Ndiaye remembers taking his son for a campus tour years later, and Guthridge coming out of the Smith Center to greet him. Unfortunately, it took UNC two tries to find that leader. He was a father figure.". He was 77. 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. Were the best North Carolina team that never won a championship. After a three-year disastrous tenure under Doherty, the University of North Carolina hired Roy Williams from Kansas and got the leadership and gravitas that had characterized the UNC basketball program under Coach Smith and 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. He is probably best remembered for his loyalty to Smith, who died in February at age 83. Williams and Ndiaye both graduated. (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). He took the team to the NCAA final Four twice and was named national coach of the year in 1998, before retiring in 2000.[1]. Hed have retired with a championship trophy, and then let someone else step right in, Ndiaye says. 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. Subscribe to The Athletic for in-depth coverage of your favorite players, teams, leagues and clubs. Veteran sports reporter Peter Gammons had high praise for the former coach: Saddened to learn Bill Guthridge passed away. He tried to do every one of those little things that drove Coach Smith crazy. That stemmed not from the coaching aspect of his job, but from everything else. Then he retired, too. But theres also the fact that Dean did it his way, which was entirely predictable. 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. He led his first team to the 1998 Final Four and had two players, Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison, selected in the top five picks of the NBA draft. The Kansas native took over the role of head coach following Smith's departure. Guthridge was the head coach of the Tar Heels for three seasons following Dean Smith's retirement in 1997. Buffalo Brothers - 1/2 Price Appetizers 4:30pm-6:00pm Monday - Friday, Holliday: State and Carolina headed in different directions for the final two weeks, Brownlow: Angst will be at an all-time high as NC State hosts hated rival UNC, Holliday: Miami puts the Heels back on the bubble, Brownlow: NC State, Duke and UNC all seek to avoid two losses in a row as crunch time hits, Holliday: Pivotal road trips for NC State and Duke, Brownlow: Saturday's matchup marks the beginning of a new Carolina-Duke era, Holliday: Could this be Keatts' best ACC season? Coach Smith began showing signs of cognitive impairment before Coach Guthridge did. Coach Guthridge was the right choice to lead the transition to another, younger leader of the famed basketball program at the University of North Carolina. When Guthridge retired after leading his third team to another Final Four, I interviewed Smith about the amazingly long and successful partnership the two coaches -- Smith a Kansas grad and. The university made a huge misstep when it hired former UNC player, Matt Doherty, a young, untested coach in the league of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and a 180-degreechange from the coaching styles of Coach Smith and Coach Guthridge, as its head basketball coach in 2000, when Coach Guthridge retired. When Coach Smith died, Coach Guthridge knew that his friend was gone, but he quickly moved back to their time together when they were younger and dementia had not knocked on their doors yet. Its very much a possibility, everyone admits. Coach Guthridge made his retirement official on May 13, 2015. One of the best testaments to Guthridges impact came on that retirement day, June 30. Ironically, both coaches developed dementia along the way (Coach Smith died in January 2015 of complications from dementia). Its not fair, but thats just the way it is for assistant coaches, Smith said. Hed have been a lifer, Hanners says. "Mak said he gets this call from his mom: 'Mak, there's this man here in Africa, says he's your coach,' ". At which point, Baddour faced as unenviable a position as any athletic director in the country: Who do you hire to fill Dean Smiths shoes? 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. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Guthridge was the consensus National Coach of the Year in 1998. Though he was a head coach for a short time, he gracefully carried on a culture and legacy that many thought could not be perpetuated. Theres no way you could dream, Hanners says, anyone would necessarily do better.. The team performs dazzling spins and flips at campus events and even competes against other universities and jump rope clubs from around the country. Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun announced his retirement Thursday. (Jed Jacobsohn / ALLSPORT via Getty), Theres a world where Ford got his chance to be UNCs head coach, and maybe still would be in that position. Division regular season champion In public, he was never going to be the center of attention. Guthridge was the longtime assistant to UNC coach Dean Smith, who died earlier this year. You will be missed. But when Guthridge retired, Williamsthen playing with the Seattle Sonicsmade the effort to find a commercial flight to Chapel . "He, like Coach Smith, was more of a mentor and father figure than anything else. 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. 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. The announcement came nearly two months after the 6-10 center led the Boston . Ndiaye even tried cracking the ice by joking that Guthridges years as head coach probably hadnt hurt his wallet. He also was head golf coach for the Wildcats. A Tar Heel passing him in the hallway might greet him with a quick head nod and a greeting of, Coach. Guthridge would invariably respond with a similar head nod and, Player.. In other words, why Smith walked away at the exact moment he did. And then Bill can decide along the way what he wants to do.. He, like Coach Smith, was more of a mentor and father figure than anything else. 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. But theres another alternate history with extreme on-court implications that might have forced his hand. He wasnt going to entertain a room full of boosters with behind the scenes stories. Just like Smith, Guthridge found a way to impact his players beyond teaching them offensive and defensive principles. 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. 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. There is one final thing, though, that seems to be consensus, the one aspect of this entire hypothetical that no one can seem to get over: that the reason there are still enduring questions about what Smith could have accomplished in those extra four seasons is because those are the same questions Smith himself always carried. He was a kind soul with a strong, competitive spirit. That Plan B, clearly, was Guthridge. "I'd always set my time to GST, 10 minutes ahead.". Chapel Hill, N.C. For all of his wins and championships, the Olympic gold medal, tactical innovations, social impact and fertile coaching tree, Dean Smiths unselfishness defined his career to an enormous, but often overlooked, extent. 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. When Smith was needlessly ejected from the 1991 Final Four, it was Guthridge who was furious in the tunnel after the game. He always knew what he was doing.. If he had, then thats where the what-ifs really go wild. But it is my opinion that he expected, when he first told me that, that he would continue to be the coach.. He was and has been overshadowed and a bit lost in the shuffle of UNC basketball coaches by his lifelong friend, former UNC head coach Dean Smith (1961 to 1997), and current UNC head coach Roy Williams, who was an assistant coach along with Guthridge at UNC from 1978 to 1988. SCNext Top 25: Ranking the best high school boys' basketball teams in the 2022-23 season, Brown: There will never be another Bill Guthridge. Try a week on us. I wouldve never thought of that in a million years.. Coach Smith always had a plan. His desire to be a coach I dont think ever stopped, Hanners said. 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. Our condolences go out to his family and friends.. 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. Baddour was scheduled to travel with the football program that day for a game at TCU, but before leaving he spoke to Smith on the phone. Guthridge took over when Smith retired after 36 seasons in October 1997. He was a lifetime assistant coach for whom Dean did a solid. Im crying because I failed you guys. Guthridge retired after the season, having spent the first 43 years of his adult life as a player, high school coach, and college coach. Because I know Coach Smiths plan long-term, at least at that time, was to prepare the team for Phil to take over.. Ford whispered for Hanners to try running 21 defense really sagging off defenders, even inside the 3-point line. Later during that conversation, I suggested to Smith that he still had a lot of quality coaching mileage left and that maybe he should consider returning for an encore. Revisionist history does offer some diverging paths, though. That not-wanting-to-step-on-toes thing? Only different alternate realities. He joined Ohio States Fred Taylor as just the second man in history to lead teams to two Final Fours in his first three seasons as a head coach. Coach Guthridge is the best I have ever seen in selecting potential in high school players, Smith once said, according to the teams website. He came up with the idea that Dean Smith, having . 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. Recharge your batteries, they told him. Penn State was a good situation, he said in an interview in 2010. We didnt play well for just five minutes, and that decided the game.. #RIP. In that July or August period, when Coach Smith basically told Coach Guthridge for the very last time in his life, Im not ready, Im not gonna do it again, then I think Coach Guthridge told him at that point that hed really like to try, Hanners says. He has a keen sense of which ones will be very good players and which ones may be overrated. His legacy lives on in each of the players who were privileged to call him Coach and countless Tar Heels and people across the nation who admired him. He was like Coach Guthridge in that both of them loved and bled Carolina blue so much that they never wanted to leave the program.. And that brings us full-circle, back to the original what-if: What if Dean Smith had finished out his contract, which ran through the end of the 2000-01 season? In our prayers. Guthridge was a player and then an assistant coach at Kansas State . A relatively quiet man with a wonderful and dry sense of humor. He was 77. Watch more top videos, highlights, and B/R original content, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. 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. Brendan Marks covers Duke and North Carolina basketball for The Athletic. Case in point. In five years on Winter's staff, Guthridge helped lead the Wildcats to a 9343 (.684) record, a pair of Big Eight Conference crowns, and the NCAA Final Four in 1964. Looking around at his devastated players in the locker room, Guthridge realized he simply couldnt leave. He was inducted into the N.C. Sports Hall of Fame in 2013. Capital Financial - Learn how to secure lifetime retirement income. 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. Smith was fresh off his 11th Final Four and had just passed Adolph Rupp for the most wins by any college basketball coach in history. Calhoun, elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2005, is . Assistant coach Phil Ford is at right. The latest in the sports world, emailed daily. in mathematics in 1960 and an M.A. Guthridge also gave to the University away from basketball. From 1972 onward, he was Smith's top assistant. That was probably six or seven years later where somebody else might recognize it. School officials stressed that Guthridge was not merely a placeholder for then-Kansas coach Roy Williams, signing him to a five-year contract. Kansas chancellor Robert Hemenway said the school was privileged to have Williams. When coach Smith retired in 1997, after a tenure of 36 season, Guthridge took over the job to begin a reign of great basketball playing at UNC. 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. 33 yrs on UNC bench. Prior to that, Guthridge served as Smith's assistant coach for 30 years. Lets say youve got a 35-year-old guy. The first is, if Guthridge hadnt wanted the job, would Williams have taken it? "We'd always say there were so many time zones -- Eastern Standard Time, Central Standard Time -- but the most important was GST: Guthridge Standard Time," Peterson said. Im like, Coach, we won it, congrats! Jamison remembers. Former University of North Carolina basketball coach Bill Guthridge, 77, died Tuesday from a heart condition. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Like his lifelong friend and mentor, Coach Dean Smith, he led by example instilling values of kindness, discipline and a strong work ethic. Why bring those up? We offer our deepest condolences to the Guthridge family as they grieve the loss of a wonderful husband and father.. Why would you stay? (Smith told me), Its just not coming back. Fast-forward to present day, and he has surpassed Smith in both national championships and wins. Smith and Guthridge had long maintained they'd. The school scheduled a news conference for 2:30 p.m. today. Together, they taught us basketball is secondary. If Bill Guthridge doesnt look familiar to you as a UNC-Chapel Hill head basketball coach, theres a very good reason for that. Who will win each 2023 conference tournament? As they were chatting, Guthridge, who died in 2015, grabbed Ndiayes arm. North Carolina made 10 trips to the Final Four and won two national championships during the time Smith and Guthridge spent together. By the way, Dean Smith basically forced UNC to hire Guthridge, his long-time assistant, when El Deano suddenly retired in October 1997, just before the beginning of the hoops season. Neither Davis nor athletic director Ron Wellman would comment on his departure. Whatve you got to prove then?. Dean Smiths hourglass, it seemed, had an endless amount of sand. So was Williams always fated to end up back at North Carolina? You wouldnt think that would work, but it did. He needed to hear that from Guthridge. (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 . After 36 years as the coach at North Carolina, it kept trickling down, grain by grain. "All I can say is I'm pursuing other opportunities," Davis said. But the Tar Heels suffered a soul-crushing NCAA Tournament loss that also ended Phil Fords career. Guthridge was completely committed to Carolina basketball, and he wanted to make sure everyone else in the program felt the same way. He was North Carolina basketball, the constant as the new building was built in his honor and the banners in the rafters accumulated, the link from Scott to Ford to Jordan to Stackhouse. "When Coach Smith announced he was retiring and that Coach Guthridge was taking over, then it all clicked into place for me," Hanners says. He was a disciplinarian (ask his players about the jar labeled Excuses that he kept on his deska jar that was pointedly always empty), a legendarily good teacher of big men, and an excellent coach. As good a person as I ever met. He bought into everything. In that scenario, Williams never leaves Kansas and Ford probably never leaves North Carolina. But the season, and that loss specifically, never faded from their collective consciousness. 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. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. 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. It has to be one of those., Williams talked Thursday night with Kansas athletic director Bob Frederick. Dean Smith unexpectedly retired as head basketball coach at North Carolina just two months before the start of the 1997-98 season, and Guthridge was immediately named his successor. Hed been given a five-year contract when he took over for Smith, because the administration feared recruits would stop coming if they thought Guthridge could retire at any moment. Its hard, man. (LogOut/ As a coach, he was stubbornly competitive. I really believe thats exactly what happened.. He never called me at home, unless it was something dire, Hanners says, but he said, How would you feel about meeting me in the office early on Monday at 7 to go over some things before everyone gets there? Hanners obliged, trying to ease Guthridges feeling that he was somewhat out of touch. I would have been as vigorous and go after that as hard as I could possibly go.. 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 played or coached in 14 Final Fours, more than any person in NCAA history. Change). 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. Hed grow bored of golf, and once that happened, his staff knew hed summoned up the energy for another go-around. Guthridge also handled many day-to-day responsibilities in the program and oversaw UNC's summer basketball camps. 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. Bill Guthridge was a gentleman coach, but a fierce competitor, and an incredibly loyal member of Dean Smiths staff for three decades, said UNC Director of Athletics Bubba Cunningham. The complaints turned to praise after the teams unlikely Final Four appearance. Ndiaye comforted his coach, who had become a friend in time. But it was all as a team, no one mans fault or wrongdoing for the groups shortcoming. The team fundamentally changed, that opportunity disappearing into the ether. Everybody would have loved Coach Ford to get the opportunity, Frederick says. What Smith left behind was arguably the most talented team hed ever assembled: a pair of future NBA All-Stars, Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison; the programs all-time assists leader, point guard Ed Cota; a lights-out shooter, Shammond Williams; a frontcourt enforcer, Makhtar Ndiaye; and much more. If Williams had said no, then who might have been offered the job? In 2000, the Tar Heels struggled in the regular season, falling out of the polls for the first time since the start of the 199091 season. He was enormously committed to attention to detail and organization, says Dick Baddour, a longtime university administrator who served as athletic director from 1997 to 2011. Copyright 2013 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. With Williams, it was the restoration of the family, three national championships and potentially many more years. The protege was named Naismith College Coach of the Year in his first season as Smith's replacement. When it was his turn as head coach, he immediately won an ACC championship and took two teams to the Final Four. Dick, lets talk on Monday, but Im pretty sure Im gonna tell you Monday its time to transition, Baddour remembers. With a wealth of returning talent, Guthridge instituted a "six starters" system, whereby the team's top six players, Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter, Ed Cota, Shammond Williams, Ademola Okulaja, and Makhtar N'Diaye rotated positions in the starting five. We offer our deepest sympathies to Bills family, friends and the entire North Carolina basketball community.. 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. 1 "The End of Absence" Michael Harris, Pt. The Tar Heels then went 24-10 in 1998-99 but were upset by Weber State in the first round of the NCAA tournament. As he famously said at Smiths retirement news conference, I always thought we would ride off into the sun together.. As things went, by the end of the 1999-2000 season which concluded with a surprise Final Four run, Guthridges second trip in three seasons Smiths right-hand man was finally ready to step away himself. It was the 14th time Guthridge participated in the Final Four. When Smith retired as Division I's winningest men's coach shortly before the 1997-98 season, Guthridge was promoted to replace him, and he guided the Tar Heels to two Final Fours in three seasons. The University is currently operating under normal conditions. All the scheduling calls, speeches for adoring donors, piles and piles of paperwork that accompanied seemingly everything he did. Perhaps, at last, somewhere in his mind, Coach Guthridge finally made the decision to retire from this physical life. Even 22 years after turning down the Nittany Lions, Guthridge still couldnt quite bear to leave. 17 Miami at Cameron Indoor stadium, Report: Sylvia Hatchell made racially insensitive remarks, forced players to compete while hurt, NC State makes NIT, AD Debbie Yow upset Wolfpack not invited to Big Dance, NC State extends Doeren's contract through 2023, UNC women continue on despite Hatchell's absence, Forty years later, the story of '83 never gets old for NC State, Interactive 2023 NCHSAA boys & girls basketball state playoff brackets, What 7 classes could look like in the NCHSAA if realignment amendment passes, Raleigh-Durham Skyhawks: The football team that never won, Raising money for cancer research, playing golf and being a grandparent: Roy Williams dons retirement hat in style, Top sports stories of 2022 from WRAL SportsFan - The Biggest Sports Stories of 2022, Complete HSOT all-state football team revealed, HSOT Watch List: Boys basketball players to look out for in the 2022-2023 season, North Carolina high school sports scoreboard, 'Going to get left behind': NC State, Duke, UNC hope transfer portal delivers for men's basketball teams, If the Los Angeles Lakers stumble to start 2022-23 season, Mike Krzyzewski is waiting in 'retirement', The Fan plays 'Dungeons & Dragons' for ACC realignment, Former NC State AD Lee Fowler on ACC's 2005 expansion: 'It was a crazy 24 hours'. It didnt bother me that I was a lousy coach, and when we started winning I was a better coach. [6], National champion Williams famously turned him down, opting to remain at Kansas, where hed built a Carolina-esque family dynamic (at Smiths alma mater, to boot). Its not what gets remembered for the rest of your life, at least not at a place like North Carolina. Note: Former University of North Carolina mens basketball coach Bill Guthridge passed away May 12. Guthridge coached North Carolina to the Final Four in his first season before losing to Utah. He saw his memory issues coming long before the world did. At age 66 and in sound health, Smith easily could have coached another five or more seasons and done so with the same recruiting success that allowed him to turn over a team with Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter, Ed Cota and Shammond Williams to Guthridge. Carolina Basketball confirmed the news on Twitter: Sad news. 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