bubba Cunningham are planning to address the media at 4 p.m.
Williams, a disciple of legendary UNC coach Dean Smith, spent the past 18 seasons as coach of the Tar Heels. He returned to his alma mater at the behest of Smith in 2003 after spending the first 15 seasons of his career at Kansas. Williams led UNC to national championships in 2005, 2009 and 2017.
The past two seasons in Chapel Hill have been tough for Williams and the Heels. He suffered his first losing season ever in 2019-20 when they finished 14-19. He admitted this past season was as challenging as any he had in coaching trying to navigate COVID-19 protocols while trying to help a young team with seven freshmen mature.
After Carolina’s senior night win over Duke on March 6, Williams kissed the court named after him, which prompted much speculation that he did it because he wasn’t planning on returning to the sidelines. Williams tried to quell talk of his retirement saying, “There’s no master plan. There’s no minor plan. I’m doing what I’ve done my whole life.”
Williams was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2007 and finished with 903 career wins. His final one, an 81-73 victory over Virginia Tech in the ACC tournament quarterfinals, moved him past former Indiana coach Bobby Knight for fourth all-time among NCAA Division I men’s basketball coaches.
Williams, 70, leaves behind a rapidly changing college basketball landscape that he may not have been too enthusiastic about adapting to fit. Between players turning pro and the NCAA’s transfer portal, which has passed 1,000 players and is still growing, building a roster is a volatile situation.
Freshman Walker Kessler, a 7-1 center from Georgia, was expected to be a major player next season for UNC. But just days after the Heels lost to Wisconsin in the NCAA Tournament, Kessler announced he was entering the transfer portal. It wasn’t entirely a surprise, but freshman forward Day’Ron Sharpe announced he’d enter the NBA draft. Forwards Sterling Manley and Walker Miller weren’t in the rotation, but they are transferring too.
Through his first 15 seasons at Carolina, Williams had just four players transfer and three one-and-dones enter the NBA draft. The past three seasons have produced six transfers and four one-and-dones.
Former UNC forward Luke Maye, whose game-winning shot against Kentucky launched the Heels into the 2017 Final Four, said in a text to The News & Observer that the timing of Williams’ announcement brought out a wealth of emotions.
“At first, obviously I was shocked, surprised and sad to hear the news because I know how much he loves Carolina and the game,” Maye said. “But once you think bigger picture and think about all the things he has done, you realize how incredible his career was as a coach and how many lives he impacted. I’m also honored thankful and happy for him and for me because of how much he taught me on and off the court!”
There is no coach-in-waiting to replace Williams, but many believe Cunningham will look to candidates with UNC ties. That list could include assistant coach Hubert Davis, who was working for ESPN as a basketball analyst when Williams hand-picked him to join the staff. Davis played under Smith from 1987-91; Vanderbilt head coach Jerry Stackhouse, who played two seasons also under Smith from 1993-95; UNC Greensboro head coach Wes Miller, who has spent the past 10 seasons with the Spartans and played under Williams from 2005-07; and Stanford head coach Jerod Haase, who played under Williams at Kansas before joining Williams’ UNC staff from 2003-09.
From North Carolina to Kansas
Williams got his start as a basketball head coach at Charles D. Owen High School in Swannanoa, N.C., where he also was on the football staff. This season began with him revisiting his roots while the COVID-19 pandemic forced the Maui Invitational to be moved to Asheville.
“The biggest thing that I learned from five years there is you’ve got to do everything you can to get the kids to buy in,” Williams said in November before the start of the Maui Invitational. “And I think with each and every year at Owen we bought in a little bit more and a little bit more. And we tried to build a program and not just coach a team that I was coaching that year.”
The pullback to Chapel Hill was too strong for Williams to stay in preps. When then-coach Smith had an opening for a limited earnings assistant coach, Williams jumped at the chance to join his staff — even though it meant he needed to supplement his income by selling UNC calendars throughout the state.
Williams served as an assistant for 10 seasons before Smith recommended him for the opening at Kansas in 1988, well before Williams knew he was prepared to be a head coach. Williams replaced Larry Brown, another UNC alum, and had immediate success.
For 15 seasons, he led the Jayhawks to nine Big 8/12 regular-season titles. He made four Final Fours and advanced twice to the national title game. His first appearance in 1991, he had to beat UNC and Smith to reach the championship.
Williams’ success at Kansas made him a no-brainer to be the eventual replacement for Smith when he retired. But Smith did it so close to the start of the 1997-98 season, that he set up longtime assistant coach Bill Guthridge to be the head coach. Guthridge coached three seasons, reaching two Final Fours, before stepping down in 2000.
Williams having built a national title contender at Kansas, declined the opportunity to return to UNC at that point. Matt Doherty, who played on UNC’s 1982 national championship team, was then hired to lead the Tar Heels’ program.
When things turned bad for Doherty and ended in an 8-20 season in 2002-03, Williams couldn’t say no a second time, when Smith personally asked him to return.
Winning a national title
It only took two seasons before Williams and the Tar Heels captured the 2005 national championship, his first as a head coach. Sean May, who played on that team and currently serves as UNC’s director of basketball operations, called Williams’ retirement, “an extremely sad day.”
“Coach inherited me, he didn’t recruit me, but the relationship we have been able to build has been truly amazing,” May told The News & Observer in a text. “...He is one of the greatest people I have ever met. I’m lucky to call him a mentor. I am truly happy he gets to go out on his own terms! I love him and I appreciate everything he has done for me. He will forever be MY COACH.”
Williams didn’t stop with one title, putting together a team that dominated the 2009 NCAA Tournament, with every win by 12 or more points. It took a Kris Jenkins buzzer-beater for the ages in the 2016 national title game against Villanova, from preventing overtime in pursuing a third banner. That title was delayed for just a season, as Williams led the ‘redemption tour’ in 2016-17 before beating Gonzaga in the finals.
Williams’ 485 wins at UNC, coupled with 418 at Kansas makes him the only Division I men’s basketball coach in history to have more than 400 wins at two schools. Carolina renamed the floor in the Dean E. Smith Center, “Roy Williams Court,” in August of 2018.
