Recognizing a College Coaching Great

Sometimes, it's easy to take for granted the quality and volume of someone's accomplishments. They've done it so well, for so long, the bar they set becomes so high, that excellence becomes the expectation. Well, for at least a moment, let's take some looks at the amazing resume of a coach leading one of college basketball's most storied programs. That's right... it's time to check out how awesome Roy Williams is.

WINNING THE GAME  

It's as simple as it gets, and while total wins matter, you can win a lot of games by: 1) winning a lot of the games you play, 2) playing a lot of games, or 3) a little of both. I believe that to measure greatness, you lean towards option 1, and by that measure, Roy Williams' career to date truly stands out. By the way, for those of you rooting for Roy to break the all-time wins record, don't hold your breath. Even if Coach K retired tomorrow, and Roy kept up his historic pace of winning nearly 29 games a season, he'd likely break the record sometime during the 2019-2020 season, at the age of 69.

WINNING THE CONFERENCE

Aside from winning a national title, the most prestigious thing a coach can do is win the conference, right? Again, when looking at regular season conference titles, the consistency of Roy is just amazing. "Oh, but conference titles are won in tournaments, not the regular season." Until recently, no. For conferences like the Big Ten (1998) and Pac-10 (1987), these are fairly recent developments that college basketball did just fine without for decades (in fact, a UA assistant coach pretty much summed up the real reason conference tourneys exist at all). But, if you want to have a discussion about the best college coaches of all time without Bob Knight and John Wooden (neither played in conference tournaments for the majority of their careers), knock yourself out. You'll probably love my next post, "Great Boxing Movies Excluding Rocky and Raging Bull."

WINNING IT ALL

For some people, there is no other way to measure greatness, and arguing with them is like debating degrees of danger with Colonel Jessup. Well, here you go. Fans of Coach K, this is the clearest way to put him head and shoulders above the peers of his era. For everyone else, maybe you didn't realize how much this shot mattered to a legacy at the time, but it mattered a lot. And in the era of the one-and-done blue chip recruit, the six-game winning streak required to cut down the nets, the top two guys on this list are going to be hard to catch, both in total titles, and titles per season. Unless Roy wins one in the next 3 seasons, at which point, he takes the #2 spot on a percentage basis.

So, as we march through the season, make sure to enjoy some UNC games this year. Because how often do we get a chance to watch one of the all-time great coaches in the ACC?

(Note: stats are calculated before this season's games, since the season is not complete)