By Marcy Hege

Roy Williams

Roy Williams
If you’ve lived in the Triangle for a short time, you’re probably somewhat puzzled by the area’s seemingly rabid obsession with basketball. It’s not called ACC Madness without just cause. It’s a condition that comes to epidemic proportions in March with the ACC Tournament. A key figure in this Triangle-area epidemic is the head coach of the University of North Carolina’s Mens’ Basketball team, Roy Williams.

Roy Williams has taken Thomas Wolfe to task by proving you can go home again. Born in the western part of North Carolina (near Marion), he moved to Asheville as a child. During high school, he lettered in both basketball and baseball. Williams continued to play basketball at the University of North Carolina under the coaching of Dean Smith. Williams’ first coaching position was at a high school in Swannanoa, NC, not far from his childhood homes. In 1978, Williams returned to UNC and served as an assistant under Coach Smith.

In 1988, it was time for Roy Williams to leave his home state. He became the head coach of the University of Kansas where he replaced another UNC alumni, Larry Brown. During his fifteen years at Kansas, Williams had a 418-101 record and, other than his first season when the Jayhawks were on probation, all his Kansas teams played in the NCAA tournaments.

An opportunity to return to UNC arose when Bill Guthridge left the Tar Heels’ head coaching position in 2000. Although reports swirled in the media that Williams was leaving Kansas for UNC, those rumors were brought to a sudden halt with Williams’ announcement he would be staying at Kansas. UNC hired Matt Doherty in 2000 but Doherty resigned at the end of the 2003 season.

The media’s rumor mill hardly had a chance to get started when Coach Williams became the eighteenth coach at UNC in 2003 within a week after taking the University of Kansas Jayhawks to the NCAA men’s college basketball championship. It was hard for him to leave his Kansas team which had just won the NCAA Championship but it would have been even more difficult for him to turn down his dream job at Carolina.

Roy Williams in action

Since his return to UNC in 2003, Williams has turned the Tar Heel basketball program into a formidable opponent for both ACC and other collegiate teams around the nation. Taking his boys to the 2005 NCAA Championship Tournament, he and the team brought home the coveted title and trophy. This season, Williams achieved his 500th career win in a game against High Point College in early December, during his 19th season of coaching. Williams reached the 500 game goal faster than any other NCAA Division I coach.

Williams has been honored to receive the AP Coach of the Year Award twice, at Kansas in 1992 and at UNC in 2006 for his successful season despite losing many of his top-scorers from the 2005 Championship team. The UNC coach also has a list of other “Coach-of-the-Year” honors from a myriad of conferences and other sports-news groups.

All these titles, wins and championships are the groundwork for one of his most recent recognitions as finalist for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The Basketball Hall of Fame Class for 2007 will be announced at the NCAA’s Final Four Championship on April 2 in Atlanta.

On most Monday nights during the season, UNC’s head coach takes calls and questions between 7 pm and 8 pm at the Spice Street Restaurant in Chapel Hill's University Mall. The toll free number for questions is 1-866-TAR HEEL. Fans can get advance seating reservations at the restaurant by calling 919.928.8200.

One of the greatest compliments to Coach Williams comes from his former coach and boss, the legendary Dean Smith as quoted in the 2006-07 Carolina Basketball Media Guide, “He’s like the Tiger Woods in golf – they have the whole package.”