Roy Williams led the North Carolina Tar Heels to the 2009 NCAA men’s basketball championship. North Carolina defeated Michigan State 89–72 in the title game at Ford Field in Detroit on April 6, 2009.
The championship was Williams’s second at North Carolina. His first came in 2005, and the 2009 victory made him one of the few active coaches with multiple NCAA Division I titles. It also gave the Tar Heels their fifth national championship in program history.
North Carolina dominated the tournament, winning every game by at least 12 points. In the final, the Tar Heels surged to a 55–34 halftime lead, then held off Michigan State’s attempted comeback. Wayne Ellington was named the game’s Most Outstanding Player, while Tyler Hansbrough and Ty Lawson were central figures in the title run.
The listed alternatives are notable coaches, but they led other programs or won championships in different years. Dean Smith, for example, coached North Carolina to titles in 1982 and 1993, not the 2009 championship.