Williams reaches 600 career wins

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View a slideshow of photos from the game.

The big number is rooted in the little things.

Meticulous preparation, careful study and constant reinforcement of details that seem asinine — but for Roy Williams none of it is asinine.

Every little thing matters. All the tiny routines and small rituals add up. In Williams’ case, the sum is 600 wins at two of the most successful programs in college basketball during the last 21 years.

That’s an average of 27 wins per year, and for Williams’ career, a winning percentage of about .812. It took him only 739 games to win 600, and the only coaches to reach that milestone faster are Adolph Rupp and Jerry Tarkanian.

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Every practice is structured, detailed down to each minute. The repetitiveness can seem overwhelming. Every timeout, Williams strides to the scorer’s table, removes his glasses and places them on top of the table.

It’s a scene that could pass for casual if it wasn’t repeated with precision each timeout.

The structure allows everything to flow into routine — especially winning.

“I was just surprised at how fast it came up,” senior Marcus Ginyard said of win number 600. “It seems like just this morning that we were doing 500. I could have sworn I was here for 400, but apparently I wasn’t.”

The structure also allows Williams to communicate in the heat of games.

“Deon! Box!” Just two words, but they hold a host of meaning for Deon Thompson — an immediate recall of Williams’ plays and practices. Or when Williams constantly cries “GO!” to his point guard, imploring the Tar Heels to run his secondary break offense.

Or when Williams, in a sling after a recent shoulder surgery, spends half the game in a defensive crouch — even after forgetting to take halftime pain medication. Despite his meticulously run program, Williams is far from robotic. He says he never has been one to shy away from competition.

He is known for demonstrative sideline tics, most notably slinging off his jacket when the game goes awry. But even that is usually calculated to occur when his team needs it most. On Sunday, Williams was limited by a sling and had no jacket to sling when his team was struggling.

So instead he ripped off his tie midway through the game.

“I didn’t look very professional out there tonight,” he said.

Thompson, who scored a career-high 23 points Sunday, is just one of the many products of Williams’ system.

Once a high-post shooter who started quickly but fizzled late in the game, Thompson spent most of Sunday banging in the low post for eight rebounds, including five on the offensive glass. He posted his first back-to-back 20-point games Sunday and last week against Gardner-Webb.

“Six hundred wins means I’ve been very lucky,” Williams said. “It’s a lot of great players and great assistant coaches.

“I don’t think you’ll ever hear Roy Williams say, ‘I won 500,’ or ‘I won 600.’ I say, ‘We won this and we won that,’ and that’s really what I believe.”

That belief is why during a timeout, with UNC up one against Nevada in the second half, all eyes focus on Williams, crouching in the center. None of the players look around the stadium, at the bright lights, the screaming fans, the scoreboard.

And as the score closes, the team closes in around Williams, as if to hear Williams’ every syllable. By the time Nevada takes a brief lead, the players are cocooning around their kneeling coach.

And when Larry Drew II sinks a three-pointer to give the Tar Heels a five-point lead and force a Nevada timeout, Williams calmly rises as if it was just another drill from another practice — a drill his teams have run effectively now 600 times in the last 21 years.

Just another little moment, building on the big number.

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.