When Sports Illustrated published its 2005-06 preseason issue, it was only somewhat surprising that the reigning national champion Tar Heels were not among the 65 schools SI predicted to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. It had been well documented that Carolina was defending its crown after losing its top seven scorers, unprecedented in ACC history, and would likely start two and possibly three freshmen.

The Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association voted UNC sixth in the ACC in its preseason poll, a ranking some observers thought might even be too lofty for a team whose leading returning scorer averaged just 3.9 points per game.

And when Gardner-Webb shot 59 percent from the floor in the first half of the opening game, one in which Carolina relinquished a 10-point second-half lead and David Noel hit a last-second three-pointer to give the Tar Heels an 83-80 win, it confirmed that the season ahead would be wild and unpredictable.

That proved to be the case, but not in the way some predicted and Carolina fans feared. Instead, the Tar Heels were one of the country's best stories, winning 23 games, finishing second in the ACC and earning a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament. In a career marked by brilliance, it may have been head coach Roy Williams's finest coaching effort, earning him National and ACC Coach-of-the-Year honors.

The inexperienced Tar Heels turned heads with an early December win at 10th-ranked Kentucky, went 7-1 on the road in conference play, finished the year 12-4 in the ACC and were No. 10 in the final Associated Press ranking. The Tar Heels knocked off No. 1 ranked Duke on Senior Night in Cameron Indoor Stadium, overcame a 13-point deficit to win at Florida State, a 20-point deficit to beat Georgia Tech and beat 15th-ranked NC State twice, including a 24-point rout in Raleigh.

Despite a lineup that scored exactly one point in the 2005 NCAA title game against Illinois, Carolina led the ACC in field goal percentage defense, assists and rebounding, and was second-best in the league in field goal shooting and scoring.

Williams was a runaway winner as ACC Coach of the Year - the eighth time in his 18 years as a head coach that he has won conference coaching honors - and by consensus was the top coach in the nation. The Associated Press, the United States Basketball Writers Association of America, ESPN.com, SI.com and the Commonwealth Club of Kentucky named Williams the National Coach of the Year.

In three seasons, Carolina is 34-14 in ACC regular-season action. The 34 wins and .708 winning percentage are the best marks ever for any ACC coach after three seasons.

When Carolina beat Murray State, it marked the 17th straight year a Williams-coached team has won a game in the NCAA Tournament. That ties an NCAA record, set previously by former UNC head coach Dean Smith.

Carolina's performance, set against the backdrop of losing juniors Raymond Felton, Sean May and Rashad McCants and freshman Marvin Williams to the 2005 NBA Draft, did not go unappreciated:

"You know the storylines by now," wrote Dave Glenn at ACCSports.com. "UNC's starting lineup consists of two true freshmen, two former walk-ons and a guy who wasn't even first-team all-state in high school. But the Tar Heels play extremely hard. As a group they have very high basketball IQs, and they're mentally tough. For the most part, they defend well. They even win on the road. They're basically shattering every preconceived notion about what a woefully inexperienced college basketball team should look like. All of this is a tribute to the players, of course, but it's an even bigger tribute to their leader. Williams wasn't the only coach in America who lost all five starters from last season. He's the only one who's winning big anyway."

"Many Tar Heel observers I know figured he'd be doing a whale of a coaching job if this team finished 8-8 in the league," wrote longtime Durham Herald-Sun columnist Frank Dascenzo. "Without Williams, would these Tar Heels be where they are today? ... The more you stare at the ACC standings, you just can't name a more impressive coaching job than the one by Roy Williams."

"In my mind, he's done an amazing job," said ESPN's Dick Vitale. "To think what he's done there after losing so much from last year's team, it just blows my mind."

To Williams, it was one of the most enjoyable years of his career.

"I love this team," he said after the 2006 NCAA Tournament. "They've accomplished things that maybe people didn't think they could. But they were an unbelievable group of kids that took me for a great ride and I feel fortunate to have coached them."

The 1972 Carolina graduate has the highest winning percentage in the nation among active coaches with 10 years experience and the fourth highest in history, having led his teams to a 493-124 record, a victory rate of 79.9 percent. Williams needs seven wins to reach 500, a mark at which he would arrive in his 19th season, sooner than any other coach in history (Jerry Tarkanian got to 500 in his 20th season).

"He's really a bright man," says Dean Smith. "He has the whole package of what you want as a college head coach. You want somebody who knows basketball, can judge talent, is a competent leader and can teach it in practice, makes good decisions in the game, is highly organized, and also is honest in recruiting.

"He's like Tiger Woods in golf - they have the whole package," Smith adds. "I don't know anyone else who does. I certainly consider him to be the best college coach in the country."

Williams is in his fourth year as Carolina's head coach and 19th as a college head coach. He took over the Tar Heel program on April 14, 2003, after leading the University of Kansas to the NCAA championship game in his 15th year in Lawrence.

"Roy Williams is one of the select few of the greatest coaches in the entire game of basketball," says Bill Walton, NBA Hall of Fame player and TV analyst. "His move to North Carolina ensures for the foreseeable future excellence both on and off the court. The championships will now fall time after time to Chapel Hill. More importantly Coach Williams' impact on young people's lives throughout this great land will change the course of history. We love Coach Williams and admire and respect everything that he does - except for the fact that he's not coaching at UCLA."

Williams led the Tar Heels to their fourth NCAA championship as UNC defeated the Illini, 75-70, on April 4, 2005. May scored 26 points and had 10 rebounds in the finale, one of 13 double-doubles in his last 16 games.

"Coach Williams allowed me to be successful - he put me in positions to be successful," says May. "He pulled out my strengths, hid my weaknesses and taught me how to run the floor. I never wanted to run until I came here, now I love it."

The 2005 national championship capped a season in which the Tar Heels went 33-4, including a 14-2 mark in the ACC. Carolina finished first in the ACC regular-season standings for the first time since 2001 and won the league outright for the first time in 12 years. It was the 10th time Williams led a team to the top of the conference standings.

Carolina went 15-0 at home - Williams' seventh unbeaten home record. The Tar Heels won the Maui Invitational by an average of 21 points per game; led the nation in scoring average, scoring margin and assists; scored 100 or more points six times and 90 or more points on 16 occasions; went 9-3 against ranked teams; and became the third team in history to lead the nation in scoring and win the NCAA championship.

Carolina's fast-paced attack averaged 88.0 points per game, the 15th time his teams have topped 80 points per game.

"We all wanted to win for the seniors, but I especially wanted a national championship for Coach Williams," May said. "He's a great person and a great coach and I wanted to be on his first national championship team. I know he's going to win more, but we can always say we were on his first." Assistant coach C.B. McGrath and May were the first to congratulate Williams for a title that was cheered across the basketball world because of the respect he has earned across the game.

"C.B. grabbed me, and it was a great hug," recalls Williams. "Then here comes Sean. A hundred million dollars I would give up before I would forget that memory, that big, smelly, sweaty rascal coming and hugging my neck, and saying how happy he was. Money can't buy that kind of feeling."

Williams takes great pride in his teams playing unselfish basketball, taking the best shots available, hitting the boards and playing tenacious, man-to-man defense. The 2005 Tar Heels exhibited all of those traits.

To wit: five different players averaged double-figure scoring, despite just one player averaging more than 30 minutes played per game; the Tar Heels averaged 19.1 assists per game; UNC shot 50 percent or better from the floor 20 times (and won all 20 games) and held the opposition to less than 40 percent shooting 20 times; the Tar Heels went 28-1 in games in which they out-rebounded the opponents; and Carolina held Michigan State and Illinois under 40 percent shooting from the floor in three of four halves played at the Final Four.

"Winning the national championship means all the preparation we had done to get to that point paid off," said McCants. "You sit back and think, all the things we did in practice every day were perfect for us. You have to commend a coach to understand that - he just designed something perfect for a bunch of players who had never won anything and for us to do everything that we've done in this short period of time is amazing."

Williams, whose teams are 241-23 at home (.913), has established himself as one of the top coaches and premier program builders in America. He is one of the most respected men in college basketball among coaches, players, parents, administrators and media. It was evident by the number of well-wishes, congratulatory calls and letters Williams received before and after winning the national championship, including countless numbers from former Kansas players and parents.

"He just wants what is best for his players and he does whatever he can to help them," point guard Quentin Thomas told the Associated Press last year. "He's been patient with me and supportive of me, and that's helped me in the long run."

He has led Kansas and Carolina to 17 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, the second-longest active streak in the country and the third longest in NCAA Tournament history. Only Smith (23 years in a row) and Lute Olson (22) have longer NCAA Tournament streaks.

"I know so much more about basketball now than I did a year ago," said Marvin Williams, who was the 2005 ACC Rookie of the Year and the second pick in the 2005 NBA Draft. "Coach Williams has so much knowledge about the game it is unbelievable. He is a great coach and he loves to teach. He's taught me so much about basketball since last year, especially the little things. I didn't know little things made that big of a difference in a basketball game."

Williams has taken five teams to the Final Four, including 1991, 1993, 2002 and 2003 at Kansas and 2005 at Carolina. He is the 12th coach to lead two schools to the Final Four and the third (with Larry Brown and Frank McGuire) to direct two schools to the championship game.

"I have so much respect for him and I am so glad that he's our coach," says former Tar Heel All-America and NBA All-Star Jerry Stackhouse. "I really feel with him the tradition that we all felt when I played here. He has a discipline he learned from Coach Smith and that discipline is back here now. That's why we were able to have success [in 2005] and win the national championship."

The 56-year-old Williams is tied for sixth all-time in NCAA Tournament wins with 42 and has an NCAA postseason win percentage of .724, fourth-best among active coaches. Six of his teams have been seeded No. 1 in a region in NCAA play.

"I always thought if Coach Williams came back to Carolina he was going to get us a national championship," says George Lynch, captain of the 1993 NCAA champions and a 13-year NBA veteran. "He has a great personality and he's fair to his players. He tells them like it is. He came back and got guys to play the right way and come together as a team."

Williams has coached a team to 30 or more wins six times, which equals the second-most in NCAA history. He has won 20 or more games 16 times in 18 years (winning 19 in his first seasons at Kansas and Carolina), including 14 straight seasons at Kansas, a streak that equaled the third longest in NCAA history.

"Coach Williams is a great coach," says Jackie Manuel, who twice earned ACC All-Defensive Team honors. "He's going to teach you the fundamentals of the game and off the court he cares about his kids. He wants the best for his kids. He's going to push you; he's trying to bring the best out of you. If I have a son, I would definitely let him play for Coach Williams."

In 2003-04, Williams led the Tar Heels to a 19-11 record, with a win over No. 1-ranked and eventual national champion Connecticut. Carolina returned to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in three years and beat Air Force in the opening round before falling to Texas, 78-75. Carolina averaged 80.2 points per game, an increase of 10.0 points from the previous year and UNC's highest scoring average since 1994-95.

"Roy is as good as it gets in a person," says Hall of Fame guard and NBA executive Jerry West. "There's nothing deceptive about him. He is what he is - a wonderful person and a great coach. If you watch his teams, you know they've been coached. If you go to his practices, you know why his teams are successful. His players play the right way. They're team-oriented. They play a fun way offensively. They're aggressive. He changes defenses. He does it all. He's just a wonderful coach."

"What separates the good coaches from the great coaches is consistency," says Carolina's all-time leading scorer Phil Ford, an assistant coach with the New York Knicks. "If you are consistently going deep in the NCAA Tournament and having successful seasons year after year with different talent and abilities, that's what separates the good from the great. His track record is one of being consistently good for a long time."

Williams secured his 400th win on Jan. 15, 2003, when Kansas defeated Wyoming, 98-70. He was the third-fastest coach in history to reach 300 wins and fourth fastest to 400. He has won more games than any coach after eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 seasons as a head coach. He is the second-winningest Jayhawk coach in history behind Smith's college coach, Phog Allen.

"We used to have Dean Smith, who was the best coach in the country," says former Tar Heel head coach Bill Guthridge, who was an assistant at UNC with Williams. "Now we have Roy Williams, who I think is the best coach in the country. He's people-oriented. When he was an assistant here, I know the players really respected and liked him. That was obviously the case at Kansas as well. Those guys played their hearts out for him."

Williams spent 10 seasons as an assistant coach under Smith at Carolina. From 1978-88, he helped coach such Tar Heel standouts as Mike O'Koren, Al Wood, James Worthy, Sam Perkins, Matt Doherty, Michael Jordan, Brad Daugherty, Kenny Smith, Joe Wolf, Steve Hale, Jeff Lebo, J.R. Reid and Scott Williams.

"I truly learned a lot from Coach Williams when I was at North Carolina," says Michael Jordan. "I consider Roy not only to be a great coach, but a good friend. I know that the Tar Heels are in good hands with Coach Williams."

The Tar Heels played in the NCAA Tournament in each of Williams' 10 seasons. Carolina won the NCAA title in 1982, finished second in 1981 and won or shared six Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season titles and three ACC Tournament championships (1979, 1981, 1982).

"When I think of him, I think of his honesty, integrity and tremendous work ethic," says Daugherty, a five-time NBA All-Star with the Cleveland Cavaliers. "He is a classy, classy individual. But he is also one of the toughest people I have ever met in my life. No one is tougher than Roy Williams, but he is fair. That's why the kids love him so much. When you have played four years for him he will be a friend for life and you will be a better man, and appreciate every ounce of the experience when you are gone.

"If I had to go to war, I'd grab him for my foxhole without question."

Combining his 10 seasons as an assistant at Carolina and 18 years as head coach, Williams has been part of 768 wins and just 185 defeats.

Williams was named head coach at Kansas on July 8, 1988, replacing another former Tar Heel, Larry Brown. The pair teamed together to coach Team USA to a bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

"He's as good a coach as our sport has," says Brown. "If you ask people around the country, they'll say there's no better college coach than Roy Williams."

In addition to his 2006 national coaching honors, he earned National Coach of the Year honors at Kansas in 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1997 and was Big Eight/Big 12 Coach of the Year seven times (1990, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2002 and 2003). The New York Athletic Club presented him with its National Coach of the Year award in 2005. He received the John R. Wooden Legends of Coaching Award in 2003 from the Los Angeles Athletic Club. Other recipients of the Wooden Coaching Award include Smith, Mike Krzyzewski, Olson, Denny Crum, Mike Montgomery, Jim Calhoun and Jim Boeheim.

Williams coached a number of the finest Kansas players in history, including Mark Randall, Adonis Jordan, Rex Walters, Greg Ostertag, Scot Pollard, Jacque Vaughn, Raef LaFrentz, Paul Pierce, Drew Gooden, Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich.

The Jayhawks went 94-18 in conference play over his last seven years and averaged 27.9 wins per season with a high of 35 in 1997-98. He also won 30 in 1989-90, 34 in 1996-97, 33 in 2001-02 and 30 in 2002-03.

He led Kansas to the Final Four in 1991, 1993, 2002 and 2003. The Jayhawks reached the Sweet 16 nine times and the Final Eight on five occasions.

"He's the best coach in college basketball," says 1998 National Player of the Year Antawn Jamison. "He reminds me a lot of Coach Smith. Not just in terms of basketball, but as far as knowing the importance of having good people, caring about making sure they are successful after basketball. He'll have a big influence over every player that comes through the program, preparing them for life. That's what it's all about. It's not just about being a coach, but being like a father figure."

Kansas went 30-8 in 2002-03, his final year in Lawrence. Led by Collison, the NABC National Player of the Year, and Hinrich, another All-America, the Jayhawks beat Duke, Arizona and Marquette en route to the national championship game. It was KU's first back-to-back appearance in the Final Four since 1952-53.

"Roy is as good as there is," says Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun. "He's a terrific coach and a terrific person. He has taken Dean's system, which was the best, and incorporated it into his own...He gets a lot from his kids. Roy is a first ballot, Hall of Fame coach, and a first-ballot nice guy."

Kansas won nine regular-season conference championships over his last 13 years. In seven years of Big 12 Conference play, his teams went 94-18, capturing the regular-season title in 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2003 and the postseason tournament crown in 1997, 1998 and 1999. In 2001-02, KU became the first Big 12 team to go 16-0 in league play. From 1995-98, Kansas was a combined 123-17 - an average of 30.8 wins per season. He was hired just months after the Danny Manning-led Jayhawks won the 1988 NCAA championship. Weeks after taking the position, KU was placed on probation for violations that took place prior to his arrival.

Williams' teams went 201-17 (.922) in Allen Fieldhouse, and won 62 consecutive games in Allen from February 1994 to December 1998. Kansas was a regular in the Associated Press Top 25 from 1991 to 1999, placing in the AP poll for 145 consecutive weeks. Williams' teams were ranked in the Top 10 in 194 AP polls since 1990.

Williams had Kansas in the AP Top 25 in 242 of 268 weekly polls. Kansas reached the No. 1 ranking in the country in six different seasons and was ranked at least No. 2 in the nation in 11 of the 15 seasons. The Tar Heels finished the 2004-05 season ranked No. 1 in the coaches' poll and No. 2 in the Associated Press poll. Last year, the Tar Heels began the year out of the Top 25, but finished the year ranked No. 10. That was the 11th time in 18 years his teams finished in the Top 10 in the AP poll.

Williams has coached 21 players to first-team all-conference honors, including four Tar Heels in the past three years. McCants was the ACC's leading vote getter in 2003-04, May and Felton were selected in 2004-05 and freshman Tyler Hansbrough was a unanimous selection in 2005-06.

Hansbrough became the first freshman in league history to be unanimously selected to the All-ACC team. He also won ACC Rookie of the Year honors, the sixth time one of Williams's players has won conference rookie-of-the-year honors.

Five Jayhawks won conference player of the year honors and May was named the 2005 ACC Male Athlete of the Year.

Hansbrough became the first UNC freshman to ever earn first-team All-America honors after leading the Tar Heels in scoring, rebounding, field goal percentage and steals. It was the ninth first-team selection by one of Williams's players and it marked the second straight year that Carolina's top inside threat earned first-team All-America honors (May in 2005).

Two players - Gooden and Collison - were voted the best player in the country by the NABC. He coached four KU players to consensus first-team All-America honors - LaFrentz in 1997 and 1998, Pierce in 1998, Gooden in 2002 and Collison in 2003.

"I was just coming (to Kansas) to play basketball for a man I knew I could trust and a man I hoped would make my dreams a reality," said LaFrentz, a two-time Big 12 Player of the Year. "Thanks to Coach Williams for doing that. Thanks to him for always being there, for always being an example for every player who has come into his program and, most importantly, thanks for being a friend."

Fourteen of his players have been selected in the first round of the NBA Draft, including the four Tar Heels who were selected in the first 14 picks in the 2005 draft: Randall (1991), Walters (1993), Ostertag (1995), Pollard (1997), Vaughn (1997), LaFrentz (1998), Pierce (1998), Gooden (2002), Hinrich (2003), Collison (2003), Marvin Williams (2005), Felton (2005), May (2005) and McCants (2005).

Kansas led the nation in field goal percentage and scoring in 2002 and in scoring margin in 2003; held opponents to the lowest field goal percentage in the country in 2001 (37.8 percent); led the nation in winning percentage in 1997 and 2002; shot better than 50 percent from the floor seven times and led the country in field goal percentage in 1990 at 53.3 percent and in 2002 at 50.6 percent; shot a combined 49.4 percent from the floor in 15 seasons; led the nation in assists in 2001 and 2002 and was seventh in the nation in 2003; scored 100 or more points 71 times (once every 13 games); averaged 82.7 points per game in 15 years; averaged 90 or more points in two seasons (92.1 in 1990 and 90.9 in 2002).

Last year, the Tar Heels were fifth in the nation in rebounding and sixth in assists per game.

Academic priority is an important characteristic of Williams' program. Each Carolina senior in his tenure has either received his degree or is on track to do so. Two players - Byron Sanders and Melvin Scott - have earned Academic All-ACC honors.

Three Kansas players were named first-team Academic All-America- Ryan Robertson in 1999, Jacque Vaughn and Jerod Haase in 1997 and Vaughn in 1996 - and 31 Jayhawks earned first-team academic all-conference honors.

"He will win with class and dignity because that's what the man is about," says Joe Posnanski, who covered the Jayhawks for the Kansas City Star. "He will have the Tar Heels running fast and scoring in bunches, and he will build on the legacy of the man he admires most."

Williams grew up outside of Asheville, N.C., in the small community of Biltmore. He attended T. C. Roberson High School, where he earned letters in basketball and baseball for four seasons. In basketball, playing for Coach Buddy Baldwin, he was named all-county and all-conference for two years (1967 and 1968), all-western North Carolina in 1968 and served as captain in the North Carolina Blue-White All-Star Game.

Much of Williams' coaching style comes from spending so many years observing and then coaching with Smith. Williams played on Carolina's freshman team in 1968-69 under Guthridge.

Williams often sat in on Smith's varsity practice sessions taking notes and furthering his knowledge of the game, notes Williams maintains even today. Williams' practices are intense, instructive and precise.

"Practices are very intense, you get a lot done in a small amount of time," says 2005 Tar Heel tri-captain Jawad Williams. "When you put fun and hard work together, that's very nice. We get a lot more accomplished."

Roy Williams earned two degrees from Carolina -- a bachelor's degree in education in 1972 and an M.A.T. in 1973.

In 1973, Williams began his coaching career at Charles D. Owen High School in Swannanoa, N.C. He coached basketball and boys' golf for five years, ninth-grade football for four years and served as athletic director for two years.

He joined Smith's staff as an assistant coach in 1978, adding to his income by traveling all over the state selling basketball team calendars and delivering Smith's weekly TV show to affiliates. While a member of Smith's staff, the Tar Heels went 275-61.

Williams has been active in international circles, as well. The 2004 U.S. Olympic Team assignment was his fourth with USA Basketball. In 1991, Williams worked under P.J. Carlesimo at the World University Games in Sheffield, England, where the USA won the gold medal. In 1992, he helped coach the United States Olympic Development Team, a squad of eight college all-stars who scrimmaged the first U.S. Olympic Dream Team. In 1993, Williams served as head coach of the USA Under-22 Team in a qualifying tournament in Argentina. He also served as a lecturer and camp director for the West German National Junior Team.

He served on the board of directors of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, and was president in 2001-02. In addition, Williams served on the NCAA basketball rules committee for six years, chairing the committee in 2000-01.

Several of Williams' former staff members have gone on to head coaching positions, including Neil Dougherty (in his fifth year at TCU), Kevin Stallings (in his eighth season at Vanderbilt), Mark Turgeon (in his seventh year at Wichita State), Matt Doherty (formerly at Notre Dame, Carolina and Florida Atlantic, now at SMU), Steve Robinson (formerly at Tulsa and Florida State) and Jerry Green (formerly at Oregon and Tennessee). Jay Price, a manager at Kansas, has been an assistant at Purdue and Illinois.

Williams (born August 1, 1950) and his wife, Wanda, a 1972 Carolina graduate, have a son, Scott, and a daughter, Kimberly, both of whom reside in Charlotte. The Williams family has contributed $200,000 to the Carolina Covenant, an initiative at UNC that allows low-income students to attend the University debt free. Roy and Wanda serve as honorary co-chairs of a $10 million campaign to endow the program.

Scott earned a business degree from UNC and played point guard under Bill Guthridge on the basketball team in 1997-98 and 1998-99. He and his wife, Katie (Wolford), were married in August 2005. Katie is a 2001 Carolina graduate and former cheerleader. She earned a doctorate in physical therapy from Boston University. Kimberly is a 2002 Carolina graduate with a degree in English and a former member of the UNC dance team.