Williams moves past Smith for 4th most D-I victories
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, 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.
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 moved to 16-3.
UK beats Texas Tech in OT:
Nick Richards scored seven of his 25 points in OT, including the game-deciding free throws with 10 seconds left, and No. 15
Kentucky beat No. 18 Texas Tech 76-74 in the only Big 12/SEC Challenge game featuring two ranked teams.
Richards scored the first five points in OT for the visiting Wildcats (15-4), who blew a 10-point lead in second half.
Texas Tech (12-7) had won 54 consecutive nonconference home games.
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 injure it again.