UNC Basketball: The Dominance of Roy Williams
Would you like to know why Roy Williams is regarded as one of the best college basketball coaches of all time?
It could be his recruiting capability. It could be his in-game coaching. It could be his southern charm. It could be Miss Wanda’s banana pudding. It could be his unending devotion to Coach Dean Smith and his principles. It could be his willingness to go anywhere and play anyone. It could be that he’s just non-stop (shameless Hamilton plug), always tirelessly working to put distance between UNC and everyone else.
It could be the stats.
He is one of only six coaches to have three or more national championships. He has the fourth most Final Fours (nine). He has participated in the third-most championship games (six). He has the second-most NCAA Tournament wins (79). He is tied for the third-most Final Four wins (nine). His teams have the second-most NCAA Tournament No. 1 seeds (13).
There is a multitude of reasons why Roy Williams is held in the esteem that he is, all of which have some degree of validity. But at the end of the day, for coaches the bottom line all comes down to one thing:
The scoreboard.
Wins.
And let me tell you: Roy Williams wins basketball games. Lots of them.
In fact, last season, he moved past that very same Dean Smith to be the fourth all-time winningest coach in Division 1 (885 wins).
He has the sixth-highest all-time winning percentage (second-highest among coaches with 30+ seasons). He has the second-highest winning percentage amongst active coaches.
He is the only person to have 800 wins after 31 seasons as a head coach (871 to be exact. Number two had 753 wins in his first 31 seasons). Among coaches with 800 total wins, he has the highest average number of wins per season (28.1).
The numbers go on and on and they are staggering.
But you know all this already though, because you are a supporter of the North Carolina Tar Heels men’s basketball program to some degree on the sliding scale of fandom.
Want to know where Roy Williams’ dominance really blows me away? Have you ever stopped to look at his record against individual schools? It’s astounding.
In his 32 seasons as a head coach (combined between Kansas and Carolina), Roy Williams has played 210 unique opponents.
Of those 210 unique opponents, would you like to venture a guess as to how many of them he holds a losing record against?
12.
That’s right. Of the 210 different schools Roy Williams-coached teams have competed against, they have a losing record against only 12 schools. That means that Coach Williams has a winning or tied record against 198 of the 210 schools he’s faced. If you’re keeping track at home that’s 94.3 percent.
I’m not trying to pull the wool over your eyes. Please don’t go thinking I slipped that “tied” in and it dramatically affects things. "Tie" records make up only nine of those 198 schools. That number still equates to a strictly winning record against 189 of the 210 schools he’s faced, which translates to exactly 90 percent.
Interestingly, Coach’s record against seven of those nine “ties” is 1-1.
Let’s take things a step further.
It’s one thing to hold a winning record against schools; it’s another thing entirely to never lose to them. Roy Williams is undefeated against 142 of the 210 schools he’s ever faced. That number is an astounding 67.6 percent.
You’re probably curious about the 12 teams are that Coach Williams holds a losing record against. I won’t keep you waiting. They are:
- Auburn (0-1)
- Belmont (0-1)
- Butler (1-2)
- Duke (17-25)
- Georgetown (0-1)
- Iowa (1-3)
- Kansas (0-3)
- Kentucky (9-10)
- Michigan (1-3)
- North Carolina (1-2)
- Texas (7-8)
- UTEP (0-1)
A few interesting points stand out on this list.
The first thing that caught my attention is that both Kansas and North Carolina are on this list. While at Carolina, Coach is 0-3 against his former team. When at Kansas, he was 1-2 against his alma mater.
Second, while Coach Williams has a losing record against all 12 of these teams, the difference between the wins and losses is off by just one in eight of the 12 matchups. Meaning, for example, against Texas, Roy Williams teams are 7-8; just one fewer win than losses. Williams tears are 9-10 against Kentucky and 1-2 versus Butler; just one fewer win than losses.
The only four teams against which the discrepancy between wins and losses is greater than one are Michigan (1-3, difference of two), Iowa (1-3, difference of two), Kansas (0-3, difference of three), and Duke (17-25, difference of eight).
The third point is that of the 210 unique schools Coach Williams has faced, there are only five he has never beaten – Auburn, Belmont, Georgetown, Kansas, and UTEP. Four of those five schools he’s only played once (everyone but Kansas).
Unfortunately, a few of those losses stand out quite painfully. The lone Auburn loss was in the 2019 Sweet Sixteen with several Tar Heels under the weather. The Georgetown defeat was in the 2007 Elite Eight when Carolina blew a 10-point lead with just over 6:00 left and ultimately lost in overtime. All three Kansas losses were in the NCAA Tournament – the 2008 Final Four (yikes!), the 2012 Elite Eight (with Kendall Marshall on the bench), and the 2013 Second Round.
Pretty incredible, huh?
As always, we have to remind ourselves that numbers are great, but they only tell part of the story. So when we look at Coach Williams’ successes against all these schools, what does it all add up to? What do the numbers mean?
I’ll tell you.
That man can flat-out coach a dadgum basketball team.
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