Kansas head basketball coach Bill Self, and former coaches Larry Brown, Roy Williams and Ted Owens have a laugh while talking shop in preparation for the 60th Anniversary celebration of Allen Fieldhouse on Monday, Oct. 27, 2014.

North Carolina basketball announced Thursday morning that longtime coach Roy Williams, who spent 15 seasons at Kansas prior to UNC, was retiring after 33 years as a college head coach.

Williams, who replaced Larry Brown at KU in 1988, led the Jayhawks to 418 victories, four Final Fours and two appearances in the national championship game.

The 70-year-old North Carolina native left KU for his alma mater in 2003 just days after a loss to Syracuse in the national title game, and went on to win 485 games and three national titles with the Tar Heels.

His departure, which came a couple of years after he turned down the North Carolina job to stay at Kansas, was the source of a lot of hurt and anger for Kansas fans and for Williams himself.

Although the two schools never scheduled a game against one another, the Jayhawks and Tar Heels met up three times in the post-Williams era at Kansas, with KU and new head coach Bill Self winning all three games against his predecessor in the NCAA Tournament.

The first meeting came in the 2008 Final Four en route to the Jayhawks winning the national championship. The next came in the Elite Eight in 2012. And the third head-to-head matchup came in Kansas City, Mo., in 2013, when the top-seeded Jayhawks knocked off Williams’ eighth-seeded Tar Heels in the second round.

Williams finishes his career with 903 victories, landing him in third place on the all-time Division I coaching list. He’s the only coach in history to win more than 400 games at two universities and owns the sixth highest winning percentage in NCAA history (.774).

A closed news conference is scheduled for 3 p.m. today in Chapel Hill, N.C., where Williams, a 2007 Hall of Fame inductee, will officially announce the decision.

Reaction to Roy Williams’ career and retirement:

“He had an impact on so many lives. He was more than just a coach to me. He was a second father and mentor to me. I learned about toughness and work ethic. I learned about fighting through adversity. I am forever indebted to him. He took a chance on me and gave a small town guard from North Dakota the opportunity to play at the highest level of college basketball.” — Jeff Boschee

“Coach Williams has had a tremendous impact on my life, on and off the court and his influence has helped me grow in so many different ways. I just feel blessed and lucky to have played for him and for all of the things he allowed me to experience, from my time at KU with him to going to UNC and working camp and continuing to help me in my career as a coach.” — Nick Bradford

“Coach Williams gave me an opportunity to come and play for him and although I was only a walk-on, he coached and treated me like I was a McDonald’s All-American. Coach was the ultimate competitor, worked extremely hard and held his players to very high standards. He also cared on a very deep level for each of his players and you knew that support was going to last well beyond basketball. I’m so thankful, grateful and proud that got to play and learn from that man. I wish him nothing but the best in retirement.” — Brett Ballard

“He came into a situation on probation, where we could’ve gone one of two ways, and he was unbelievable. He won an insane amount of games and put us on an upward trajectory. For (former KU AD) Bob Frederick to hire him, he deserves a ton of credit because it was a risk and we didn’t have a down year. Think about it, in Coach Williams’ third year, with one of those years being a probation year, he had KU playing for a national championship. Kansas fans should be indebted to Roy Williams forever for continuing the tradition. In our story in the history of college basketball, there are only eight coaches and he was a big, big part of this place. Him leaving led to us getting Bill Self, who has been equally as incredible. It couldn’t have worked out any better for the two programs.” — Greg Gurley

“I met Roy Williams when I was a camp counselor at Carolina Basketball School in 1978. He was a gentleman then and he hasn’t changed. It just so happens that he also has been a great basketball coach, a Naismith Hall of Fame coach for good reason.” — Fran Fraschilla

“Coach Williams is a college basketball icon. Who else has led two blue blood programs to perennial success? I am grateful for the amazing impact he has had on my life, the Kansas program and the game of basketball.” — Wayne Simien

“Roy Williams has been an icon in our industry for the last 33 years, and his retirement is very well deserved. Roy won at the highest level and projected first-class while doing so. To have the opportunity to follow him here at the University of Kansas and see firsthand the type of program he ran was an honor of a lifetime. Congratulations to him on a Hall of Fame career and for the lasting impact he has had on our sport.” — Bill Self

“There hasn’t been a better coach or person in the game. Roy Williams matched his coaching prowess with uncommon kindness (and was) as great of a person as a coach. That’s one hell of a person.” — Jay Bilas

Check back throughout the day for more on Williams’ retirement.