South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Williams moves past Smith on all-time D-I wins list
North Carolina’s Hall of Fame coach and his players had spent the month of January grinding through a frustrating and confidence-jarring set of losses, brought on amid a series of injuries as well as shaky play.
Finally on Saturday, the Tar Heels could celebrate the end of uncharacteristic struggles for the tradition-rich program — for a game, anyway — and a coaching milestone for Roy Williams that took much longer than expected to achieve.
Brandon Robinson scored a career-high 29 points to help North Carolina beat Miami 94-71, ending the program’s first five-game losing streak since 2003. It also allowed Williams to pass late mentor Dean Smith for fourth on the Division I men’s career coaching wins list with his 880th victory, though it came nearly a month after Williams tied Smith.
“I’d have been just as happy if it happened four or five games ago,” Williams said, adding: “I desperately wanted No. 9 for this team.”
The Tar Heels (9-10, 2-6 ACC) had lost six straight league games for the first time in program history. And Williams had been emotional and despondent after recent losses in trying to find an answer.
They released weeks of pent-up frustration against a Miami team missing two of its top scorers in Chris Lykes and Kameron McGusty, using a 15-2 run to build a big early lead and turn this one into a rare romp for a struggling group.
Huggins also moves up list:
Jermaine Haley had 15 points and nine rebounds, Miles McBride scored 15 points and No. 14 West Virginia broke open a close game with a huge run early in the second half to beat cold-shooting Missouri 74-51 in the Big 12/SEC Challenge.
West Virginia’s Bob Huggins earned his 876th win to tie Adolph Rupp for seventh place on the D-I coaching list.
The host Mountaineers improved to 16-3.
Missouri fell to 9-10.
Late shot lifts Illini:
Ayo Dosunmu hit a contested jumper from the free-throw line with 0.5 seconds remaining to give No. 21 Illinois a 64-62 victory over host Michigan.
The Illini (15-5, 7-2) moved into sole possession of first place in the Big Ten for the moment, and they extended their winning streak to six with a victory over the Wolverines. Michigan (11-8, 2-6) has dropped four in a row and may have lost forward Isaiah Livers again to an injury. Dosunmu finished with 27 points. Livers returned for Michigan after missing six games with a groin injury, but he left in the second half after appearing to hurt himself again. Livers was fouled during a dunk attempt — the same way he got hurt the first time — and came up holding his groin area.