A year after Roy Williams retired on April Fools’ Day, UNC set to play in Final Four
A year ago, on April 1, 2021, Roy Williams and North Carolina stunned the college basketball world. Initially, some people thought the school’s news release and social media posts were an April Fool’s Day prank.
But it was no joke: Fourteen days after the Tar Heels ended their 2020-21 season, Williams announced he was retiring from coaching.
People didn’t know what to believe at first, but it didn’t take long to realize it was real.
“Stunning news,” ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas said in a video posted on Twitter that day. “Although we knew that Roy Williams was closer to the end of his coaching career than the beginning, this one caught everyone off guard on April Fools’ Day.”
Others in the basketball community also took to social media to share their thoughts about the news of the day.
“College basketball took a hit today,” NCCU basketball coach LeVelle Moton tweeted. “When I was hired, the first person to reach out and offer support was Roy Williams. Over the years, we became great friends. Thank you for your support, friendship, and making our game better. You will be missed. See you on the golf course, my man.”
Williams retired after 33 years on the sidelines, the final 18 at his alma mater, where he led the Tar Heels to three national championships.
In his final season, UNC went 18-11 overall, 10-6 in the ACC. The Tar Heels lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament to Wisconsin. In the Tar Heels’ final home game that season, a 91-73 win over Duke, Williams kissed the logo at the center of the court that bears his name. The speculation began then that he might be stepping away, but the news on April 1, 2021 still sent shockwaves through the sports world.
“College basketball is losing one of its greatest coaches and a man who genuinely cares about the game of basketball, and more importantly, the people who play it,” Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski wrote in a statement last year. “Roy has led two iconic programs as a head coach and did so in exemplary fashion. I have the utmost respect for Roy and his family, who represented themselves and their institutions with class, grace and humility. While we were on opposite sides of college basketball’s greatest rivalry, we both understood how lucky we were to be part of it and always tried to represent it in the way it deserved.”
Krzyzewski and the Blue Devils are back in the Final Four. So are the Tar Heels, led by the man who replaced Williams, Hubert Davis.
The rookie head coach led UNC to a 28-9 record and a surprise postseason run that many didn’t see coming late in the season.
Williams has been a fixture in the stands all season, supporting Davis and UNC as a fan. When the Heels punched their ticket to the Final Four last weekend, Williams was in the stands, celebrating as hard as anyone. Davis spotted Williams, pointing to him and said, “thank you.”
Williams won 485 games at UNC, winning 74% of his games in Chapel Hill. Despite the 2020-21 season ending in the first round, there were no indications that Williams would hang them up.
Then on April 1, after the news hit social media, people clamored to figure out whether the news was legit.
At 10:19 a.m., an official release came out from the UNC athletic department. Twenty minutes later Orlando Magic guard Cole Anthony, who played under Williams for one year, tweeted “Wow,” with a broken heart emoji.
Justin Jackson, a key member of Williams’ last championship team in 2017, posted a photo of he and Williams at a basketball camp when Jackson was younger. Reggie Bullock just posted a tear emoji.
Many former players congratulated Williams on a historic career.
“One hell of a career and even better person!” Theo Pinson tweeted. “Thank you for everything coach truly a honor playing for you.”
The message was followed by the heart emoji.
The rest, of course, is well documented: A short time after Williams’ announcement, UNC announced Hubert Davis would be his replacement. After an up-and-down campaign, the Tar Heels caught fire, and made their run to this year’s Final Four.
This story was originally published April 1, 2022 at 12:00 PM.
