After Coach Guthridges retirement in 2003, he and Coach Smith stayed in close contact, visiting each other frequently. Carolina Basketball confirmed the news on Twitter: Sad news. In 1998, Guthridge inherited a team that had been to the 1997 Final Four the previous year under Smith. Did Bill Guthridge win national championship? Revisionist history does offer some diverging paths, though. No, I couldnt even consider that, Smith said. Before their first-round exit in 2021, this was the only time that the Tar Heels failed to win a game in the tournament since it expanded to 64 teams (and dropped first-round byes) in 1985. Just a really good man who made Carolina, the ACC and college basketball better.. That said, its worth remembering that he told Williams just a few years ago that perhaps 66 was too early to retire, given his near flawless health at the time. 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'. Conference regular season champion 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. But I know thats something that bothered him to his death, Ndiaye says. Postseason invitational champion when UNC named longtime assistant Bill Guthridge as his successor. 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. You wouldnt think that would work, but it did. The little doo-doos, Smith called them, the administrative tasks just within the purview of his job responsibilities. After Coach Guthridge's retirement in 2003, he and Coach Smith stayed in close contact, visiting each other frequently. The closest he came to leaving Chapel Hill was 1978, when he verbally accepted the head coaching job at Penn State. 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. So I just feel like we got robbed.. ", Roy: "I think that not only did he coach me on the freshman team he was another mentor. He was a kind soul with a strong, competitive spirit. All rights reserved. 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. 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. He was my friend, a father figure, a big brother for me just like he was for so many players," current UNC coach Roy Williams said. The people who knew him best werent surprised he went to two Final Fours in three seasons.. Note: Former University of North Carolina mens basketball coach Bill Guthridge passed away May 12. They made sure we knew it wasnt the most important thing in the world, but that we had been given a talent, and it was our job to use it., The Carolina community mourns the passing of Bill Guthridge, a great coach, devoted friend and loyal Tar Heel. He was even more important to me. Or does Doherty get his chance regardless? He will certainly be remembered for what he did as opposed to what else he might have done. The ones he did have Coach Guthridge tried to fill. But it really wasnt and we both knew it. 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. There were reports that Michigan was interested in him at the time His only drawback was a DUI arrest in September 1998, after which he was temporarily placed on leave. While a student at Kansas State, Guthridge played guard under head coach Fred "Tex" Winter, and helped the team advance to the 1958 Final Four. "My sympathies go out to his wife, Leesie, and their kids and family.". He was on the sidelines for a record 73 NCAA Tournament victories, including 71 at Carolina and two at Kansas State. 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. 1 team in America. Longtime North Carolina basketball coach Bill Guthridge died Tuesday night. "I'm not up with it," Guthridge said at one point, when he tried to remember taking over as UNC's head coach in 1997 after Smith retired. 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 . He led the program to a pair of Final Four appearances in three seasons at the helm before retiring following the 1999-2000 campaign. I dont think I have ever heard of anyone that didnt like and respect Bill Guthridge. In his first year as head coach, he led the the team . Bill Guthridge, who led North Carolina to two Final Four appearances in his three seasons as basketball coach of the Tar Heels, will announce his retirement today, the Associated Press reported. People could misinterpret 2 p.m.perhaps it really meant 1:45, or maybe 2:15. And with Guthridge having gotten his shot, there would have been no issues of whose turn it was. Coach Smith began showing signs of cognitive impairment before Coach Guthridge did. Guthridge took over when Smith retired after 36 seasons in October 1997. 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.. The fact that he felt like he failed us.. 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? Its hard, man. 3 "The End of Absence" Michael Harris. Guthridge went 80-28 from 1997 to 2000 before retiring in June 2000. "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. Kansas chancellor Robert Hemenway said the school was privileged to have Williams. It was more a series of passing conversations, regular updates about the coachs state of mind. He directed UNC to the 1998 Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament championship and was named the ACC Coach of the Year. Guthridge also took a less talented team to the Final Four in 2000. We ended up beating em easily, and I thanked him later for it, Hanners says. "Coach Guthridge was instrumental in recruiting me to UNC and I have so many great memories of him and the lessons he taught me. But when Baddour and Guthridge did finally meet, Guthridge expressed a desire to try his hand. Guthridge could deal with Dean's irritability, his need to control the smallest things. That possibility isnt one Baddour had previously considered. He was instrumental in helping lure Williams back to North Carolina. On the day of Smiths retirement, The Washington Post reported Smith wants his other longtime assistant, former Tar Heels point guard Phil Ford, eventually to become the coach, a source said. Ford was arguably Smiths best player ever, and UNCs all-time leading scorer at the time. 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. To combat that fatigue, every summer, Smiths assistant coaches urged him to get out and enjoy life. But in hindsight, Hanners says there were clues that everything might not have been like normal. 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. When did Bill Guthridge coach at UNC? "All I can say is I'm pursuing other opportunities," Davis said. Penn State was a good situation, he said in an interview in 2010. 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. Its very much a possibility, everyone admits. 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. . He wasnt going to entertain a room full of boosters with behind the scenes stories. Guthridge was an assistant coach along with Hall of Famer John Thompson under Smith in 1976 when the U.S. won the Olympic gold medal in Montreal. Thank you Coach Gut for the many lessons you taught us at UNC. 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? Guthridge coached three years and took the Tar Heels to two Final Fours. You will be missed. Peterson -- who roomed with Jordan on those early 1980s teams -- said Guthridge kept the program going off the court, with the assistant making him run the school's golf course at 6 a.m. as punishment for once being late. Well if hes got a five-year contract, you know hes gonna coach five years. Now Guthridge, 77, is enduring a similarly cruel fate . Bill Guthridge, who led North Carolina to two Final Four appearances in his three seasons as basketball coach of the Tar Heels, will announce his retirement today, the Associated Press reported. 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. He stepped down 2 months later. 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. In fact, most of that team reconvened in St. Louis in 2005 for Williams first championship game at North Carolina. Guthridge would still call on Smith, after all, to speak to the team at certain times. Coach Smith always had a plan. Guthridge was a player and then an assistant coach at Kansas State . Hed have been two years into a rebuild at Notre Dame, and perhaps less reluctant to leave. "He was my coach, he was another mentor. Hed have retired with a championship trophy, and then let someone else step right in, Ndiaye says. As he would prepare for a basketball practice or game, he was equally intense about attention to detail in scheduling or whatever.. Guthridge was the head coach of the Tar Heels for three seasons following Dean Smith's retirement in 1997. Yeah, Id say that was more likely than unlikely., I wouldve gone to where I went two years later, he says. William Wallace Guthridge (July 27, 1937 May 12, 2015) was an American college basketball coach. He came up with the idea that Dean Smith, having . Its one game, Jamison says. School officials stressed that Guthridge was not merely a placeholder for then-Kansas coach Roy Williams, signing him to a five-year contract. The death of Guthridges mother, Betty, 96, two days before the Tar Heels played Tennessee at Knoxville in the NCAA South Regional semifinals also contributed to a difficult season. He was a friend. So why leave?, His dry sense of humor was legendary among his players. That season, he led the Tar Heels to a 34-4 record and the final No. Whether Williams would have returned at that time is impossible to say. 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. 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. He always knew what he was doing.. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. 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. Perhaps, at last, somewhere in his mind, Coach Guthridge finally made the decision to retire from this physical life. Then there are the other options from Smiths tree: Karl and Fogler and even Larry Brown. That Plan B, clearly, was Guthridge. 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. Some fans criticized Guthridge last season when the Tar Heels went through a four-game losing streak in January and entered the post-season with 13 losses. Former UNC Coach Bill Guthridge passed away last night at age 77 w/ family at his side. He spurned offers to interview for head coaching vacancies, preferring to remain out of the spotlight and continuing to team with Smith. He handed out handwritten notes instead. Hed grow bored of golf, and once that happened, his staff knew hed summoned up the energy for another go-around. I think its time I make this decision. SCNext Top 25: Ranking the best high school boys' basketball teams in the 2022-23 season, Brown: There will never be another Bill Guthridge. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. You will be missed. Recharge your batteries, they told him. Other opportunities had arisen over time, and yet Guthridge always remained as Smiths assistant. That not-wanting-to-step-on-toes thing? Matt Doherty, who succeeded Guthridge as Tar Heels coach and served in that capacity for three seasons, tweeted his condolences Wednesday. Go play golf. (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 . I wouldve never thought of that in a million years.. Although four years further down the line, theres skepticism Guthridge, at the age of 64 or 65, would still have been interested in taking a crack. (Robert Willett / Tribune News Service via Getty). He said Friday he now knows how Smith felt in 1997 when he stepped down. Hed have been a lifer, Hanners says. The announcement came nearly two months after the 6-10 center led the Boston . 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/ Ill just say this, says Dave Hanners, one of Smiths longtime assistants. Lets say youve got a 35-year-old guy. On June 30th in 1969, Bill Russell announced his retirement from professional basketball after a 13-year NBA career. He was a father figure.". Whats best for the players future has to come first, Smith said of the way he dealt with McAdoo, who became the second overall pick the in 72 NBA draft. 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. It was Guthridge who was the creator of the well-known and slightly strange departure times for Carolina travel parties. As a coach, he was stubbornly competitive. Maybe Phil Ford wouldve been the head coach then, Ndiaye says. Perhaps, at last, somewhere in his mind, Coach Guthridge finally made the decision it was time for him to retire from this physical life. Of course, Smith did retire. Guthridge did it all with a dry wit and style. 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. 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? Jordan is among many Tar Heels who had tremendous respect for Guthridge. Try a week on us. On Oct. 9, 1997, Smith called it quits. At one point he thought he wanted to be a head coach, but he also decided that he really enjoyed Coach Smith and the program here and why should he leave when he has what he thought was the perfect job., Bill was uniquely special. 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. At the time, their run of 172 consecutive weeks in the AP Poll was the second-longest in college basketball history. He has saved many scholarships when he has suggested backing off certain players, and of course, has selected some great ones who matriculated at Chapel Hill., UNC coach Bill Guthridge gives instructions during a game in the 99-00 season. As they were chatting, Guthridge, who died in 2015, grabbed Ndiayes arm. 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. 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. He played or coached in 14 Final Fours, more than any person in NCAA history. I talk to Coach Williams all the time, and I asked him, Whats the best advice Coach Smith ever gave you? And he said, Antawn, Coach Smith told me just coach til you cant coach anymore. The only thing he regretted was he felt like he stopped coaching too early.. And as an assistant for Smith for nine seasons, he had both a championship pedigree and a deep understanding of how the program operated. 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. The Blue Sky Scholars Program gives scholarship support to middle-income parents and students from North Carolina. "This is another terrible loss for the Carolina basketball family," former North Carolina player and current Charlotte Hornets owner Michael Jordan said in a statement to The Associated Press. In retrospect, Smiths premature exit was a mistake on all fronts. The protege was named Naismith College Coach of the Year in his first season as Smith's replacement. 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. He, like Coach Smith, was more of a mentor and father figure than anything else. The University of North Carolina has lost a dear friend, as haveI, andIknow that we will all miss him greatly., Im extremely saddened by the passing of Coach Guthridge, aka Coach Gut, especially coming so close to the loss of Coach Smith. One year against Laurinburg, Hanners squad was down about 18 with under nine minutes to play; suddenly, he felt Ford come up behind him. 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. 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. But the season, and that loss specifically, never faded from their collective consciousness. In his tenure at UNC, Guthridge coached five National Players of the Year, six ACC Players of the Year, five ACC Rookies of the Year and 28 first-team All-ACC players. Baddour says he never got that far down the line because of Guthridges interest. From 1972 onward, he was Smith's top assistant. Guthridge took over when Smith retired after 36 seasons in October 1997. Smith died on Feb. 7 after suffering for years from a neurological disorder that robbed him of his memories. 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. Looking around at his devastated players in the locker room, Guthridge realized he simply couldnt leave. Former UNC Coach Bill Guthridge passed away last night at age 77 w/ family at his side. Prior to that, Guthridge served as Smith's assistant coach for 30 years. Former UNC Coach Bill Guthridge passed away last night at age 77 w/ family at his side. Or perhaps someone else from Smiths coaching tree, such as George Karl or Eddie Fogler? His lack of recruiting is why they went 8-20 shortly thereafter. Guthridge also handled many day-to-day responsibilities in the program and oversaw UNC's summer basketball camps. . `` it really wasnt and we both knew it all fronts always remained as assistant. 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