Williams could join coaching royalty
HOUSTON —
North Carolina is one win from a sixth national championship. Roy Williams is one win from joining coaching royalty.
Only five men have won more than two national championships. All are in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and immediately recognizable to college basketball fans.
A win Monday night over Villanova would vault Williams, who won titles in 2005 and 2009, into the group that includes John Wooden (10), Mike Krzyzewski (5), Adolph Rupp (4), Bob Knight (3) and Jim Calhoun (3).
“I’ve never had that thought. I really haven’t,” Williams said Sunday of moving up the title list. “You know, that’s company that is off the charts. But what I’d really, really love is for these guys ... to get their first one. That would mean a heck of a lot more to me than any of that other stuff.” Williams, who will coach in his fifth national title game — third with the Tar Heels — has always projected humility during a 28-year coaching career at Kansas and North Carolina that landed him in the Hall of Fame in 2007.
Marcus Paige, North Carolina’s senior guard who gave a moving speech on senior night that had Williams in tears, knows his coach well.
“He probably spends zero time thinking about his legacy and stuff like that,” Paige said Sunday. “By that same token, I think us winning a championship for him kind of vaults him into that next stratosphere of coaches when you look at the big picture, when you look at accolades,” Paige said.
One thing that has been special to Williams is that his two titles have him tied him with his mentor, former North Carolina coach Dean Smith.
Even with a win, he wouldn’t consider himself better than his former boss.
“He was a heck of a lot better. I really believe that,” said Williams, who passed Smith for NCAA Tournament games coached with 93 with the semifinal win over Syracuse said.
“Sometimes I try to be humble, all this stuff that people think is nice. I don’t think I’m in the same league with Coach Smith, and I never will,” he said.
The last person to join the exclusive triple title coaching club was Jim Calhoun, who won his third national championship at Connecticut in 2011.