Williams is the eighth Tar Heel coach or player to be elected to the Hall of Fame. Previous inductees coaches Ben Carnevale, Frank McGuire, Dean Smith and Larry Brown. In addition player/coach Billy Cunningham and players James Worthy and Robert McAdoo are already members of the Hall.
Stay tuned to InsideCarolina.com for complete coverage of Williams' 5 p.m. Monday press conference with the media.
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Phil Jackson, who led the Lakers and Bulls to a record nine NBA titles, the 1966 NCAA Champions from Texas Western, University of North Carolina Coach Roy Williams, four time WNBA Championship coach Van Chancellor, referee Mendy Rudolph and international coaches Fedro Ferrandiz and Mirko Novosel were announced today as the newest members of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2007. The announcement was made today in Atlanta, Georgia, site of the 2007 NCAA Men's Final Four.
Jackson and Texas Western were elected in their first year of consideration for election into the Hall of Fame. Novosel, Rudolph and Williams were first-time Finalists this year who had previously been reviewed by Screening Committees. Chancellor and Ferrandiz had been named Finalists in prior years.
To be elected a Finalist needs 18 of 24 votes from the Honors Committee for election into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The Class of 2007 will be enshrined during festivities in Springfield, Mass. September 6-8, 2007.
ROY WILLIAMS - Coach, a native of Asheville, NC, is the third coach in history to lead two schools to an NCAA National Championship game, and has led both Kansas and North Carolina to a total of five Final Fours (1991, 1993, 2002, 2003, 2005), three national title games (1991, 2003, 2005), and won an NCAA Championship with North Carolina in 2005. Williams also played on the freshman team at North Carolina and was an assistant in Chapel Hill before accepting the head coaching job at Kansas in 1988. His teams have made 18 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, winning at least one tournament game in each. Williams is a six-time National Coach of the Year, and in his 18+ years of coaching he has become the fastest coach ever to reach the 500 win mark.