Coach Smith always had a plan. 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. 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. 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. And so even as the coachs hair changed from dark brown to gray to white, his position never did. Which 16 teams should you buy or fade ahead of March Madness? (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 . We certainly had no idea; he was still the smartest guy, could recall everything he was seeing.. 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. I didnt really have to focus too much on a Plan B, Baddour says. [6], National champion "Mak said he gets this call from his mom: 'Mak, there's this man here in Africa, says he's your coach,' ". After waiting an uncharacteristically long time to respond, he smiled and thanked me. He was known to answer a question such as Coach, do you know what time it is? with a Yes as he walked away. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 33 yrs on UNC bench. 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. He was instrumental in helping lure Williams back to North Carolina. Frederick said he wanted to emphasize to Williams how strongly the university, the community, the people in the state of Kansas and all of our alumni and fans feel about him continuing as the Jayhawk coach forever.. "He was my coach, he was another mentor. 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. When Lefty Driesell declined to shake Smiths hand in the mid-1980s, it was Guthridge who was incensedand had to be prevented from chasing down Driesellnot Smith. He was a perfect sidekick for Coach Smith. Everybody would have loved Coach Ford to get the opportunity, Frederick says. "My sympathies go out to his wife, Leesie, and their kids and family.". Guthridge was a player and then an assistant coach at Kansas State . when UNC named longtime assistant Bill Guthridge as his successor. The careers and lives of the two coaches from Kansas were solidly intertwined. 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. Why bring those up? But looking back, Hanners now believes Guthridge already had an inclination something was afoot. He held tight. And as the confetti fell on UNCs first title A.D. After Dean Guthridge burst into tears alongside his former players. That includes two as a head coach at Carolina, 10 as a Tar Heel assistant coach and one each as a player and assistant coach at his alma mater, Kansas State. He stayed (rather than leave for a head coaching job at another university) because he was enjoying what he was doing and why leave something you know is good for the unknown. From 1972 onward, he was Smith's top assistant. He was a friend. So why leave?, His dry sense of humor was legendary among his players. 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William Wallace Guthridge (July 27, 1937 May 12, 2015) was an American college basketball coach. All the things he couldnt do during the daunting in-season months. 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. 3 "The End of Absence" Michael Harris. In Williams second season in Chapel Hill, he won his first national championship the one the 97 team witnessed. He wasnt an electric radio show guest. Guthridge coached three years and took the Tar Heels to two Final Fours. In other words, why Smith walked away at the exact moment he did. Its hard, man. Guthridge, who like Smith was a. Then he retired, too. Ndiaye remembers taking his son for a campus tour years later, and Guthridge coming out of the Smith Center to greet him. Go play golf. Kansas chancellor Robert Hemenway said the school was privileged to have Williams. Guthridge was Smiths assistant for 30 years. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. 33 yrs on UNC bench. Like his lifelong friend and mentor, Coach Dean Smith, he led by example instilling values of kindness, discipline and a strong work ethic. Which put Baddour on the search for a long-term replacement for the first time. He said Friday he now knows how Smith felt in 1997 when he stepped down. 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? I think its time to turn it over to somebody else, he said at a campus news conference. Or perhaps someone else from Smiths coaching tree, such as George Karl or Eddie Fogler? After Coach Guthridges retirement in 2003, he and Coach Smith stayed in close contact, visiting each other frequently. 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. I remember telling the chancellor that, Baddour says. The protege was named Naismith College Coach of the Year in his first season as Smith's replacement. Williams and Ndiaye both graduated. As he would prepare for a basketball practice or game, he was equally intense about attention to detail in scheduling or whatever.. But theres also the fact that Dean did it his way, which was entirely predictable. What happened, happened. 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. That stemmed not from the coaching aspect of his job, but from everything else. "If he told me to run through that wall to make me better, I'd hit that wall," former North Carolina player and well-traveled college coach Buzz Peterson told The Associated Press. Because before we can consider what might have been, we have to understand why everything played out as it did. (Robert Willett / Tribune News Service via Getty). And everything that happened, for better or worse, led the program to where it is today. The first is, if Guthridge hadnt wanted the job, would Williams have taken it? But in hindsight, Hanners says there were clues that everything might not have been like normal. Whatve you got to prove then?. Spend time with family. In retrospect, Smiths premature exit was a mistake on all fronts. Conference regular season and conference tournament champion 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. Note: Former University of North Carolina mens basketball coach Bill Guthridge passed away May 12. 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. In our prayers. But I already had a better job than that and I was happy here. I needed Bill to tell me, Dick, yes, I want to do this, Baddour says, and he was clear that he wanted to.. Guthridge was completely committed to Carolina basketball, and he wanted to make sure everyone else in the program felt the same way. Guthridge also took a less talented team to the Final Four in 2000. 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 . On June 30th in 1969, Bill Russell announced his retirement from professional basketball after a 13-year NBA career. He had recently been in an assisted living facility in Chapel Hill. Recharge your batteries, they told him. Then there are the other options from Smiths tree: Karl and Fogler and even Larry Brown. #RIP. Looking around at his devastated players in the locker room, Guthridge realized he simply couldnt leave. 2023 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Improving child and adolescent mental health, A message from the chancellor: We are a global university, Carolina Engagement Week Returns for a Second Year, Feb. 27 Through March 3, Book Publishing I: The Process with Christopher Ahn, Parr|Bioethics Joint Lecture: Elizabeth Barnes (University of Virginia), Disability and Health: An Its Complicated Relationship, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Former University of North Carolina mens basketball coach Bill Guthridge passed away May 12. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. As they were chatting, Guthridge, who died in 2015, grabbed Ndiayes arm. The next season, North Carolina earned a #3 seed in the West regional of the NCAA tournament, but was upset in the first round by Weber State in a late game in Seattle. One of the things that made (Smith) so special was his ability to be innovative so certainly, I think we would have had some other ways to attack in a game that we struggled, against Utah in the Final Four.. Carolina Basketball confirmed the news on Twitter: Sad news. "He was an unbelievable assistant to Coach Smith. 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. But it really wasnt and we both knew it. Hed told reporters he expected to honor the remaining four years on his deal. Meanwhile, Creighton coach Dana Altman withdrew his name from consideration. 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. North Carolina made 29 NCAA tournament appearances in Guthridge's 33 years on the staff and finished no worse than third in the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season standings every year -- with 16 first-place finishes and 10 more in second. The perception of Smiths program might have been that it ran without emotion. 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. 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 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. In 1993, he and his wife, Leesie, created the William W. and Elise P. Guthridge Library Fund, which helped with purchasing materials and renovation of the House Undergraduate Library. 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 will certainly be remembered for what he did as opposed to what else he might have done. . It was the 14th time Guthridge participated in the Final Four. He was a lifetime assistant coach for whom Dean did a solid. But Baddour explained to the chancellor that because of Williams respect for Guthridge, hed never have taken the job over his friend. Coach Smith began showing signs of cognitive impairment before Coach Guthridge did. He once told a newspaper he never left the program because the other 300 Division I head-coaching jobs weren't better than his job as an assistant. He had recently been in an assisted living facility in Chapel Hill. (Ford) goes, Ah, you wouldve seen it sooner or later. Yeah right. His loss is deeply felt by our university and the basketball world. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. The little doo-doos got him in the end, Hanners says. Our condolences go out to his family and friends.. But more than just that team, Smith left behind a mound of questions. Ill really miss this next years team and what those guys have done for me, said Guthridge, whose team last season reached the Final Four before being eliminated in the semifinals. He has a keen sense of which ones will be very good players and which ones may be overrated. When Roy Williams declined the opportunity to be Carolinas head coach in 2000, he had to mend more hurt feelings with Guthridge than with Smith. Guthridge went 80-28 from 1997 to 2000 before retiring in June 2000. And as an assistant for Smith for nine seasons, he had both a championship pedigree and a deep understanding of how the program operated. But if Smith was selfless in his handling of McAdoo, it was nothing compared to Smiths shocking retirement on Oct. 9, 1997. Matt Doherty, who played at UNC while Guthridge was an assistant and then became the school's head coach after Guthridge retired, sent along his condolences: Thank you Coach Gut for the many lessons you taught us at UNC. 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. Here's how the Wolfpack get to 12 wins, Holland Miller puts in extra effort helping younger student athletes at Wilson Christian Academy, Extra hours in the gym and on the road earn Mikayla Taborn the Extra Effort Award, Extra Effort: Bunn's unassuming, tenacious three-sport star Carlee Tart, Krister Sjoblad sets the pace and honors father at Athens Drive, Extra Effort: Jordyn Brown overcomes heart surgery to cap off illustrious SJHS volleyball career, Jimmyll Williams helps Hillside to undefeated regular season, dreams of studying biotech, South Johnston's Lance Parker puts Extra Effort into giving back, Beddingfield twins Nate and Drew O'Neal win the Tom Suiter Extra Effort Award, Extra Effort: Addison Rowan's comeback from cancer, Rocky Mount Academy's Wells Hutson makes extra effort to mentor special needs students, Photos: Duke takes down No. That image of Guthridge is accurate but not complete. 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. It left at 1:57 p.m. His reasoning? [5], He died at his home on May 12, 2015, after an extended illness, alongside his family. Following his stint at Kansas State, Guthridge moved to North Carolina to join the staff of fellow Kansas native Dean Smith. That not-wanting-to-step-on-toes thing? He was no different from Coach Smith or Coach Guthridge. 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 part of me, at the end of the day, thinks Coach Williams was destined to end up back here. Revisionist history does offer some diverging paths, though. 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.". Its very much a possibility, everyone admits. The ones he did have Coach Guthridge tried to fill. That season, he led the Tar Heels to a 34-4 record and the final No. Guthridge retired after the season, having spent the first 43 years of his adult life as a player, high school coach, and college coach. (LogOut/ I would lean a little bit toward the side of Bill saying, Look, Im not on the front end of my career, its great to have done this, what a way to go out, Baddour says. 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. 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, like Coach Smith, was more of a mentor and father figure than anything else. Lets say youve got a 35-year-old guy. The only people who came to know about that line of succession, so to speak, were Baddour, Smith, Guthridge and then-chancellor Michael Hooker, who expressed some concerns about Guthridges age early on. Dean Smith unexpectedly retired as head basketball coach at North Carolina just two months before the start of the 199798 season, and Guthridge was immediately named his successor. After 36 years as the coach at North Carolina, it kept trickling down, grain by grain. So was Williams always fated to end up back at 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. Baddour and Smith never had a lengthy sitdown to discuss the future. 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