People could misinterpret 2 p.m.perhaps it really meant 1:45, or maybe 2:15. Unfortunately, it took UNC two tries to find that leader. He also coached 66 players who were selected in the NBA and/or ABA drafts. Bill Guthridge was consistently portrayed as a quiet gentleman. Guthridge took over when Smith retired after 36 seasons in October 1997. Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun announced his retirement Thursday. No, I couldnt even consider that, Smith said. You come up one year, and that year you win the national championship. Born in Parsons, Kansas,[2] Guthridge attended Kansas State University in Manhattan, and graduated with a B.S. An assistant to Dean Smith for 30 seasons, Guthridge replaced his former boss when Smith retired in 1997 after 36 years as coach of the Tar Heels. 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. Guthridge took over when Smith retired after 36 seasons in October 1997. Guthridge said he took a vacation in Europe in May, hoping to recharge, but wasnt able to. In fact, most of that team reconvened in St. Louis in 2005 for Williams first championship game at North Carolina. "Coach Guthridge was instrumental in recruiting me to UNC and I have so many great memories of him and the lessons he taught me. Fast-forward to present day, and he has surpassed Smith in both national championships and wins. 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. 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 . Coaches, both within the program and across the country, still came calling to Chapel Hill every summer to pick his brains about Xs and Os. My guess is he would not have been, and then the first call, yes, wouldve been Roy, Baddour says. The Kansas native took over the role of head coach following Smith's departure. It didnt bother me that I was a lousy coach, and when we started winning I was a better coach. Former UNC Director of Athletics Dick Baddour: Bill was one of the most respected and admired people I have known. He will certainly be remembered for what he did as opposed to what else he might have done. It has to be one of those., Williams talked Thursday night with Kansas athletic director Bob Frederick. 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. 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. Of course, its not like UNC had a bad season in Guthridges first year. Guthridge would still call on Smith, after all, to speak to the team at certain times. 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. On Oct. 9, 1997, Smith called it quits. Former UNC Coach Bill Guthridge passed away last night at age 77 w/ family at his side. Baddour and Smith never had a lengthy sitdown to discuss the future. Then there are the other options from Smiths tree: Karl and Fogler and even Larry Brown. I will miss his kindness and wisdom. On one occasion, he actually accepted the head coaching post at Penn State, but stepped down from the post a few days later.[3]. He also was head golf coach for the Wildcats. CHAPEL HILL, N.C. ? SCNext Top 25: Ranking the best high school boys' basketball teams in the 2022-23 season, Brown: There will never be another Bill Guthridge. 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. 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. All the scheduling calls, speeches for adoring donors, piles and piles of paperwork that accompanied seemingly everything he did. I really liked the attitude of the team, the way they worked hard and how they were rewarded finally. Guthridge took over when Smith retired after 36 seasons in October 1997. I really believe thats exactly what happened.. When Smith retired as Division I's winningest men's coach shortly before the 1997-98 season, Guthridge was promoted to replace him, and he guided the Tar Heels to two Final Fours in three seasons. 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. Coach Smith had so many strengths and very few weaknesses. He joined Ohio States Fred Taylor as just the second man in history to lead teams to two Final Fours in his first three seasons as a head coach. [5], He died at his home on May 12, 2015, after an extended illness, alongside his family. In other words, why Smith walked away at the exact moment he did. A relatively quiet man with a wonderful and dry sense of humor. #RIP. I mean, the Plan B was there.. 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. But the Tar Heels suffered a soul-crushing NCAA Tournament loss that also ended Phil Fords career. 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. 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. 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. Guthridge said a few weeks ago he planned to stay another five or six years despite intense criticism from fans and alumni after the teams worst regular-season record in decades. 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. In his 33 seasons at Carolina, the Tar Heels won two NCAA championships, in 1982 and 1993; played in 12 Final Fours; won the ACC Tournament championship 13 times; and played in the ACC Tournament championship game a total of 22 times. Dean Smiths hourglass, it seemed, had an endless amount of sand. He was even more important to me. Guthridge went 80-28 from 1997 to 2000 before retiring in June 2000. 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. The first is, if Guthridge hadnt wanted the job, would Williams have taken it? Suggestion to Return DismissedWhen 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 Guthridge from Kansas State -- had enjoyed. 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. It was Guthridge who was the creator of the well-known and slightly strange departure times for Carolina travel parties. Looking around at his devastated players in the locker room, Guthridge realized he simply couldnt leave. 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. 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. Making the Final Four is a tremendous accomplishment but its not what you chase. End of conversation.. He is probably best remembered for his loyalty to Smith, who died in February at age 83. Ndiaye remembers taking his son for a campus tour years later, and Guthridge coming out of the Smith Center to greet him. 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. 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. He once told a newspaper he never left the program because the other 300 Division I head coaching jobs werent better than his job as an assistant. 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. Because that was supposed to be something that we accomplished together.. That Plan B, clearly, was Guthridge. Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report. Guthridge went 80-28 from 1997 to 2000 before retiring in June 2000. Then he retired, too. 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. He led his first team to the 1998 Final Four and had two players, Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison, selected in the top five . That was quelled, but the chancellor had another thought: To the chancellor and many fans Williams was the obvious choice to succeed Smith. 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 a player and then an assistant coach at Kansas State before joining the Tar Heels staff in 1967. So was Williams always fated to end up back at North Carolina? He got his taste. Smith and Guthridge had long maintained theyd retire together, the natural conclusion to a three-decade partnership in Chapel Hill. But the season, and that loss specifically, never faded from their collective consciousness. And so those players, all of them, kick around the questions to this day. The spring of 1997, it seemed, was no different. "Needless to say I'm tired of having meetings like this." Recharge your batteries, they told him. The following year, with the program bordering on a mutiny, Doherty resigned. But if Williams had declined the opportunity, as he initially did a year prior? Former UNC Coach Bill Guthridge passed away last night at age 77 w/ family at his side. 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. He wouldve been gone. Why would a healthy 66-year-old call it quits and relinquish the chance to coach that team? 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? He held a news conference in the bowels of the Dean Smith Center, where he announced his retirement from the game hed given his life to. 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. When his Tar Heels defeated Tulsa to earn a Final Four berth, the postgame locker room was one of the most emotional in the modern era, due at least partially to the devotion his players had for Guthridge and their joy in relievingat least for a momentthe criticism hed taken during the season. Perhaps, at last, somewhere in his mind, Coach Guthridge finally made the decision to retire from this physical life. Guthridge didnt need the change, just wanted to know if he had it. Guthridge, his wife said, suffers from vascular dementia - a condition that's a result of reduced blood supply to the brain. 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.. Penn State was a good situation, he said in an interview in 2010. Bill and Dean, friends for life. That startling decision equated to the ultimate professional sacrifice. That stemmed not from the coaching aspect of his job, but from everything else. Former University of North Carolina basketball coach Bill Guthridge, 77, died Tuesday from a heart condition. Guthridge took over when Smith retired after 36 seasons in October 1997. Guthridge coached three years and took the Tar Heels to two Final Fours. 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. In fact, he communicated as much to Baddour after Baddour was tapped in late June to replace John Swofford as athletic director. Of the well-known and slightly strange departure times for Carolina travel parties season Guthridges. Roy, Baddour says me that I was a player and then assistant. Two Final Fours staff in 1967 gave you I have known Guthridge coached three and! 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