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"He's very quiet, but everything he says is always useful, always helpful, always observant," wing Marcus Ginyard said. "Definitely when you're having a tough practice, you walk over to coach Holladay, and he'll say something to lighten you up."

Indeed, having Holladay beside him so long has added a continuity that has been key to the programs at Kansas and UNC, Williams said. And it "means a great deal to me because when you have a guy who is your assistant coach for so long, you're trusting your life with him -- your professional life."

So when Williams opted to return to North Carolina in 2003, there was no doubt that Holladay would move with him. Williams got his college education in Chapel Hill; Holladay got his big break into the coaching world there.

"It was just an honor for me if I ever came into these offices during camp," Holladay said, looking around his office -- which used to belong to Guthridge. "I didn't really have a reason, but I'd come over and watch some tape sometimes.

"... In fact, when we first got back here, he [coach Guthridge] would come in the office, and I'd say, 'Coach, here's your office, this is your office.' He still comes by just about every day."

Holladay, now 60, said he has no timetable for how long he will coach. But he's not even looking at head coaching jobs any more because "it's hard to beat these kids and this staff and this environment and this university. You've got the whole package."

And the grass is not always greener on the other (head coaching) side.

"To stay somewhere for a long time probably means you're having success -- because if you weren't having success, your head coach would not be there for very long, so your assistants would not be there for very long," said UNC assistant coach Steve Robinson, who has coached under Williams for 13 total years, with head coaching stints at Tulsa and Florida State in between.

Holladay has been a part of three Final Fours, but has a chance to go to a fourth if the top-seeded Tar Heels beat third-seeded Louisville in the NCAA East Region final tonight. For his part, Guthridge's teams were so successful that he was a part of 14 Final Fours -- including one as a player and two as a head coach -- before he retired and signed the huge logo in the Carolina Basketball Museum.

Each called it a compliment to be compared to the other; perhaps why their autographs are side by side on that interlocking "N.C."

"They are different in some ways," Hale said of his former coaches. "But they are very similar in that they are very humble. ... It takes a realization that your role -- and not being in the limelight -- is important. It takes a lot of humility and a lot of loyalty. And they both have that."

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