UNC's Roy Williams Reaches 900 Wins With Upset Over No. 11 FSU

Roy Williams became the fastest men's basketball coach in D-1 history to reach his 900th win after UNC upset No. 11 Florida State, 78-70.

Roy Williams became the fastest men's basketball coach in Division I history to reach 900 wins after North Carolina upset No. 11 Florida State, 78-70, on Saturday. 

The 70-year-old reached the milestone in the span of 1,161 games, and he's now two wins shy of tying Bobby Knight for third place all-time in career wins, according to Inside Carolina. 

"I've said it before, I'll look back on it one of these days and say, 'Hey, that was pretty neat.' But I was focused on one thing: Trying to help this team get to 15," Williams said. "And we laid a bad egg a couple of days ago, and I wanted to bounce back desperately. I told them I wanted them to have that desperately focused attitude that I'll have. It's neat, and I appreciate all the players that have ever been involved in those things. 

"My assistant coaches, for 33 years, I felt like I've had the best coaching staff in the world. And I believe that every day. But it was nice. I wanted to get them into the locker room so we could act like a fool. And Steve Robinson and Steve Kirschner, I really didn't want to do anything. But it was nice. And like I said the other day though—69 is not a round number, but I appreciated shooting 69 more than I did 70. If I dropped dead walking out before the game today, I would still have had 899. That's not that far from 900. So it's okay.”

Senior Garrison Brooks had the honor of handing Williams the framed 900-win jersey at center court with the team circled around him, all holding or wearing T-shirts to commemorate the moment.

Win No. 9️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ for Roy Williams

The fastest coach in Div. 1 men's basketball history to reach this milestone 👏 pic.twitter.com/eB3SnI1YR2

— ACC Network (@accnetwork) February 27, 2021

Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski won his 900th in 1,183 games, and Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim took 1,251 competitions. Knight, who is the former head coach of Indiana, reached his 900th win in 1,269 games. 

But even as he reached a monumental moment in his career, Williams opened his post-game press conference about how FSU head coach Leonard Hamilton deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.

"He lost major players to the NBA but he came back and played hard," Williams said. "He is a Hall of Fame coach, and I hope the voting works out for him. He deserves it"