Men's Basketball

Roy Williams

Head coach

15th season
388-93
North Carolina '72 		 
Roy Watch '03

Roy on the Rim

Williams 'out of it' at ceremony (04-13-03)

Williams left to ponder painful loss (04-09-03)

2002-03 Bio: Just a week after the end of a 30-8 season and a trip to the national title game, Roy Williams decided to return to North Carolina, his alma mater, and take over the Tar Heels.
No other coach compiled more wins in his first 14 years as a collegiate head coach than Roy Williams. He also holds the highest winning percentage (.807) of all active coaches with at least six years' experience. His winning percentage also is the highest of any Kansas basketball coach.
Williams spent 10 seasons under Kansas alum Dean Smith at North Carolina, accepting the Kansas head position upon Larry Brown's departure in 1988.
Kansas opened Williams' first season under the weight of NCAA sanctions for recruiting violations during the Brown era. The team started out 16-3, but suffered an eight-game losing streak in conference play, finishing 19-12.
"To me that first bunch is the one that, quote, made Roy Williams," Williams said. "When I came to Kansas I inherited a group of guys that had just won a national championship and they gave me a chance. Everything I asked them to do, they tried to do."
Despite lingering NCAA sanctions, Williams signed a 1989 recruiting class that helped the Jayhawks attain a 30-5 record in 1989-90. That's the year KU beat Kentucky, 150-95, in Allen Fieldhouse. It was also the season KU beat LSU and UNLV in the Preseason NIT.
All told, Williams' 15 full seasons included nine conference championships and 14 consecutive NCAA bids, with four Final Four appearances. Under his tutelage Kansas lost only 17 home games in Allen Fieldhouse, and put together the only perfect 16-0 Big 12 season in conference history.
In addition to his coaching duties, Williams served on the board of directors for the National Association of Basketball Coaches, and has served on the NCAA basketball rules committee. In December 2002, Williams was named an assistant coach on Brown's U.S. Olympic basketball coaching staff for the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece.