He was inducted into the N.C. Sports Hall of Fame in 2013. What if he hadnt retired when he did? 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. The announcement came nearly two months after the 6-10 center led the Boston . It didnt bother me that I was a lousy coach, and when we started winning I was a better coach. 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. I wouldve gone to Roy.. 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. That first five minutes, you can have all the confidence in the world, but if you go down 23-8 or 13-4, you just put so much pressure on yourself. 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 stopped when he did because he was afraid his memory wasnt as good as it was or had been. Guthridge did it all with a dry wit and style. Try a week on us. 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. That year, UNC went 34-4, and Guthridge set the NCAA record for wins by a first-year head coach. Its funny, I talk to (Williams) players, and with the thought of the day, and the way things are run, and I go to their practices, Jamison says, its Coach Gut, Coach Smith in a younger body.. The little doo-doos, Smith called them, the administrative tasks just within the purview of his job responsibilities. Coach Guthridge is the best I have ever seen in selecting potential in high school players, Smith once said, according to the teams website. And for as much as he did enjoy those three seasons, the same obligations that wore Smith down got to Guthridge as well. In fact, Guthridge has been involved with 13 teams which have reached the Final Four-as a player at Kansas State in 1958, as an assistant coach with the Wildcats in 1964, as a Tar Heel assistant coach in 1968, 1969, 1972, 1977, 1981, 1982, 1991, 1993, 1995 and 1997, and as UNC's head coach in 1998.. Did Musselman coach in the NBA? The perception of Smiths program might have been that it ran without emotion. Carolina Basketball confirmed the news on Twitter: Sad news. He came up with the idea that Dean Smith, having . "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. You come up one year, and that year you win the national championship. Guthridge also took a less talented team to the Final Four in 2000. His desire to be a coach I dont think ever stopped, Hanners said. The careers and lives of the two coaches from Kansas were solidly intertwined. 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. Note: Former University of North Carolina mens basketball coach Bill Guthridge passed away May 12. He formed a successful partnership with Dean Smith that lasted three decades until Smith retired in 1997. He spurned offers to interview for head coaching vacancies, preferring to remain out of the spotlight and continuing to team with Smith. 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. 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? Lets say youve got a 35-year-old guy. CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Former University of North Carolina head coach Bill Guthridge, who also served 30 years as an assistant to Dean Smith, died Tuesday night at age 77, university officials confirmed on Wednesday. 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. 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. 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.. He got his taste. Williams and Ndiaye both graduated. Other opportunities had arisen over time, and yet Guthridge always remained as Smiths assistant. [6], National champion He led the program to a pair of Final Four appearances in three seasons at the helm before retiring following the 1999-2000 campaign. Calhoun, elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2005, is . He was 77. He knows where he is and who he is, but it's often difficult for him. 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. And so those players, all of them, kick around the questions to this day. (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 . Yeah, Id say that was more likely than unlikely., I wouldve gone to where I went two years later, he says. You will be missed. That was quelled, but the chancellor had another thought: To the chancellor and many fans Williams was the obvious choice to succeed Smith. Bill Guthridge was consistently portrayed as a quiet gentleman. 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. 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. I wouldve never thought of that in a million years.. One year against Laurinburg, Hanners squad was down about 18 with under nine minutes to play; suddenly, he felt Ford come up behind him. But if Smith was selfless in his handling of McAdoo, it was nothing compared to Smiths shocking retirement on Oct. 9, 1997. 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. Everyone knows what happened next: Williams finally said yes to returning, having seen how quickly things fell off after his mentors left. 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 . 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. Revisionist history does offer some diverging paths, though. Coach Smith had so many strengths and very few weaknesses. After waiting an uncharacteristically long time to respond, he smiled and thanked me. But there was no questioning the depth of their relationship. 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. The little doo-doos got him in the end, Hanners says. When Coach Smith announced he was retiring and that Coach Guthridge was taking over, then it all clicked into place for me, Hanners says. 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. But the season, and that loss specifically, never faded from their collective consciousness. 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]. (LogOut/ Recharge your batteries, they told him. Tim Crothers. He won more games than any college head coach in history after just two seasons and tied N.C. States Everett Case for most coaching victories after three years. Veteran sports reporter Peter Gammons had high praise for the former coach: Saddened to learn Bill Guthridge passed away. He has a keen sense of which ones will be very good players and which ones may be overrated. For starters, Baddour says he still would have offered Guthridge the job first. Guthridge didn't bother to recruit Jason Williams,. He handed out handwritten notes instead. Says losing Guthridge "is another tremendous loss. 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. Bill and Dean, friends for life. When did Bill Guthridge coach at UNC? William Wallace Guthridge (July 27, 1937 May 12, 2015) was an American college basketball coach. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Thank you Coach Gut for the many lessons you taught us at UNC. But it was as if the whole contraption was tilted, resting at an incline so that the sand would never get to the bottom. That team still went 34-4, losing to Utah in the Final Four. 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. 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. And I said, I cant say to you with certainty what Bills gonna do, but this is how we have to approach it. And by the end of every summer, Smith returned freshly rejuvenated. Im like, Coach, we won it, congrats! Jamison remembers. But he decided he did not have the energy to continue coaching, the AP reported. If you previously used a social network to login to WRALSportsFan.com, click the Forgot your password link to reset your password. That team reached the Final Four and almost reached the title game even though Jamison and Williams missed 22 field-goal attempts in a 65-59 semifinal loss to Utah. Once, in 1978, he did nearly take the head coaching job at Penn State but he changed his mind at the airport and never thought about leaving Chapel Hill again. He said that although he was impressed with the athletic department personnel and basketball program, withdrawing his name was "in the best interest of myself and my family.". Following the 199798 season, several organizations named him National Coach of the Year and he received the Naismith College Coach of the Year award. (LogOut/ Why bring those up? "I'd always set my time to GST, 10 minutes ahead.". Its funny that were doing this story, Jamison says. Prior to that, Guthridge served as Smith's assistant coach for 30 years. 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. Go play golf. His loss is deeply felt by our university and the basketball world. I really believe thats exactly what happened.. 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. After those brief flirtations with head coaching positions, Guthridge settled in as UNC's top assistant, right up until Dean Smith suddenly retired in October of 1997. But it is my opinion that he expected, when he first told me that, that he would continue to be the coach.. Division regular season and conference tournament champion Current coach Roy Williams referenced Smith's death, which occurred on Feb. 7 of this year, when commenting onGuthridge, via Andrew Carter of theCharlotte Observer: Here's Roy. Hed have retired with a championship trophy, and then let someone else step right in, Ndiaye says. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Dick, lets talk on Monday, but Im pretty sure Im gonna tell you Monday its time to transition, Baddour remembers. Matt Doherty, who succeeded Guthridge as Tar Heels coach and served in that capacity for three seasons, tweeted his condolences Wednesday. He was a lifetime assistant coach for whom Dean did a solid. So why leave?, His dry sense of humor was legendary among his players. It was the 14th time Guthridge participated in the Final Four. You accomplished something that takes some other people 20-plus years to do. He wouldve been gone. "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.". But if Williams had declined the opportunity, as he initially did a year prior? If you played for him you loved him; working with him was a joy. 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. But it really wasnt and we both knew it. You wouldnt think that would work, but it did. 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. 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. The Child and Adolescent Anxiety and Mood Disorders Program is one of the first research programs focused exclusively on addressing the gap in child and adolescent mental health services. And as the confetti fell on UNCs first title A.D. After Dean Guthridge burst into tears alongside his former players. Bill Guthridge was consistently portrayed as a quiet gentleman. And he said, Im not crying because we won. In retrospect, Smiths premature exit was a mistake on all fronts. Smith is now 82 and with some health issues. The latest in the sports world, emailed daily. 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. Thats impossible to know, but Williams was also returning a top-five team, one that was expected to compete for a championship in its own right. It wasnt until Oct. 3, 1997 a Friday about a week before the first practice of the season that Baddour got an indication that Smith wouldnt return. And so even as the coachs hair changed from dark brown to gray to white, his position never did. 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. 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