The University of North Carolina announced on Thursday that coach Roy Williams is retiring after 18 seasons with the school, and 33 years as a collegiate head coach.
The 70 year old Williams led UNC to three national championships in 2005, 2009, and 2017. His record was 485-163 while at the helm. Before his time with the Tar Heels, Williams coached Kansas for 15 years and led the Jayhawks to four Final Four appearances. He had started his coaching career at Charles D. Owen High School in North Carolina for five years, before becoming an assistant under Dean Smith at UNC where he helped them win Smiths first title in 1982 with a team that was led by Michael Jordan. His last game this year and of his coaching career, a loss in a first round NCAA Tournament game to Wisconsin, was the first time he has lost a game in the first round in 30 NCAA Tournament appearances.
“On behalf of the ACC, we extend a heartfelt congratulations to Roy Williams on a remarkable career,” commissioner Jim Phillips said in a statement. “His resume of accomplishments speaks for itself. More importantly, the countless lives he positively affected surpasses all of the individual honors and awards. Roy’s fingerprints will forever be on the sport of college basketball, and specifically the Atlantic Coast Conference. We wish him, Wanda and his entire family all the best as he begins this next chapter of an amazing life.”
He finishes fourth overall at the Division I level in wins at 903-264 (.774 win percentage). He is the only coach to win 400 games at two different schools, and was inducted in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007. Williams was expected to hold a press conference to announce his official retirement at 4 p.m. Thursday.
