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When the Tar Heels cut down the nets in Detroit after winning the 2009 NCAA championship, they put an exclamation point on the most successful five-year stretch in the history of North Carolina Basketball — two national titles … three Final Fours … four Final Eights … four NCAA Tournament No. 1 seeds … five Top 10 Associated Press final rankings (four in the Top 4) … four Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season titles … two ACC Tournament crowns … four 30-win seasons … eight NBA first-round draft picks.
The man at the center of it all is Roy Williams, a 1972 UNC graduate and member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
The Tar Heels beat Michigan State, 89-72, to capture UNC’s fifth NCAA Tournament title and second in the last five years. In 2005, Carolina beat Illinois to win Williams’ first national title. He is one of 13 coaches to win multiple national championships, joining an illustrious list that includes only two other ACC coaches – Dean Smith and Mike Krzyzewski.
Over the last eight years, Williams has won 239 games, including 30 in the NCAA Tournament, and led Kansas and UNC to the Final Four five times. That’s more wins, more NCAA Tournament victories and more Final Fours than any coach in the nation. He also coached National Players of the Year in four of the eight seasons.
The Sporting News and Lindy’s named the Asheville, N.C., native the Coach of the Decade for 2000-2009. Williams led the Jayhawks and Tar Heels to 33 NCAA Tournament wins in the 2000s, eight more than any other coach (Tom Izzo was second with 25).
His teams’ winning percentage in the NCAA Tournament in the last 10 years was .805. No other coach whose teams played in at least 10 NCAA Tournament games won at least 80 percent of them.
