Gary Williams named a Top-25 college coach of the 2000s

Ever wondered where retired Maryland men’s basketball coach Gary Williams would rank among the top men’s college coaches of the last 25 years?

Well, the wait is over.

Williams came in at No. 23 among the top 25 coaches of the past quarter century according to The Athletic, which published their list of the top 25 college basketball coaches of the 2000s on Tuesday.

The list is a who’s who of college basketball royalty, featuring 14 coaches in the Naismith Hall of Fame, including Williams who was inducted in 2014.

Coaches were considered based on six categories: national titles, Final Fours, conference regular-season championships, conference tournament championships, NCAA Tournament appearances, and total wins. Only seasons coached this century were taken into account.

Williams, with a national title and a pair of Final Fours to his name, made the list despite having one of the shortest tenures this century. He retired following the 2010-2011 season.

You can see what author CJ Moore had to say about Williams’ ranking below:

Williams was at the tail end of his prime in the early 2000s when he made back-to-back Final Fours and won his lone national title in 2002. The Terps started to fall off a few years later, but that start earned him a spot on this list. The 2002 champs probably do not get enough love, likely because their stars (Juan Dixon, Lonny Baxter and Steve Blake) were just OK pros, but Williams built an awesome college starting five. Those Terps won the ACC over a Duke team that had Jay Williams and Carlos Boozer, then knocked off one of the greatest Kansas teams of all time in the Final Four.

Former Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski, arguably Williams’ top nemesis during his time at Maryland, came in at No. 3 on the list.

Roy Williams, the former Kansas and North Carolina head coach who’s Jayhawks lost to Maryland in the 2002 Final Four, came in at No. 2 on the list. Current Kansas head man Bill Self was named the No. 1 college basketball coach of the 2000s.