What happened, happened. Guthridge was completely committed to Carolina basketball, and he wanted to make sure everyone else in the program felt the same way. Former UNC Director of Athletics Dick Baddour: Bill was one of the most respected and admired people I have known. He was a perfect sidekick for Coach Smith. 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. Just a really good man who made Carolina, the ACC and college basketball better.. 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. SCNext Top 25: Ranking the best high school boys' basketball teams in the 2022-23 season, Brown: There will never be another Bill Guthridge. 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. Following the 199798 season, several organizations named him National Coach of the Year and he received the Naismith College Coach of the Year award. Williams and Ndiaye both graduated. Guthridge didn't bother to recruit Jason Williams,. Copyright 2013 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. 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. 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. He stopped when he did because he was afraid his memory wasnt as good as it was or had been. 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 was a player and then an assistant coach at Kansas State . I would have been as vigorous and go after that as hard as I could possibly go.. 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. CHAPEL HILL, N.C. ? MIAMI: Tulane athletic director Rick Dickson acknowledged he has given the school permission to talk to Green Wave coach Perry Clark about replacing Leonard Hamilton. If Bill Guthridge doesnt look familiar to you as a UNC-Chapel Hill head basketball coach, theres a very good reason for that. But the season, and that loss specifically, never faded from their collective consciousness. For what? The complaints turned to praise after the teams unlikely Final Four appearance. Perhaps, at last, somewhere in his mind, Coach Guthridge finally made the decision to retire from this physical life. But more than just that team, Smith left behind a mound of questions. 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. You wouldnt think that would work, but it did. I dont think he went in that summer thinking, Im not gonna be the basketball coach by fall, Baddour says. On Oct. 9, 1997, Smith called it quits. Ill just say this, says Dave Hanners, one of Smiths longtime assistants. As they were chatting, Guthridge, who died in 2015, grabbed Ndiayes arm. 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. The Parsons, Kan., native posted an 80-28 record in three seasons as Carolinas head coach, leading the 1998 and 2000 teams to the Final Four. All the things he couldnt do during the daunting in-season months. For more than three decades, Coach Guthridge served this University he loved so much with a deep commitment to academic and athletic excellence. Watch more top videos, highlights, and B/R original content, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Making the Final Four is a tremendous accomplishment but its not what you chase. "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. That aspect of his character first surfaced in 1972, when the University of North Carolina basketball coach left Tar Heel fans bewildered by announcing that he wanted junior star forward Robert McAdoo to turn pro rather than return for the 1972-73 season. The next day, Kenny Smith said, assistant coach Bill Guthridge wasn't at practice. 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. The Kansas native took over the role of head coach following Smith's departure. Then there are the other options from Smiths tree: Karl and Fogler and even Larry Brown. 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. Of course, its not like UNC had a bad season in Guthridges first year. And then Bill can decide along the way what he wants to do.. 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. Veteran sports reporter Peter Gammons had high praise for the former coach: Saddened to learn Bill Guthridge passed away. He also was an assistant to Smith on the 1976 U.S. Olympic team that won the gold medal in Montreal. I think its time to turn it over to somebody else, he said at a campus news conference. 33 yrs on UNC bench. Guthridge was completely content in the role of a lifetime assistant and the Smith/Guthridge combo would have been weakened had Guthridge retired early. 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'. 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. Division regular season and conference tournament champion 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. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. His loss is deeply felt by our university and the basketball world. But it really wasnt and we both knew it. Coach Smith always had a plan. I want to spend the weekend thinking about it. He always knew what he was doing.. The 1971-72 Tar Heels had finished 26-5 but were upset by Florida State (not an ACC member at the time) in the NCAA Final Four semifinals. That image of Guthridge is accurate but not complete. Conference regular season and conference tournament champion While serving as an assistant coach, Guthridge turned down several head coaching opportunities, preferring to remain in Chapel Hill working alongside Smith. [5], He died at his home on May 12, 2015, after an extended illness, alongside his family. He knows where he is and who he is, but it's often difficult for him. Tim Crothers. Change). 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. 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? Carolina Basketball confirmed the news on Twitter: Sad news. The latest in the sports world, emailed daily. He also coached 66 players who were selected in the NBA and/or ABA drafts. 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. "From cultivating a global mindset across campus to partnering with researchers across the world, we make connections that strengthen our state and establish Carolina as a leading global public research university.". 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. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. 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. He had interviewed for the Texas job, which went to Rick Barnes, after the 1998 season, after all. 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