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. 33 yrs on UNC bench. That group, fresh off a Final Four appearance, was tabbed as the preseason No. Now Guthridge, 77, is enduring a similarly cruel fate . Sad news. He was no different from Coach Smith or Coach Guthridge. Seeded eighth in the South region, North Carolina upset top-seeded Stanford in the second round and continued to the Final Four, where they lost to Florida. So why leave?, His dry sense of humor was legendary among his players. Just a really good man who made Carolina, the ACC and college basketball better.. His calm demeanorhe could sometimes be found sitting in the stands an hour before road games eating popcorn or a hot dogmasked a passionate love for the Tar Heels. "Needless to say I'm tired of having meetings like this." Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. I think its time I make this decision. That possibility isnt one Baddour had previously considered. He was a perfect sidekick for Coach Smith. The latest in the sports world, emailed daily. He directed UNC to the 1998 Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament championship and was named the ACC Coach of the Year. Penn State was a good situation, he said in an interview in 2010. Following Smith's retirement in 1997, Guthridge was head coach of the Tar Heels for three seasons. #RIP, "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," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said in a statement. He had recently been in an assisted living facility in Chapel Hill. Then there are the other options from Smiths tree: Karl and Fogler and even Larry Brown. #RIP. Theres no way you could dream, Hanners says, anyone would necessarily do better.. Guthridge went 80-28 from 1997 to 2000 before retiring in June 2000. Smith wrote in his memoir, A Coachs Life, that before he retired in 1997, he told recruits: If Im not coaching, I am confident that your coach will be either Bill Guthridge, Eddie Fogler, Roy Williams, Larry Brown, George Karl or Phil Ford, not necessarily in that order. He was extremely special, important to every player, every coach who ever worked here. We certainly had no idea; he was still the smartest guy, could recall everything he was seeing.. It was Guthridge who was the creator of the well-known and slightly strange departure times for Carolina travel parties. At the time, their run of 172 consecutive weeks in the AP Poll was the second-longest in college basketball history. Change). After Coach Guthridges retirement in 2003, he and Coach Smith stayed in close contact, visiting each other frequently. Guthridge was Smiths assistant for 30 years. He also was an assistant to Smith on the 1976 U.S. Olympic team that won the gold medal in Montreal. All the scheduling calls, speeches for adoring donors, piles and piles of paperwork that accompanied seemingly everything he did. 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. That season, he led the Tar Heels to a 34-4 record and the final No. Division regular season and conference tournament champion Smith died on Feb. 7 after suffering for years from a neurological disorder that robbed him of his memories. Guthridge did it all with a dry wit and style. I really liked the attitude of the team, the way they worked hard and how they were rewarded finally. 33 yrs on UNC bench. Guthridge took over when Smith retired after 36 seasons in October 1997. When his Tar Heels defeated Tulsa to earn a Final Four berth, the postgame locker room was one of the most emotional in the modern era, due at least partially to the devotion his players had for Guthridge and their joy in relievingat least for a momentthe criticism hed taken during the season. A tremendously loyal person with an ego that was seemingly non-existent. 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. I dont think he went in that summer thinking, Im not gonna be the basketball coach by fall, Baddour says. As good a person as I ever met. The little doo-doos got him in the end, Hanners says. Guthridge initially gained recognition after serving for thirty years as Dean Smith's assistant at the University of North Carolina and summing many wins as a result. School officials stressed that Guthridge was not merely a placeholder for then-Kansas coach Roy Williams, signing him to a five-year contract. 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. However, it was Coach Guthridges incurable heart condition that led to his development of vascular dementia, and with its progression, his placement for the last several years in a Chapel Hill assisted living facility. (Smith told me), Its just not coming back. He coached 1997-98 National Player of the Year Antawn Jamison 99 and 1998-99 NBA Rookie of the Year Vince Carter 99, both of whom entered the NBA draft after their junior seasons. In 1998, the Bill Guthridge Distinguished Professorship in mathematics was established. He's a native of Raleigh, N.C. Guthridge led UNC to the Final Four in his first season, but the team fell short of a championship. And I think he probably had second thoughts, because at what point was it really a danger? When Coach Smith announced he was retiring and that Coach Guthridge was taking over, then it all clicked into place for me, Hanners says. Williams famously turned him down, opting to remain at Kansas, where hed built a Carolina-esque family dynamic (at Smiths alma mater, to boot). SCNext Top 25: Ranking the best high school boys' basketball teams in the 2022-23 season, Brown: There will never be another Bill Guthridge. "He was my coach, he was another mentor. "Mak said he gets this call from his mom: 'Mak, there's this man here in Africa, says he's your coach,' ". What you saw was the quiet assistant sitting on the bench. He, like Coach Smith, was more of a mentor and father figure than anything else. And I said, I cant say to you with certainty what Bills gonna do, but this is how we have to approach it. Not only did he coach me on the freshman team, he was my coach, another mentor, a friend, a father figure, a big brother for me just like he was for so many players. In our prayers. Guthridge was the consensus National Coach of the Year in 1998. And as an assistant for Smith for nine seasons, he had both a championship pedigree and a deep understanding of how the program operated. As they were chatting, Guthridge, who died in 2015, grabbed Ndiayes arm. On Oct. 9, 1997, Smith called it quits. 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. It was very, very much real and something Smith had to balance with the sentiment that maybe he had left too soon. It was the 14th time Guthridge participated in the Final Four. Ironically, both coaches developed dementia along the way (Coach Smith died in January 2015 of complications from dementia). He said to me, I have felt this way before, but in the early fall, Ive always gotten the energy back, and I expect that thats gonna happen, but I do want to alert you to the possibility that it might not. Whether or not deep down inside he thought that energy wouldnt come back, I dont know the answer to that. In fact, he communicated as much to Baddour after Baddour was tapped in late June to replace John Swofford as athletic director. 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. Together, they taught us basketball is secondary. Coach Smith had so many strengths and very few weaknesses, and the weaknesses that he did have Coach Guthridge tried to fill. The careers and lives of the two coaches from Kansas were solidly intertwined. 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. We ended up beating em easily, and I thanked him later for it, Hanners says. School officials stressed that Guthridge was not merely a placeholder for then-Kansas coach Roy Williams, signing him to a five-year contract. Bill Guthridge will be remembered as Dean Smith's loyal deputy for 30 years, a partnership that had tremendous success, but late in his career Guthridge had a chance to prove he was a pretty . The possibilities were endless, but Baddour is certain of one thing: keeping things in the family was a must. Fords reputation was growing fast as a star recruiter, having single-handedly delivered Rasheed Wallace to UNC and playing a major role in Carters eventual commitment. Try a week on us. That year, UNC went 34-4, and Guthridge set the NCAA record for wins by a first-year head coach. He is one of five people to have appeared in the Final Four as both a player and coach. (Updated at 2:22 p.m.) By Elizabeth A. Davis Associated Press Writer North Carolina coach Bill Guthridge retired Friday after three years as Dean Smith's successor, a move that opens one of the . 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 was 77. How might everything be different? He is probably best remembered for his loyalty to Smith, who died in February at age 83. Guthridge's did, too, and during Smith's funeral and memorial services, Williams, knowing the end could be near, told former players and current ones to spend time with Guthridge. An assistant to Dean Smith for 30 seasons, Guthridge replaced his former boss when Smith retired in 1997 after 36 years as coach of the Tar Heels. As an assistant, Guthridge was renowned for his success in coaching the fundamentals of pivot play to a long series of successful UNC big men, and as the Tar Heels' primary shooting coach. Guthridge didnt need the change, just wanted to know if he had it. The flip side of reality offers another interesting scenario: What if Guthridge had led that group to a win over Utah, and then over Kentucky in the championship game. And come Monday, he got the fateful notice. He wasnt an electric radio show guest. Coach Guthridge is the best I have ever seen in selecting potential in high school players, Smith once said, according to the teams website. Our hope and fervent desire is that the best basketball coach in America will continue to practice his craft at KU, he said Thursday night. The Blue Sky Scholars Program gives scholarship support to middle-income parents and students from North Carolina. Guthridge was a player and then an assistant coach at Kansas State . 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