"From cultivating a global mindset across campus to partnering with researchers across the world, we make connections that strengthen our state and establish Carolina as a leading global public research university.". Change). He formed a successful partnership with Dean Smith that lasted three decades until Smith retired in 1997. Maybe Phil Ford wouldve been the head coach then, Ndiaye says. The perception of Smiths program might have been that it ran without emotion. (Scott Sharpe/News & Observer), Standing Together With Our Black Community, Assistant Schall Named Head Volleyball Coach, After 33 Years, Volleyball Coach Sagula Retires, In Memoriam: Elizabeth B. Morgan (19302022). However, Coach Guthridge served as the perfect replacement as head basketball coach when Coach Smith unexpectantly announced his retirement from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1997. Former UNC Director of Athletics Dick Baddour: Bill was one of the most respected and admired people I have known. But it was as if the whole contraption was tilted, resting at an incline so that the sand would never get to the bottom. He directed UNC to the 1998 Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament championship and was named the ACC Coach of the Year. Bill Guthridge, who made his college basketball reputation as Dean Smith's trusted right-hand man then took Carolina to two Final Fours in three years as head coach after his mentor retired has died after a long illness. In 1976, he also served as an assistant coach to Smith as the United States won the gold medal in men's basketball at the Summer Olympics in Montreal. He was a friend. I think its time I make this decision. The family told team spokesman Steve Kirschner that Guthridge died of heart failure and that the coach had lived with a heart condition the past seven years. Had it worked out where there wasnt a down year or whatever, maybe things end up differently, Frederick says. Guthridge had once accepted Penn States head coaching vacancy in the 1970s, only to return to Chapel Hill before his connecting flight to State College. He was even more important to me. He was inducted into the N.C. Sports Hall of Fame in 2013. I dont think he went in that summer thinking, Im not gonna be the basketball coach by fall, Baddour says. When Smith was needlessly ejected from the 1991 Final Four, it was Guthridge who was furious in the tunnel after the game. Williams and Ndiaye both graduated. I will miss his kindness and wisdom. The University of North Carolina has lost a dear friend, as haveI, andIknow that we will all miss him greatly., Im extremely saddened by the passing of Coach Guthridge, aka Coach Gut, especially coming so close to the loss of Coach Smith. Ill just say this, says Dave Hanners, one of Smiths longtime assistants. People could misinterpret 2 p.m.perhaps it really meant 1:45, or maybe 2:15. Guthridge said a few weeks ago he planned to stay another five or six years despite intense criticism from fans and alumni after the teams worst regular-season record in decades. Coach Guthridge played an instrumental role in the programs success as an assistant under Dean Smith for three decades before making his own name as a head coach in leading North Carolina to a pair of Final Four appearances in three seasons. In his tenure at UNC, Guthridge coached five National Players of the Year, six ACC Players of the Year, five ACC Rookies of the Year and 28 first-team All-ACC players. And as an assistant for Smith for nine seasons, he had both a championship pedigree and a deep understanding of how the program operated. That Plan B, clearly, was Guthridge. One year against Laurinburg, Hanners squad was down about 18 with under nine minutes to play; suddenly, he felt Ford come up behind him. As he would prepare for a basketball practice or game, he was equally intense about attention to detail in scheduling or whatever.. Carolina Jump Rope is making their fellow Tar Heel rethink what it means to jump rope. His legacy and contributions to my life and to our University will live on and he'll be much more remembered for his sense of humor and class just as much as his coaching.". It was profoundly hard for Coach Guthridge to watch his lifetime friend become forgetful and lose the memories they shared together, not just as the architects of a fantastic and highly-ethical college basketball program, but as friends who regarded each other and their respective families as their own. Yeah, Id say that was more likely than unlikely., I wouldve gone to where I went two years later, he says. For what? In other words, why Smith walked away at the exact moment he did. Dean Smiths hourglass, it seemed, had an endless amount of sand. While a student at Kansas State, Guthridge played guard under head coach Fred "Tex" Winter, and helped the team advance to the 1958 Final Four. He was an unbelievable assistant to Coach Smith. In 1998, the Bill Guthridge Distinguished Professorship in mathematics was established. He was 77. One of his most tempestuous relationships had been with guard Shammond Williams, who even walked off the court at Virginia on one occasion. As early as April and May, Bill Guthridge Smiths primary assistant for some 30 years reached out to Hanners about doing extra study of the teams offensive and defensive sets. His legacy and contributions to my life and to our University will live on and hell be much more remembered for his sense of humor and class just as much as his coaching., It has been a trying time for the University of North Carolina basketball program over the past four months and our thoughts and prayers are with them again today after the passing of Bill Guthridge. Only different alternate realities. Guthridge also gave to the University away from basketball. He also was an assistant to Smith on the 1976 U.S. Olympic team that won the gold medal in Montreal. Why would you stay? Coach Smith had so many strengths and very few weaknesses, and the weaknesses that he did have Coach Guthridge tried to fill. He joined the UNC staff in 1967 after five years as assistant to Tex Winter at Kansas State. But I know thats something that bothered him to his death, Ndiaye says. The picture most Tar Heel fans will have of him is sitting slightly behind Dean Smith, perhaps leaning over to make a point to the head coach. He once told a newspaper he never left the program because the other 300 Division I head coaching jobs werent better than his job as an assistant. "All I can say is I'm pursuing other opportunities," Davis said. But when Baddour and Guthridge did finally meet, Guthridge expressed a desire to try his hand. Had Smith made the logical move and coached on until his 70th birthday -- the route likely to be taken by Dukes Mike Krzyzewski (66) and Syracuses Jim Boeheim (68) -- he would have finished with at least 1,000 wins and possibly two more national titles. Following the 199798 season, several organizations named him National Coach of the Year and he received the Naismith College Coach of the Year award. Coach Guthridge is the best I have ever seen in selecting potential in high school players, Smith once said, according to the teams website. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Ndiaye even tried cracking the ice by joking that Guthridges years as head coach probably hadnt hurt his wallet. And with Guthridge having gotten his shot, there would have been no issues of whose turn it was. His loss is deeply felt by our university and the basketball world. Im crying because I failed you guys. That was probably six or seven years later where somebody else might recognize it. "This is a tremendous loss for our basketball program and entire community.". There were reports that Michigan was interested in him at the time His only drawback was a DUI arrest in September 1998, after which he was temporarily placed on leave. Guthridge was the consensus National Coach of the Year in 1998. Making the Final Four is a tremendous accomplishment but its not what you chase. Im like, Coach, we won it, congrats! Jamison remembers. 2023 Capitol Broadcasting Company, Inc. 08/08: Dean Smith to receive Presidential Medal of Freedom, 06/29/2011: Smith, Coach K, Yow honored by Naismith, 10/21/2008: UNC's Smith to receive Lapchick Character Award, 02/18/2008: ACC To Honor Dean Smith, Lorenzo Charles, other Greats, Bio Jobs Hub: Find a great-paying job that changes lives, even yours. It didnt bother me that I was a lousy coach, and when we started winning I was a better coach. He needed to hear that from Guthridge. But Guthridge, who died Tuesday at 77 of heart failure, was not just one of the best college basketball coaches of all time, he was an unfailingly decent man who displayed a rare degree of. How might everything be different? Smith and Guthridge had long maintained they'd. Even 22 years after turning down the Nittany Lions, Guthridge still couldnt quite bear to leave. Guthridge . Whats best for the players future has to come first, Smith said of the way he dealt with McAdoo, who became the second overall pick the in 72 NBA draft. Whatve you got to prove then?. The team bus never left at 2 p.m. "He, like Coach Smith, was more of a mentor and father figure than anything else. All the things he couldnt do during the daunting in-season months. Coach Smith would be more likely to draw up something in a timeout, or draw up a play maybe we hadnt worked on, where as Coach Guthridge was going to rely on what wed done in the past, says Brad Frederick, a forward on that team and now a UNC assistant coach. Guthridge, his wife said, suffers from vascular dementia - a condition that's a result of reduced blood supply to the brain. He has a keen sense of which ones will be very good players and which ones may be overrated. He bought into everything. In that scenario, Williams never leaves Kansas and Ford probably never leaves North Carolina. "My sympathies go out to his wife, Leesie, and their kids and family.". After Coach Guthridges retirement in 2003, he and Coach Smith stayed in close contact, visiting each other frequently. Coach Guthridge made his retirement official on May 13, 2015. When it was announced last week that Smith would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom award, I could not help but think back to that interview in 2000 while also thinking about what might have been. (Ford) goes, Ah, you wouldve seen it sooner or later. Yeah right. Guthridge was a player and then an assistant coach at Kansas State . That image of Guthridge is accurate but not complete. Capital Financial - Learn how to secure lifetime retirement income. But Baddour explained to the chancellor that because of Williams respect for Guthridge, hed never have taken the job over his friend. But theres also the fact that Dean did it his way, which was entirely predictable. Guthridge went 80-28 from 1997 to 2000 before retiring in June 2000. Doherty was criticized from the moment he was hired, for breaking somewhat from Smith and Guthridges family dynamic; that scrutiny only intensified in his second season, when UNC bottomed out to a program-worst record of 8-20. Guthridge became head coach after Smith retired in 1997 and coached the team for three seasons.UNC coach Roy Williams called Guthridge a key . Student-run Chapel Thrill Escapes brings its newest escape room to life Rameses in Wonderland continuing to provide an outlet for student creativity, entrepreneurship and collaboration on Carolina's campus. Its often forgotten that he helped engineer the 2000 Final Four run by keeping his team in Charlotte overnight after a disappointing quarterfinal ACC Tournament loss, and pushing them hard in practice on Saturday. But the Tar Heels advanced to the Final Four. Former UNC Coach Bill Guthridge passed away last night at age 77 w/ family at his side. He will certainly be remembered for what he did as opposed to what else he might have done. So was Williams always fated to end up back at North Carolina? Guthridge joined Smith's staff for the 1967-68 season, starting out as the freshman coach and a co-assistant varsity coach and eventually becoming the Hall of Famer's most trusted assistant. You wouldnt think that would work, but it did. But the season, and that loss specifically, never faded from their collective consciousness. Conference regular season champion Coach Guthridge had been Coach Smiths assistant coach at UNC for 30 years, so he knew Coach Smiths style, plays, and strategies inside and out. We offer our deepest sympathies to Bills family, friends and the entire North Carolina basketball community.. Jordan is among many Tar Heels who had tremendous respect for Guthridge. "I'm not up with it," Guthridge said at one point, when he tried to remember taking over as UNC's head coach in 1997 after Smith retired. Guthridge, who like Smith was a Kansas native, spent 30 years as an assistant coach and had ample opportunities to leave Chapel Hill and become the coach of his own program. He couldnt generate enough energy to get through all of that., Some background: In the years leading up to his retirement specifically every spring after the conclusion of the NCAA Tournament Smith expressed a sense of exhaustion to the people around him. He led his first team to the 1998 Final Four and had two players, Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison, selected in the top five . He previously worked at The Charlotte Observer as a Carolina Panthers beat reporter, and his writing has also appeared in Sports Illustrated, The Boston Globe and The Baltimore Sun. Division regular season champion I mean, the Plan B was there.. Guthridge coached that team to the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championship, a school record-tying 34 wins (including 30 wins going into the NCAA Tournament the most in school history at the time) and an appearance in the Final Four, where they lost to Utah. In Guthridge's final season, he went 18-13 -- at the time, the program's worst finish in decades -- but bounced back in the postseason to reach North Carolina's 15th Final Four before losing in the national semifinals to Florida. He was a perfect sidekick for Coach Smith. At the time, their run of 172 consecutive weeks in the AP Poll was the second-longest in college basketball history. Guthridge was involved in a total of fourteen Final Fours as either a player or coach, more than any other person in historyone each as a player and assistant at Kansas State, ten as a North Carolina assistant, and two as North Carolina head coach. As he famously said at Smiths retirement news conference, I always thought we would ride off into the sun together.. He set NCAA records for most wins by a first-year head coach with 34, and for wins in his first two years with 58. in education in 1963. Guthridge coached North Carolina to the Final Four in his first season before losing to Utah. Together, they taught us basketball is secondary. I really believe thats exactly what happened.. What about Ford? Guthridge retired after the season, having spent the first 43 years of his adult life as a player, high school coach, and college coach. The Tar Heels then went 24-10 in 1998-99 but were upset by Weber State in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Smith died on Feb. 7 after suffering for years from a neurological disorder that robbed him of his memories. He was 77 years old, Former UNC basketball coach Bill Guthridge passes away at age 77, UNC School of Social Work becomes new home for CEAL@UNC, expand work to advance assisted living. Neither Davis nor athletic director Ron Wellman would comment on his departure. The following year, with the program bordering on a mutiny, Doherty resigned. Hed grown up in North Carolina, graduated from the university, won a championship as an assistant under Smith and had built a successful program as the coach at Kansas. Perhaps, at last, somewhere in his mind, Coach Guthridge finally made the decision to retire from this physical life. He has saved many scholarships when he has suggested backing off certain players, and of course, has selected some great ones who matriculated at Chapel Hill., UNC coach Bill Guthridge gives instructions during a game in the 99-00 season. Carolina Basketball confirmed the news on Twitter: Sad news. In fact, most of that team reconvened in St. Louis in 2005 for Williams first championship game at North Carolina. Guthridge took over when Smith retired after 36 seasons in October 1997. I think its time to turn it over to somebody else, he said at a campus news conference. With Williams, it was the restoration of the family, three national championships and potentially many more years. But when Guthridge retired, Williamsthen playing with the Seattle Sonicsmade the effort to find a commercial flight to Chapel Hill, then flew out again as soon as the press conference was over. He had interviewed for the Texas job, which went to Rick Barnes, after the 1998 season, after all. Former UNC coach, assistant Guthridge dies, Sizing up the player of the year winners in all 32 Division I men's conferences, Tide's Oats takes blame for Miller's 'TSA' intro, Davis within 25 points of tying Maravich's mark, New NCAA president readies for NIL, legal issues, Scheyer makes history as Duke sweeps at home, Tennessee win soured by knee injury to Zeigler, USC, OU, Seton Hall, Iowa in new hoops tourney, Houston, Alabama remain atop AP Top 25 poll. Only, given Guthridges age at the time (60) and the fact that hed always said hed retire when Smith did, Baddour wasnt totally sure Guthridge was interested. Smith is now 82 and with some health issues. Then there are the other options from Smiths tree: Karl and Fogler and even Larry Brown. He had recently been in an assisted living facility in Chapel Hill. (Smith told me), Its just not coming back. Only in Chapel Hill would a two-time Final Four coach, an Atlantic Coast Conference champion, and a consensus National Coach of the Year award winner be best known as an assistant. Heading into what would have been the fourth year of a five-year contract, Guthridge compiled an 80-28 record, but had not received an extension. He is one of five people to have appeared in the Final Four as both a player and coach. And had Smith gone until age 71 or 72, as did Kentuckys Adolph Rupp, Carolina would have won another 50-60 games and the transition to Roy Williams might have happened seamlessly. The Blue Sky Scholars Program gives scholarship support to middle-income parents and students from North Carolina. He, like Coach Smith, was more of a mentor and father figure than anything else. Guthridge took over when Smith retired after 36 seasons in October 1997. He was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. Lets play out the most interesting of the hypotheticals: if Dean Smith does return for the 1997-1998 season, with an absolutely jam-packed roster. Both played college ball in that state -- Smith at Kansas, Guthridge at Kansas State -- and coached at their alma maters before coming to North Carolina. North Carolina athletic director Dick Baddour has refused to comment directly on Guthridge's contract, saying the school's board of trustees discourages him from talking publicly about such personnel issues. How close did Raleigh come to getting an NFL team? When he reached the decision to step down during that summer of 1997, no one could have changed his mind, even if given the opportunity to do so. We didnt play well for just five minutes, and that decided the game.. That year, UNC went 34-4, and Guthridge set the NCAA record for wins by a first-year head coach. On one occasion, he actually accepted the head coaching post at Penn State, but stepped down from the post a few days later.[3]. Certainly, what a marvelous run of three years.. The next day, Kenny Smith said, assistant coach Bill Guthridge wasn't at practice. Guthridge took over when Smith retired after 36 seasons in October 1997. He was a part of 867 wins in 33 seasons at Carolina and 960 college coaching victories overall, including 93 wins on the staff at Kansas State. So why leave?, His dry sense of humor was legendary among his players. "Coach Guthridge was instrumental in recruiting me to UNC and I have so many great memories of him and the lessons he taught me. [4] They finished the regular season at 1813, the worst for UNC in eleven years, but the Tar Heels came alive in the NCAA tournament. North Carolina coach Bill Guthridge retired Friday after three years as Dean Smiths successor, a move that opens one of the most prestigious jobs in college sports. 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