
North Carolina coach Roy Williams, left, and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski speak. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
Some Roy Williams numbers that may blow your mind:
By almost any metric, tonight’s Carolina-Duke game features a clash between the two best active coaches in the history of college basketball. Not only are we lucky to have the greatest rivalry in the sport under our collective noses, we are again watching the two best current coaches in the land – similar to when Dean Smith and Mike Krzyzewski tangled in the 1990s.
Head to head, since Ol’ Roy returned to Chapel Hill as the head coach in April of 2003, Duke and Carolina have meet 33 times in the last 15 years, home and home each season and three ACC tournament match-ups. Coach K has the upper hand with a 19-14 record, which most people would guess given the Blue Devils’ excellence over that time.
But ask your best UNC buddy who has a better NCAA tournament record during that same head-to-head period. Krzyzewski is 34-13 in 15 tourneys for a 72.3 winning percentage. Williams is 43-11 over that span, which includes three national championships, for a 79.6 percentage in 14 trips to the Big Dance (remember, the Tar Heels missed out in 2010).
Despite the Duke PR machine, which has the average fan believing the Blue Devils go to the Final Four every year, it is Carolina with five trips there in the Roy-K era compared to Duke’s three. While Zion Williamson and other one-and-dones have sucked the oxygen out virtually every discussion, the Tar Heels have been to two national championship games (winning one) since Duke last reached the Final Four in 2015.
Williams also holds the best record in the history of college basketball for opening games of the tournament, 28-0, while Krzyzewski has been one-and-done in the NCAAs five times, losing Duke’s opener in 1984 to Washington, 1996 to Eastern Michigan, 2007 to VCU, 2012 to Lehigh and 2014 to Mercer. So K has coached the most one-and-dones in two different categories.
Krzyzewski began as a head coach at Army when he was 28 and at Duke at 33. Williams began at Kansas when he was 38. Roy’s been closing that gap ever since.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe:
Related Stories
‹
![]()
Chansky's Notebook: Ol' Roy's New NumbersOn average, Roy Williams is the best college coach ever. Without getting into the weeds of numbers and fractions, Williams has won more games per season than any other coach, including all-time leader Mike Krzyzewski (1142) and Roy’s mentor Dean Smith, whom he tied with 879 career victories by beating Yale. It had to be […]

Chansky's Notebook: Perfect Storm II?We should rejoice that this happens just every so often. Roy Williams loves to say how lucky he is to be a college basketball coach — and you know he’s sincere. From a childhood when he was lucky to have a floor in every room of his house; to be the first in his family […]

Chansky's Notebook: On To The Next OneI love a coach who no longer has to prove anything. When people ask me about Roy Williams, I give them my opinion: he’s just a good ol’ guy, using the adjective that Williams often does when referring to himself in the third person. In the 31 years as a head coach, Williams has won […]

Chansky's Notebook: Quick Fix NeededThat was a favorite line of Dean Smith when his Tar Heels were preparing for a tough opponent or they didn’t play as well as expected. I thought about that after Chris Mack’s Louisville Cardinals cleaned Carolina’s collective clock Saturday at the Smith Center in what we hope is […]
![]()
Chansky's Notebook: A Big Blue NightFor Roy Williams, another big fix looks to be in order. During his frustration-filled press conference following Carolina’s embarrassing loss at Michigan, Williams said, “I’ve been coaching for 31 years, and right now my coaching sucks.” If you root for good sports teams, sometimes they play like they will never lose another game. And occasionally […]
![]()
Chansky's Notebook: 'A Roy Original'Roy Williams had a good idea and was dumbfounded the NCAA said no. At his preseason press conference, Williams was not asked about the proposed exhibition game against South Carolina in Charlotte — so he brought it up himself at the end. After watching news reports of the devastation at the Carolina coast and then […]
![]()
Chansky's Notebook: On a Court With His NameCarolina is lucky to have Roy Williams in more ways than one. I was in the state of Maine when I read Steve Kirchner’s email that the Smith Center court was going to be named for Roy Williams. Very nice, I thought, a great tribute to a great coach — and not for just winning […]
![]()
Chansky's Notebook: Four In A Row?Seeing Brice Johnson, Marcus Paige, Kennedy Meeks, Isaiah Hicks, Joel Berry and Theo Pinson all playing pick-up in the Smith Center reminds us of one very important streak Carolina can keep going even though the Tar Heels failed to get back to their third straight Final Four.

Chansky's Notebook: Basketball HopesClosing the campus could be good news for the hoops season. While the national debate continues over halting in-person teaching on college campuses and if that should affect playing football, UNC’s latest move might help the prospects for beloved basketball. As of Wednesday, all undergraduate courses converted to on-line education. Students can stay in their […]

Chansky's Notebook: Mack's The StoryIf God is a Tar Heel, he will let us play football in the fall. The news about Mack Brown won’t go away, or even subside. His current recruiting class has climbed to 14 in number and No. 3 in the country, and there are almost a dozen uncommitted prospects who are among the best […]
›
Comments on Chapelboro are moderated according to our Community Guidelines