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. And althoug he believes that scenario puts more emphasis on winning than it does on building relationships and teaching the things Guthridge and Smith both loved its not out of the question. 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. And with Guthridge having gotten his shot, there would have been no issues of whose turn it was. But when Baddour and Guthridge did finally meet, Guthridge expressed a desire to try his hand. 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. He would sneak into practices, hide way up in the rafters so as not to be seen. Guthridge, who like Smith was a. Ndiaye even tried cracking the ice by joking that Guthridges years as head coach probably hadnt hurt his wallet. 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. After 36 years as the coach at North Carolina, it kept trickling down, grain by grain. 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. Of course, Smith did retire. 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Williams and Ndiaye both graduated. 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. Kansas chancellor Robert Hemenway said the school was privileged to have Williams. 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. In other words, why Smith walked away at the exact moment he did. Hed told reporters he expected to honor the remaining four years on his deal. 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. 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. In retrospect, Smiths premature exit was a mistake on all fronts. North Carolina made 10 trips to the Final Four and won two national championships during the time Smith and Guthridge spent together. I wouldve gone to Roy.. The school scheduled a news conference for 2:30 p.m. today. But 1:57 was 1:57. Guthridge didn't bother to recruit Jason Williams,. From 1972 onward, he was Smith's top assistant. Which put Baddour on the search for a long-term replacement for the first time. "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. I really believe thats exactly what happened.. Even 22 years after turning down the Nittany Lions, Guthridge still couldnt quite bear to leave. 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. Watch more top videos, highlights, and B/R original content, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. And by the end of every summer, Smith returned freshly rejuvenated. 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. But it is my opinion that he expected, when he first told me that, that he would continue to be the coach.. Its funny that were doing this story, Jamison says. 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. "This is a tremendous loss for our basketball program and entire community.". Guthridge could deal with Dean's irritability, his need to control the smallest things. 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. Bill was a great coach, but he never got enough credit during most of those years. 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. 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. 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. Other opportunities had arisen over time, and yet Guthridge always remained as Smiths assistant. We certainly had no idea; he was still the smartest guy, could recall everything he was seeing.. Which 16 teams should you buy or fade ahead of March Madness? I enjoyed my 30 years as an assistant coach, and Ive enjoyed my three years as a head coach.. 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. Former UNC Coach Bill Guthridge passed away last night at age 77 w/ family at his side. The flip side of reality offers another interesting scenario: What if Guthridge had led that group to a win over Utah, and then over Kentucky in the championship game. 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. One year against Laurinburg, Hanners squad was down about 18 with under nine minutes to play; suddenly, he felt Ford come up behind him. That team still went 34-4, losing to Utah in the Final Four. The manager put down his stuff and rifled through his pockets. Just a really good man who made Carolina, the ACC and college basketball better.. I would have been as vigorous and go after that as hard as I could possibly go.. Unfortunately, it took UNC two tries to find that leader. 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. Think about it: Youve been an assistant coach for 30-plus years. Perhaps, at last, somewhere in his mind, Coach Guthridge finally made the decision to retire from this physical life. (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 . (Robert Willett / Tribune News Service via Getty). Division regular season champion If you played for him you loved him; working with him was a joy. Guthridge was a player and then an assistant coach at Kansas State . 33 yrs on UNC bench. Theres no right answer, no certainty. I think its time I make this decision. 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. At Smith's retirement. 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. I dont think I have ever heard of anyone that didnt like and respect Bill Guthridge. Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report. 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. ", Roy: "I think that not only did he coach me on the freshman team he was another mentor. The guys worked hard and didnt lose confidence, Guthridge said after the season. A source close to the basketball program, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Thursday that Guthridge recently decided he did not have the energy to continue coaching the Tar Heels. It left at 1:57 p.m. His reasoning? That image of Guthridge is accurate but not complete. 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.. He had recently been in an assisted living facility in Chapel Hill. When he retired as head coach in 2000, he knew he wouldnt be able to get through telling his staff about his departure. It was profoundly hard for Coach Guthridge to watch his lifetime friend become forgetful and lose the memories they shared together, not just as the architects of a fantastic and highly-ethical college basketball program, but as friends who regarded each other and their respective families as their own. Conference tournament champion. Its not fair, but thats just the way it is for assistant coaches, Smith said. 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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. Smith died on Feb. 7 after suffering for years from a neurological disorder that robbed him of his memories. "I'm extremely saddened by the passing of Coach Guthridge, aka 'Coach Gut,' especially coming so close to the loss of Coach Smith," Jamison, who was national player of the year during Guthridge's first season as coach, said in a statement. The first is, if Guthridge hadnt wanted the job, would Williams have taken it? But I already had a better job than that and I was happy here. 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. 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? Guthridge was the longtime assistant to UNC coach Dean Smith, who died earlier this year. . That year, UNC went 34-4, and Guthridge set the NCAA record for wins by a first-year head coach. 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. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Coach Smith died in January 2015 of complications from dementia, Profiles in Dementia: Zelda Fitzgerald(1900-1948), Facebook Group for Caregivers of Loved Ones with Alzheimer's Disease, Dementia, and Other Age-Related Illnesses, R. 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Gilbert Welch, "Patient H.M.: A Story of Memory, Madness, and Family Secrets" Luke Dittrich, "When Breath Becomes Air" Paul Kalanithi, Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients Ben Goldacre, The Tale of Dueling Neurosurgeons Sam Kean, How We Do Harm: A Doctor Breaks Ranks About Being Sick in America by Otis Webb Brawley, Pt. I was just happy that the team had success. He was extremely special, important to every player, every coach who ever worked here. End of conversation.. Coach Smith began showing signs of cognitive impairment before Coach Guthridge did. As they were chatting, Guthridge, who died in 2015, grabbed Ndiayes arm. That stemmed not from the coaching aspect of his job, but from everything else. Subscribe to The Athletic for in-depth coverage of your favorite players, teams, leagues and clubs. Guthridge did it all with a dry wit and style. That's exactly what they did. Hed have retired with a championship trophy, and then let someone else step right in, Ndiaye says. The latest in the sports world, emailed daily. 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. All the things he couldnt do during the daunting in-season months. 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. Born William Wallace Guthridge, he attended Kansas State University where he played guard on the basketball team and helped the Wildcats. (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). Former UNC Coach Bill Guthridge passed away last night at age 77 w/ family at his side. "He, like Coach Smith, was more of a mentor and father figure than anything else. I think its time to turn it over to somebody else, he said at a campus news conference. 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. Spend time with family. Hanners, one of Fords close friends to this day, recalls the natural coaching instincts Ford had when the two oversaw the JV team. He knows where he is and who he is, but it's often difficult for him. CHAPEL HILL, N.C. ? 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? My guess is that Coach Guthridge probably never came back from that place after Coach Smiths death and I would speculate that Coach Smiths death may have been the final straw of an increasingly-unfamiliar and disconnected life for Coach Guthridge. 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. We offer our deepest sympathies to Bills family, friends and the entire North Carolina basketball community.. It was the 14th time Guthridge participated in the Final Four. That possibility isnt one Baddour had previously considered. The next day, Kenny Smith said, assistant coach Bill Guthridge wasn't at practice. I dont think he went in that summer thinking, Im not gonna be the basketball coach by fall, Baddour says. Or perhaps someone else from Smiths coaching tree, such as George Karl or Eddie Fogler? He was enormously committed to attention to detail and organization, says Dick Baddour, a longtime university administrator who served as athletic director from 1997 to 2011. Hed have been a lifer, Hanners says. After waiting an uncharacteristically long time to respond, he smiled and thanked me. He was a lifetime assistant coach for whom Dean did a solid. He came up with the idea that Dean Smith, having . Certainly, what a marvelous run of three years.. 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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.". Because that was supposed to be something that we accomplished together.. He saw his memory issues coming long before the world did. Bill Guthridge was consistently portrayed as a quiet gentleman. His loss is deeply felt by our university and the basketball world. I really liked the attitude of the team, the way they worked hard and how they were rewarded finally. Guthridge joined Smith's staff for the 1967-68 season, starting out as the freshman coach and a co-assistant varsity coach and eventually becoming the Hall of Famer's most trusted assistant. He said Friday he now knows how Smith felt in 1997 when he stepped down. (LogOut/ He was instrumental in helping lure Williams back to North Carolina. (LogOut/ Guthridge would still call on Smith, after all, to speak to the team at certain times. 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. Whether Williams would have returned at that time is impossible to say. But when Guthridge retired, Williamsthen playing with the Seattle Sonicsmade the effort to find a commercial flight to Chapel . Because before we can consider what might have been, we have to understand why everything played out as it did. 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. Why would a healthy 66-year-old call it quits and relinquish the chance to coach that team? The Tar Heels then went 24-10 in 1998-99 but were upset by Weber State in the first round of the NCAA tournament. At that point, Baddour turned to Matt Doherty, who had been the coach at Notre Dame for just one season. 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. We offer our deepest condolences to the Guthridge family as they grieve the loss of a wonderful husband and father.. 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. Guthridge took over when Smith retired after 36 seasons in October 1997. His desire to be a coach I dont think ever stopped, Hanners said. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. when UNC named longtime assistant Bill Guthridge as his successor. And everything that happened, for better or worse, led the program to where it is today. That was probably six or seven years later where somebody else might recognize it. Born in Parsons, Kansas,[2] Guthridge attended Kansas State University in Manhattan, and graduated with a B.S. Guthridge coached three years and took the Tar Heels to two Final Fours. Ndiaye remembers taking his son for a campus tour years later, and Guthridge coming out of the Smith Center to greet him. I needed Bill to tell me, Dick, yes, I want to do this, Baddour says, and he was clear that he wanted to.. 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. "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. 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. He was on the sidelines for a record 73 NCAA Tournament victories, including 71 at Carolina and two at Kansas State. 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