List of North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball head coaches

The North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team plays at the Division I level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The Tar Heels originally did not play within any athletic conference, but joined the Southern Conference in 1921 when it was first established.^[1] After playing in the Southern Conference for 22 years, North Carolina left in 1953 to join the newly created ACC.^[2] The Tar Heels play their home games in the Dean E. Smith Center, named after the 15th head coach Dean Smith. They previously played in Carmichael Auditorium, Woollen Gymnasium, The Tin Can, and began their existence playing in Bynum Gymnasium, which is now home to the admissions office for the university's graduate school programs.

Head coach and former UNC player Hubert Davis is the first African-American to be Tar Heel head coach.

Roy Williams (2003–2021) led the Tar Heels to NCAA Championships in 2005, 2009, and 2017, the most by a head coach in school history.

There have been 19 head coaches in the history of Carolina basketball and the team has played two seasons without one.^[3] The program has played 3,151 games across 112 seasons from the program's inaugural 1910–11 season to the current year, 2021–22. Three Tar Heel coaches have led the team to an NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship: Frank McGuire in 1957; Smith in 1982 and 1993; and Roy Williams in 2005, 2009, and 2017. Smith, in 1971, led North Carolina to its only National Invitation Tournament (NIT) championship. North Carolina also received a retroactive national championship for the 1923–24 team coached by Norman Shepard, which was given by the Helms Athletic Foundation.^[4] Eleven coaches have won the conference regular season by having the best overall regular season record with the Tar Heels: Norman Shepard, Monk McDonald, Harlan Sanborn, Bo Shepard, Bill Lange, Walter Skidmore, Ben Carnevale, McGuire, Smith, Matt Doherty, and Williams. Eleven coaches have won the conference tournament with the Tar Heels: Norman Shepard, McDonald, Sanborn, Bo Shepard, Lange, Skidmore, Carnevale, McGuire, Smith, Bill Guthridge, and Williams.

Smith had the longest tenure at North Carolina, coaching for 36 seasons, and is the all-time leader in games coached (1,133) and wins at the school (879). Smith's 879 wins were the most of any NCAA men's Division I coach at the time of his retirement in 1997.^[5] Smith was the head coach for United States Men's Basketball that won an Olympic Gold Medal in 1976 while also working as the head coach of North Carolina, a feat that no other North Carolina coach has replicated.^{[6][A 1]} Several coaches both played for and coached basketball at North Carolina. Davis, McDonald, and Doherty played for and coached the men's varsity basketball team. McDonald and Doherty played on teams that were awarded national championships, McDonald on the 1923–24 team and Doherty on the 1981–82 team.^{[8][A 2][A 3]} Williams both played for and coached the North Carolina men's junior varsity team.^[11] Davis also had a stint as the JV head coach while on the bench under Williams. Brothers Norman and Bo Shepard are the only two head coaches to be related to each other.^[12] Norman Shepard is the all-time leader in winning percentage, having never lost a game. Statistically, Cartmell has been the least successful coach of the Tar Heels, with a winning percentage of .510. No coach has had an overall losing record at North Carolina.^[13] Six coaches have received coaching awards while the head coach of North Carolina: Carnevale, McGuire, Smith, Guthridge, Doherty, and Williams. Carnevale, McGuire, Smith, and Williams have all been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Roy Williams was hired in 2003, and retired following a school-record three national championships in 2021.^[14]

The current head coach is Hubert Davis, who played under Smith from 1988 to 1992 and served as an assistant to Williams for nine seasons prior to being elevated to the head coach position. Upon Davis' appointment as head coach he became the 19th coach in program history, and the first African-American to hold the position.

Statistics

Nat Cartmell, a 1908 Olympic gold medalist in athletics, was the first basketball coach at UNC. He coached North Carolina from 1910 to 1914.

Dean Smith led the Tar Heels from 1961 to 1997 and won two national championships in 1982 and 1993. His 879 wins in Chapel Hill are the most by a coach at the school.

Frank McGuire led the 1956–57 Tar Heel team to a perfect season and their first NCAA national championship.

Key # Number of coaches[A 4] GC Games coached OW Overall Wins OL Overall Losses O% Winning percentage CW Conference Wins CL Conference Losses C% Winning percentage RCs Regular Season Conference Champions CCs Conference Tournament Champions NCs National Championships ♥ Helms champion[4] ‡ NIT champion[A 5] ♠ NCAA tournament champion[A 6]

Coaching awards † Elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame FHOF Fédération Internationale de Basketball (in English the International Basketball Federation) hall of fame BHOF Basketball Hall of Fame NCHOF National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame LOCA Legend of Coaching Award SN Sporting News Coach of the Year NABC National Association of Basketball Coaches Coach of the Year N Naismith Coach of the Year BT Basketball Times Coach of the Year USBWA U.S. Basketball Writers Association UPI United Press International Coach of the Year CBS CBS/Chevrolet Coach of the Year AP Associated Press College Basketball Coach of the Year ARC Adolph Rupp Cup SY Sportsman of the Year OGM Olympic Gold Medal ACC ACC Coach of the Year

Statistics are correct as of the 2024–25 college basketball season.

#	Name	Term	GC	OW	OL	O%	CW	CL	C%	RCs	CCs	NCs	Awards
1	Nat Cartmell	1910–1914	49	25	24	.510	—	&&&&&&&&&&&-ec99 c7.7 —	—	&&&&&&&&&&&-ec99 c7.7 —	&&&&&&&&&&&-ec99 c7.7 —	—	—
2	Charles Doak	1914–1916	34	18	16	.529	—	&&&&&&&&&&&-ec99 c7.7 —	—	&&&&&&&&&&&-ec99 c7.7 —	&&&&&&&&&&&-ec99 c7.7 —	—	—
3	Howell Peacock	1916–1918	21	14	7	.666	—	&&&&&&&&&&&-ec99 c7.7 —	—	&&&&&&&&&&&-ec99 c7.7 —	&&&&&&&&&&&-ec99 c7.7 —	—	—
—	No official coach	1918–1919	16	9	7	.562	—	&&&&&&&&&&&-ec99 c7.7 —	—	&&&&&&&&&&&-ec99 c7.7 —	&&&&&&&&&&&-ec99 c7.7 —	—	—
4	Fred Boye	1919–1921	37	20	17	.541	—	&&&&&&&&&&&-ec99 c7.7 —	—	&&&&&&&&&&&-ec99 c7.7 —	&&&&&&&&&&&-ec99 c7.7 —	—	—
—	No Coach[3]	1921–1923	37	30	7	.811	8	3	0.727	1	1	—	—
5	Norman Shepard	1923–1924	26	26	0	1.000	7	0	1.000	1	1	1: 1924♥	—
6	Monk McDonald	1924–1925	25	20	5	.800	8	0	1.000	1	1	—	—
7	Harlan Sanborn	1925–1926	25	20	5	.800	7	0	1.000	1	1	—	—
8	James Ashmore	1926–1931	117	80	37	.684	37	19	0.660	0	0	—	—
9	Bo Shepard	1931–1935	85	69	16	.812	35	9	0.795	1	1	—	—
10	Walter Skidmore	1935–1939	90	65	25	.722	48	16	0.750	1	1	—	—
11	Bill Lange	1939–1944	126	85	41	.675	51	18	0.739	2	1	—	—
12	Ben Carnevale†	1944–1946	63	52	11	.825	24	4	0.857	1	1	—	BHOF (1970)[17] NCHOF (2006)[18][A 7]
13	Tom Scott	1946–1952	165	100	65	.606	64	36	0.640	0	0	—	—
14	Frank McGuire†	1952–1961	222	164	58	.739	99	31	0.762	5	1	1: 1957♠	BHOF (1977)[19] NCHOF (2006)[18] UPI (1957)[20][A 8] ACC (1957)[21][A 9]
15	Dean Smith†	1961–1997	1133	879	254	.776	364	136	0.728	17	13	3: 1971‡ 1982♠ 1993♠	FHOF (2007)[22] BHOF (1983)[6] NCHOF (2006)[18] NABC (1977)[20] USBWA (1979)[20] N (1993)[20] BT (1993)[20] LOCA (1993)[20] ACC (1967, 1968, 1971, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1988, 1993)[21] OGM (1976)[6] SY (1997)[6]
16	Bill Guthridge	1997–2000	108	80	28	.741	32	16	0.667	0	1	—	NABC (1998)[20] N (1998)[20] SN (1998)[20] CBS (1998)[20] ACC (1998)[21]
17	Matt Doherty	2000–2003	96	53	43	.552	23	25	0.479	1	0	—	AP (2001)[20]
18	Roy Williams†	2003–2021	648	485	163	.748	212	94	0.693	9	3	3: 2005♠ 2009♠ 2017♠	BHOF (2007)[23] NCHOF (2006)[18] AP (2006)[20] USBWA (2006)[20] ARC(2006)[20][A 10] ACC (2006, 2011)[21][A 11]
19	Hubert Davis	2021–present	146	101	45	.692	56	24	0.700	1	&&&&&&&&&&&-ec99 c7.7 0	0	ACC (2024)[21]
Totals			3269	2395	874	0.732	1075	431	0.714	42	26	6

Notes

1. While Smith is the only coach to coach a gold medal winning team, Nat Cartmell won four Olympic medals, including one gold, for track and field events in the 1904 and 1908 Olympics.^[7]
2. McDonald also won the first Patterson medal, the most prestigious award presented only to student-athletes at the University of North Carolina, for his collegiate career in 1924.^[9]
3. While Smith did not play on the North Carolina team in college, he did play college basketball for the University of Kansas. During his time on the varsity basketball team, Kansas won the national championship in 1952 against St. John's, which was coached by Frank McGuire at the time. Smith's National Championship as a player makes him the only North Carolina coach to both coach a team to the NCAA National Championship and to play on an NCAA National Championship team.^[10]
4. A running total of the number of coaches of the Tar Heels. The seasons in which there was no head coach for the team are included in the table but they are not counted in the number of head coaches.
5. The National Invitational Tournament began in 1938 with only 6 teams. In 1941 the tournament was expanded to include 8 teams, in 1949 the tournament was again expanded to 12 teams, then 14 teams in 1965, 16 teams in 1968, 24 teams in 1979, 32 teams in 1980, and 40 teams from 2002 through 2006. The tournament reverted to 32 teams for 2007.^[15]
6. The NCAA tournament started in 1939 and the number of teams invited to participate has expanded a number of times over the years. Between 1939–1950 the tournament had only eight teams, and then between 1951–1974 the tournament varied between 16 teams and 25 teams. The tournament has continued to expand over the years until in 2005 there are now 65 teams that make it into the tournament.^[16]
7. Ben Carnevale was also named College Coach of the Year in 1947 but during this time he was the head coach of Navy and not North Carolina.^[17]
8. Frank McGuire was also named College Coach of the Year in 1952 when he was the head coach of St. John's and in 1970 when he was the head coach at South Carolina.^[19]
9. Frank McGuire was also named ACC Coach of the Year in 1969 when he was the head coach of South Carolina.^[21]
10. Roy Williams was also named College Coach of the Year in 1990 by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association, in 1992 by the Associated Press, in 1997 by Naismith, Sporting News, and was given the 2003 John Wooden Legends of Coaching Award which all occurred when he was the head coach of Kansas.^[20]
11. Roy Williams was also named Big 8 or Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year in 1990, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2002, and 2003, which all occurred when he was the head coach of Kansas.^[23]