College basketball legend randomly shows up at Tennessee Vols' win against the Missouri Tigers
A college basketball legend was in the house for the Tennessee Vols' 85-81 win against the Missouri Tigers on Wednesday night in Knoxville. Former North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Roy Williams, who won three national championships as a head coach in Chapel Hill, was in attendance in Thompson-Boling Arena for the Volunteers' win. Williams, […]
A college basketball legend was in the house for the Tennessee Vols' 85-81 win against the Missouri Tigers on Wednesday night in Knoxville.
Former North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Roy Williams, who won three national championships as a head coach in Chapel Hill, was in attendance in Thompson-Boling Arena for the Volunteers' win.
Williams, who retired in 2021 after a lengthy coaching career that also included a 15 year stint as the head coach at Kansas, has plenty in common with Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes.
Barnes and Williams both grew up in Western North Carolina (Williams grew up in Asheville while Barnes grew up in Hickory). Both coaches also spent time coaching in the ACC during the glory days of the conference (though they never coached against each other in an ACC conference game).
Interestingly, Williams nearly replaced Barnes as the head coach at George Mason in 1988.
Barnes left George Mason in 1988 to take the head coaching job at Providence. Williams, who was then an assistant coach at North Carolina under Dean Smith, was on the verge of becoming the new head coach at George Mason before he had a change of heart the morning he was set to sign the contract.
Williams' change of heart paid off as he became the new head at Kansas just a few months later.
Hopefully Barnes and Williams got a chance to catch up while the former North Carolina head coach was in Knoxville. There's no doubt that those two coaches have a wealth of stories to swap anytime they see each other.
