Brandon Robinson was in the UNC basketball locker room when he first heard the news.
Before Monday's 70-67 win against Yale, Robinson was relaxing with his teammates when his eyes flickered toward the flatscreen. There, scrolling on the ESPN ticker, was the only thing anyone would want to talk about six hours later.
With a win against the Bulldogs, the blurb read, head coach Roy Williams would match his mentor Dean Smith in career victories with 879, good for fourth-most all-time.
From that point on, Robinson said, "We were locked in all day, just trying to get this win for Coach."
The win came, but it didn't come easily. The Tar Heel offense was down in the mud for the entirety of the first half, creating just 12 baskets on 36 attempts and a single three-pointer. Early in the second half, the Bulldogs held a 37-35 lead; it looked as though Robinson and company might have to wait for their head coach's historic moment.
But an 11-0 run, helped along by a pair of jumpers from Robinson, put North Carolina in the driver's seat. And when a late Yale rally came up short — guard Azar Swain's game-tying three-point attempt missed at the buzzer — the only thing Williams could think about was ... his escape route?
"I didn't wanna stay out there," he said. "[Senior associate athletic director Steve Kirschner] sort of insisted. I could've said no if I wanted to, if I'd out-quicked him to the locker room."
Instead, Williams stuck around on the court to receive an honorary plaque, with a picture of himself and his mentor and "879" emblazoned at the bottom. Though a portion of the crowd had already left, the moment earned perhaps the loudest cheer of the night.
Williams, as he is wont to do, was quick to downplay the moment — "It's a number," he said initially. "It means I've stayed around a long time, probably longer than some people wanted me to stay."
