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No Joke: North Carolina head coach Roy Williams retires after 33 seasons

By Josh Hill

CHAPEL HILL, NC - FEBRUARY 21: Head Coach Roy Williams (C) and players of the North Carolina Tar Heels wave toward a group for former players and team managers near the end of their game against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at the Dean Smith Center on February 21, 2015 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Former players and managers were in attendance to honor former North Carolina Head Coach Dean Smith, who passed away on February 7, 2015, at the age of 83. (Photo by Lance King/Getty Images)
CHAPEL HILL, NC - FEBRUARY 21: Head Coach Roy Williams (C) and players of the North Carolina Tar Heels wave toward a group for former players and team managers near the end of their game against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at the Dean Smith Center on February 21, 2015 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Former players and managers were in attendance to honor former North Carolina Head Coach Dean Smith, who passed away on February 7, 2015, at the age of 83. (Photo by Lance King/Getty Images) /
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After a legendary career in college basketball, UNC basketball coach Roy Williams is retiring.

An icon of college basketball is walking away from the game.

North Carolina released a statement on Thursday announcing that head coach Roy Williams was retiring effective immediately.

The announcement came on April Fool’s Day, which allowed for some shadow of a doubt to be cast over whether this was actually happening. But it’s no joke, as the university announced Williams would be holding a press conference at Chapel Hill on Thursday to confirm the news.

“Roy Williams, who led the University of North Carolina to three NCAA championships, is retiring after 33 seasons and 903 wins as a college basketball head coach,” the university said in its statement.

The statement from UNC included a list of bullet points highlighting the career accomplishments of Williams over the last 33 years he was a head coach at UNC and Kansas. Some of the notable accolades for Williams can be seen below.

Roy Williams is one of the best NCAA basketball coaches of all time

  • Overall: 903-264, 33 seasons (.774)
  • Record at UNC: 485-163, 18 seasons (.748)
  • NCAA Championships (3): 2005, 2009, 2017 at UNC
  • Final Fours (9): 1991, 1993, 2002, 2003 at Kansas; 2005, 2008, 2009, 2016, 2017 at UNC
  • NCAA Tournament: 79-27 (.745)
  • National Championship Games (6): 1991, 2003 at Kansas; 2005, 2009, 2016, 2017 at UNC
  • NCAA Elite 8s (13): 1991, 1993, 1996, 2002, 2003 at Kansas; 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009,
  • 2011, 2012, 2016, 2017 at UNC
  • NCAA Sweet 16s (19): 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2002 and 2003 at Kansas; 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019 at UNC
  •  Conference Regular-Season Titles (18): 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2002,
  • 2003 at Kansas; 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2016, 2017, 2019 at UNC
  • ACC Tournament Titles (3): 2007, 2008, 2016
  • Conference Tournaments Titles (7): 1992, 1997, 1998, 1999 at Kansas; 2007, 2008, 2016 at UNC

Of course, we can’t mention his iconic career accomplishments without mentioning that he gifted us with an all-time reaction meme:

Some coaches go their whole careers without solidifying immortality the way Williams did with that.

But in all seriousness, Williams is a monolithic figure in college basketball and North Carolina is a blue blood institution. His absence is significant, and it’s a vacancy that will no doubt attract intense interest as the Tar Heels decide what this next era in the school’s history will look like.

Top 25 college basketball coaches of all time. dark. Next

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