He would, however, have just lost his three best players at Kansas in Paul Pierce, Raef LaFrentz and Billy Thomas. Guthridge was completely committed to Carolina basketball, and he wanted to make sure everyone else in the program felt the same way. One year against Laurinburg, Hanners squad was down about 18 with under nine minutes to play; suddenly, he felt Ford come up behind him. Showdown in Durham: NC State and Duke battle for ACC, NCAA seeding, Brownlow: NC State, Duke and Carolina all look to avenge ACC losses on busy basketball Saturday, Welter: I'm not mad, Carolina, just disappointed, AP source: Panthers to meet with QB Derek Carr at combine. Had McAdoo returned, Smiths team would have been much better positioned to deal with David Thompsons stunning impact on NC State, the ACC and the nation. He is one of five people to have appeared in the Final Four as both a player and coach. At Smith's retirement. 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. When it was his turn as head coach, he immediately won an ACC championship and took two teams to the Final Four. It was Guthridge who was the creator of the well-known and slightly strange departure times for Carolina travel parties. A longtime assistant to the legendary Dean Smith, he shall be remembered for his three seasons as head coach of the University of North Carolina Tar Heels. For 30 of his 33 years at Carolina, Guthridge was the behind-the-scenes guy scouting opponents, making sure players got to class on time, disciplining players, getting the players on the bus or airplane and into the hotel, working with office staff on the smallest of details, and recruiting the latter, unlike many coaches, he said he enjoyed immensely. The Kansas native took over the role of head coach following Smith's departure. Guthridge was criticized last season by alumni and fans for losing five games at home the most since World War II and for a record that dropped to 18-13 after a first-round defeat in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament. "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.". He wasnt an electric radio show guest. But the Tar Heels advanced to the Final Four. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. When Bill Guthridge retired as North Carolina's basketball coach in the summer of 2000, it set off a chain reaction that touched the lives of dozens of people in his profession. Ill just say this, says Dave Hanners, one of Smiths longtime assistants. We didnt play well for just five minutes, and that decided the game.. 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. He was a lifetime assistant coach for whom Dean did a solid. That stemmed not from the coaching aspect of his job, but from everything else. Although his individual achievements showcased his ability as a head coach, Guthridge always seemed content working with Smith to develop a top program at North Carolina. The latest in the sports world, emailed daily. 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. I tell people that Coach Smith and Coach Guthridge are my light-skinned fathers, said Antawn Jamison, who was the National Player of the Year for the 1998 team that Guthridge guided to the Final Four. (LogOut/ Born William Wallace Guthridge, he attended Kansas State University where he played guard on the basketball team and helped the Wildcats. 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. I will miss his kindness and wisdom. [6], National champion The people who knew him best werent surprised he went to two Final Fours in three seasons.. And as the confetti fell on UNCs first title A.D. After Dean Guthridge burst into tears alongside his former players. He was even more important to me. 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. 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. He wouldve been gone. 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. Once he asked a manager, whose arms were full of equipment, if he had change for a quarter. Bill Guthridge is best known in Chapel Hill as an assistant coach to Dean Smith, but that isn't the complete picture of the legendary coach. Just like Smith, Guthridge found a way to impact his players beyond teaching them offensive and defensive principles. People could misinterpret 2 p.m.perhaps it really meant 1:45, or maybe 2:15. (LogOut/ Conference tournament champion. in education in 1963. North Carolina made 10 trips to the Final Four and won two national championships during the time Smith and Guthridge spent together. But against the Utes, the Tar Heels fell behind quickly and were never able to catch up. He saw his memory issues coming long before the world did. Hed grow bored of golf, and once that happened, his staff knew hed summoned up the energy for another go-around. He spurned offers to interview for head coaching vacancies, preferring to remain out of the spotlight and continuing to team with Smith. 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. And so even as the coachs hair changed from dark brown to gray to white, his position never did. 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. (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). While serving as an assistant coach, Guthridge turned down several head coaching opportunities, preferring to remain in Chapel Hill working alongside Smith. 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. Guthridge . 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. . Guthridge also gave to the University away from basketball. 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. The closest he came to leaving Chapel Hill was 1978, when he verbally accepted the head coaching job at Penn State. I think its time I make this decision. After graduating from Kansas State, he coached at Scott City High School in Kansas for two seasons before returning to his alma mater as an assistant coach for Tex Winter from 19621967. Fast-forward to present day, and he has surpassed Smith in both national championships and wins. The possibilities were endless, but Baddour is certain of one thing: keeping things in the family was a must. 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. Bill Guthridge was consistently portrayed as a quiet gentleman. Did Bill Guthridge win national championship? But if Williams had declined the opportunity, as he initially did a year prior? I was just happy that the team had success. But it really wasnt and we both knew it. In our prayers. I really believe thats exactly what happened.. If you played for him you loved him; working with him was a joy. 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. I needed Bill to tell me, Dick, yes, I want to do this, Baddour says, and he was clear that he wanted to.. 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. 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. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Subscribe to The Athletic for in-depth coverage of your favorite players, teams, leagues and clubs. 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. The school scheduled a news conference for 2:30 p.m. today. And by the end of every summer, Smith returned freshly rejuvenated. Guthridge was the head coach of the Tar Heels for three seasons following Dean Smith's retirement in 1997. Bill Guthridge was consistently portrayed as a quiet gentleman. Smith died on Feb. 7 after suffering for years from a neurological disorder that robbed him of his memories. Im like, Coach, we won it, congrats! Jamison remembers. He was 77. It was an admirable, honorable action for Smith to take and Guthridge went on to win 80 games in three seasons. The little doo-doos got him in the end, Hanners says. 33 yrs on UNC bench. But he was also one of the most passionate members of the Carolina basketball family in the last 50 years, and was completely devoted to the Tar Heels, to Smith, and to the University of North Carolina. Carolina Jump Rope is making their fellow Tar Heel rethink what it means to jump rope. That was probably six or seven years later where somebody else might recognize it. 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. 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. 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. Copyright 2013 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. After waiting an uncharacteristically long time to respond, he smiled and thanked me. Capital Financial - Learn how to secure lifetime retirement income. 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. Coach Smith began showing signs of cognitive impairment before Coach Guthridge did. Guthridge, 62, said a few weeks ago that he planned to stay on another five or six years. After Coach Guthridges retirement in 2003, he and Coach Smith stayed in close contact, visiting each other frequently. But 1:57 was 1:57. 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. 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. 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. At the time, their run of 172 consecutive weeks in the AP Poll was the second-longest in college basketball history. 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. Its hard, man. In Williams second season in Chapel Hill, he won his first national championship the one the 97 team witnessed. 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. In our prayers. Coach Smith had so many strengths and very few weaknesses, and the weaknesses that he did have Coach Guthridge tried to fill. The inconsistent season came on the heels of a first-round NCAA Tournament loss in 1999. 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. He tried to do every one of those little things that drove Coach Smith crazy. Former UNC Coach Bill Guthridge passed away last night at age 77 w/ family at his side. 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. But the season, and that loss specifically, never faded from their collective consciousness. He had recently been in an assisted living facility in Chapel Hill. Even 22 years after turning down the Nittany Lions, Guthridge still couldnt quite bear to leave. Smith wanted longtime assistant Bill Guthridge (age 60 at the time) to be a head coach and enjoy the competitive and financial rewards of the job. 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 a kind soul with a strong, competitive spirit. 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