KU Basketball: Ranking Jayhawks Eight Head Coaches All-Time
By Joel Wagler
Former Kansas Jayhawks head coach Roy Williams – Credit: John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports
KU Basketball Head Coach Rankings Number Three: Roy Williams
Roy Williams took over a program in 1988 that had just won an improbable national title but was stuck on probation for violations committed under Larry Brown. The penalties included no NCAA Tournament and a cut in scholarships.
Williams, though a relative unknown with no head coach experience, didn’t let that faze him. Kansas went 19-12 in 1988-89. That season was the only time this program won less 22 games and the only time the team did not go to the NCAA Tournament since 1983, a stretch covering more than thirty years.
Roy Williams did everything at Kansas but win a championship. He went 418-101 in fifteen seasons, winning 80.5 percent of all his games.
He went to four Final Fours, won nine conference championships, four conference tournaments, and garnered three National Coach of the Year awards.
He was the king at Kansas, but in 2001, North Carolina, Williams’ alma mater, came calling. The Jayhawks were absolutely loaded at the time, and he turned down his mentor Dean Smith and the Tarheels and stayed at Kansas.
Fans were relieved and grateful, so it stung even more when North Carolina came knocking just two seasons later. This time, the lure of returning home was too great for Williams.
He left the KU basketball program for the Tarheels.
Kansas fans were hurt, and it didn’t help that Williams won that elusive National Championship in just his second season at North Carolina. He has since won a second.
Beyond that, though, Williams took a prominent program and turned it into a nationally elite program. Sure, Brown did his part, with his two Final Four appearances and the National title, but KU basketball could have fallen on hard times after the probation, and Williams didn’t let it.
His legacy to Kansas was how strong he made the program. After that initial season, he never won less than 23 games, and he hit 30 wins or more five times. He coached five Consensus All-Americans at Kansas, as well.
Roy Williams is still the second winningest coach in KU basketball history with 418, and his 757 career wins place him at 13th all-time in college basketball history.
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