Roy Williams has won 3 National Titles at North Carolina since he arrived in 2005. He’s been to two other Final 4s. and won 3 ACC Titles. This season he may not reach the Final 4, or beat an outstanding Virginia team in the ACC Tournament Final, but I’m already calling this one the best coached season of Roy Williams’s tenure in Chapel Hill.
Blog writer @Hokiesmash_ASD had this to say…
Gotta say – I think this is Roy Williams best coaching job of his career. The talent on his roster isn’t anything like it was in prior years.
— Matthew (@hokiesmash_ASD) March 10, 2018
That’s high praise for such a successful coach, but you have to give Williams his due. Roy Williams was coming off back to back national title appearances, with a national title in 2017. Many expected a significant dropoff this season, and why not. NBA picks Justin Jackson and Tony Bradley were gone – so were two more big pieces off the national championship team Kennedy Meeks and Isaiah Hicks. Their frontline could just ground teams into submission.
In 2017-2018, the Heels were going to have to go small ball. Joel Berry returned, but no one else did who averaged more than 7 points a game. Some decent freshman were coming in, but it was still only ranked the 6th best class in the ACC. All Roy Williams did was beat Tennessee, Ohio State, Michigan, and Duke 2 times. He’s led UNC to a likely 2 seed in the NCAA tournament. How sweet it is for UNC fans to knock off Mike Krzyzewski and his Duke team filled with high school All-Stars 2 out of 3 times.
Friday night North Carolina’s guards shredded Duke’s defense to pieces consistently breaking down Duke’s zone defense. Duke made a late rally to get within 3 late, but make no mistake UNC outplayed Duke for the large majority of Friday’s game. The Heels got out in transition, the defended, and held their own on the glass.
Tony Bennett, Brad Brownell, and Kevin Keatts got all the praise for the best coaching jobs in the ACC this year. They deserved it, and Tony Bennett was the correct choice for ACC coach of the year, but Williams has done an outstanding job as well.
North Carolina has now won 25 games this year, and while I’m not sure I can call the Tar Heels one of the teams that can win the national title, I’m not betting against Roy Williams coaxing this team into another deep NCAA run.
