(featured photo via Todd Melet)

Going to Charlotte, the Roy vs. K debate doesn’t seem close.

The so-called GOAT arguments are always tinged by bias for your favorite team or sentimentality. Some people still think Joe Montana is the greatest quarterback of all time when Tom Brady now has two more Super Bowl rings. The fact that LeBron and the Lakers will miss the NBA playoffs won’t help the King’s contention against Michael Jordan’s six NBA championships.

Only the most ardent Dukies can still claim that Mike Krzyzewski is the best coach in college basketball, which means he’s better than Roy Williams. Sure, Coach K has the most overall wins, surpassing 1,000 a couple of years ago and has 1125.  And his five NCAA titles remains second only to UCLA’s John Wooden.

But, on both shades of the blue blood ball, all the metrics have swung toward Ol’ Roy since he became Carolina’s head coach. The only stat he is not winning is 16-19 in head-to-head match-ups. That got closer with Saturday night’s win at the Smith Center, as Williams secured his ninth first-place ACC finish in the last 16 seasons compared to only three for Krzyzewski, whose teams have now gone nine years without winning the regular-season, 13 since the last time Duke won it outright.

Heading into the post-season, Duke holds the edge in ACC tournament championships, 6-3, over Carolina since 2004, although the Tar Heels have been in more championship games, 8-7. Final Fours in the last 15 years: Roy 5, K 3. National championships since 2004: Roy 3, K 2.

Overall NCAA tournament record: Roy 43-11 in 14 trips to the Big Dance, K 34-13 in 15. Williams has yet to lose his first game in the post-season, while K’s team were one-and-done three times (2007 to VCU, 2012 to Lehigh and 2014 to Mercer).

Here’s the one I like the best: nine times in the last 16 years, Carolina and Duke have played in the regular-season finale with first place — or a share of it — at stake. That record is 9-0 in favor of Williams and his Tar Heels.

So where’s the debate? Neither coach may be the Greatest of ALL Time (which still goes to Wooden).

But Roy is greatest of THIS Time, don’t you think?

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Related Stories
‹
Chansky's Notebook: ACC Gets Creative
Against steep odds, the ACC makes a bold — and maybe historic — move. As we’ve been speculating for a month, John Swofford leveraged his relationship with Notre Dame to come up with a creative format for 2020, which if the pandemic allows, makes for a helluva football season. First off, the ACC commissioner played […]
Chansky's Notebook: Double Dominance
Two of Carolina’s Hall of Fame coaches did it for the 22nd time Sunday. Granted, Mack Brown and Roy Williams get most of the national attention because they coach the two biggest sports at UNC. But while both the football and basketball Tar Heels were not playing over the weekend, Anson Dorrance and Karen Shelton showed again they’re the […]
Chansky's Notebook: Selling The Goods
The football selling season officially begins this weekend. Kickoff may be a month away, but Saturday marks another benchmark for Mack Brown’s 2019 team and new regime. Will hundreds of fans, young and old, still come out to Meet the Heels even though festivities will be at the practice complex and not refurbished Kenan Stadium, which would […]
Chansky's Notebook: Parity Lost
ACC football is on the verge of losing any semblance of balance. As the ACC Football Media confab gets under way in Charlotte this week, Clemson is looking like the most dominant program in conference history. That’s because a combination of NFL-like facilities and talent have arrived at once was “Little ol’ Clemson,” according to its current head […]
Chansky's Notebook: Diamond Heels Crack Code Again
Carolina baseball has again earned the easiest route to Omaha. The Mike Fox era of Tar Heel baseball has made Carolina synonymous with the College World Series. Fox’s program has been there seven times, losing twice in the championship game or series. Before Fox’s return to his alma mater, UNC had been to Omaha just […]
Chansky's Notebook: King Of College Ball
The ACC has kicked butt lately, and it could have even done better. The Atlantic Coast Conference has been emailing out chest-puffing newsletters the last couple of years, largely because it has a lot to crow about in the two marquee sports, football and mens’ basketball. The league has won three of the last six […]
Chansky's Notebook: Monday Night Showdown?
Is this the year for Duke-Carolina IV? Jay Bilas thinks so. Most college basketball fans cannot believe, with the schools going to the post-season virtually every year, that Duke and UNC have never met in the NCAA tournament. The Blue Devils and Tar Heels did play in the NIT semifinals back in 1971, with Carolina winning […]
Chansky's Notebook: Road Warriors
If the Tar Heels are truly a great road team, they’ll have to show it. Carolina has nothing to complain about with its No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region, although it would have been interesting to see if anything changed with a win over Duke instead of a one-point loss at the buzzer. The […]
Chansky's Notebook: Will The Chalk Hold Up?
The real ACC tournament begins today — with an asterisk or two. The chalk has prevailed so far at the ACC tourney in Charlotte, with the top eight seeds playing in today’s quarterfinal games. Seems like the old days when there were only eight schools in the original ACC, not the current subway jam of 15. But for the […]
Chansky's Notebook: Greatest Of This Time
Todd Melet) Going to Charlotte, the Roy vs. K debate doesn’t seem close. The so-called GOAT arguments are always tinged by bias for your favorite team or sentimentality. Some people still think Joe Montana is the greatest quarterback of all time when Tom Brady now has two more Super Bowl rings. The […]
›