But the season, and that loss specifically, never faded from their collective consciousness. What happened, happened. To combat that fatigue, every summer, Smiths assistant coaches urged him to get out and enjoy life. He joined the UNC staff in 1967 after five years as assistant to Tex Winter at Kansas State. If I were to call Roy and ask Roy was he interested, the first question out of his mouth wouldve been, did Bill get a chance? Baddour says. 1 "The End of Absence" Michael Harris, Pt. He led his first team to the 1998 Final Four and had two players, Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison, selected in the top five . Says losing Guthridge "is another tremendous loss. Or does Doherty get his chance regardless? In 1998, the Bill Guthridge Distinguished Professorship in mathematics was established. Thank you Coach Gut for the many lessons you taught us at UNC. Guthridge, 62, said a few weeks ago that he planned to stay on another five or six years. But it really wasnt and we both knew it. . The Tar Heels then went 24-10 in 1998-99 but were upset by Weber State in the first round of the NCAA tournament. We easily could have won the championship, man, Ndiaye says. (LogOut/ Former UNC Coach Bill Guthridge passed away last night at age 77 w/ family at his side. Although his individual achievements showcased his ability as a head coach, Guthridge always seemed content working with Smith to develop a top program at North Carolina. What you saw was the quiet assistant sitting on the bench. 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. 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. He stopped when he did because he was afraid his memory wasnt as good as it was or had been. Conference regular season champion 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. 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. Baddour and Smith never had a lengthy sitdown to discuss the future. He had interviewed for the Texas job, which went to Rick Barnes, after the 1998 season, after all. Guthridge went 80-28 from 1997 to 2000 before retiring in June 2000. But it is my opinion that he expected, when he first told me that, that he would continue to be the coach.. 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. The protege was named Naismith College Coach of the Year in his first season as Smith's replacement. After waiting an uncharacteristically long time to respond, he smiled and thanked me. Guthridge, his wife said, suffers from vascular dementia - a condition that's a result of reduced blood supply to the brain. It was Guthridge who was the creator of the well-known and slightly strange departure times for Carolina travel parties. It was very, very much real and something Smith had to balance with the sentiment that maybe he had left too soon. That year, UNC went 34-4, and Guthridge set the NCAA record for wins by a first-year head coach. As early as April and May, Bill Guthridge Smiths primary assistant for some 30 years reached out to Hanners about doing extra study of the teams offensive and defensive sets. 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? He spurned offers to interview for head coaching vacancies, preferring to remain out of the spotlight and continuing to team with Smith. 33 yrs on UNC bench. Without question, every opportunity that I would have to hire Roy Williams. But part of me, at the end of the day, thinks Coach Williams was destined to end up back here. After 36 years as the coach at North Carolina, it kept trickling down, grain by grain. Guthridge was the consensus National Coach of the Year in 1998. Who will win each 2023 conference tournament? 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. Perhaps, at last, somewhere in his mind, Coach Guthridge finally made the decision it was time for him to retire from this physical life. 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. 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. Guthridge . Prior to that, Guthridge served as Smith's assistant coach for 30 years. If Bill Guthridge doesnt look familiar to you as a UNC-Chapel Hill head basketball coach, theres a very good reason for that. He was instrumental in helping lure Williams back to North Carolina. 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. 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? Carolina Jump Rope is making their fellow Tar Heel rethink what it means to jump rope. Longtime North Carolina basketball coach Bill Guthridge died Tuesday night. Both played college ball in that state -- Smith at Kansas, Guthridge at Kansas State -- and coached at their alma maters before coming to North Carolina. A tremendously loyal person with an ego that was seemingly non-existent. When Bill Guthridge retired as North Carolina's basketball coach in the summer of 2000, it set off a chain reaction that touched the lives of dozens of people in his profession. You will be missed. Coach Guthridge is the best I have ever seen in selecting potential in high school players, Smith once said, according to the teams website. CHAPEL HILL, N.C. ? He couldnt generate enough energy to get through all of that., Some background: In the years leading up to his retirement specifically every spring after the conclusion of the NCAA Tournament Smith expressed a sense of exhaustion to the people around him. 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. The little doo-doos, Smith called them, the administrative tasks just within the purview of his job responsibilities. But looking back, Hanners now believes Guthridge already had an inclination something was afoot. When employees came to work at the GAA on a rainy day, Elizabeth Morgan, warm, Bill Guthridge, who made his college basketball reputation as Dean Smiths 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. Sad news. Guthridge also took a less talented team to the Final Four in 2000. I needed Bill to tell me, Dick, yes, I want to do this, Baddour says, and he was clear that he wanted to.. 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. He knows where he is and who he is, but it's often difficult for him. Try a week on us. Conference tournament champion. 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 funny that were doing this story, Jamison says. He would, however, have just lost his three best players at Kansas in Paul Pierce, Raef LaFrentz and Billy Thomas. He was a perfect sidekick for Coach Smith. 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. E. M. 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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. 33 yrs on UNC bench. That Plan B, clearly, was Guthridge. He stepped down 2 months later. He was a father figure.". Guthridge would still call on Smith, after all, to speak to the team at certain times. Its very much a possibility, everyone admits. 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. No, I couldnt even consider that, Smith said. He will certainly be remembered for what he did as opposed to what else he might have done. Smith and Guthridge had long maintained they'd. Guthridge went 80-28 from 1997 to 2000 before retiring in June 2000. Our condolences go out to his family and friends.. 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. He, like Coach Smith, was more of a mentor and father figure than anything else. It has to be one of those., Williams talked Thursday night with Kansas athletic director Bob Frederick. 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. The spring of 1997, it seemed, was no different. Im crying because I failed you guys. But Baddour explained to the chancellor that because of Williams respect for Guthridge, hed never have taken the job over his friend. Theres no way you could dream, Hanners says, anyone would necessarily do better.. 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. Brendan Marks covers Duke and North Carolina basketball for The Athletic. He was a friend. And so even as the coachs hair changed from dark brown to gray to white, his position never did. 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. He needed to hear that from Guthridge. And he said, Im not crying because we won. All the scheduling calls, speeches for adoring donors, piles and piles of paperwork that accompanied seemingly everything he did. In 1993, he and his wife, Leesie, created the William W. and Elise P. Guthridge Library Fund, which helped with purchasing materials and renovation of the House Undergraduate Library. Watch more top videos, highlights, and B/R original content, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. 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. Here's how the Wolfpack get to 12 wins, Holland Miller puts in extra effort helping younger student athletes at Wilson Christian Academy, Extra hours in the gym and on the road earn Mikayla Taborn the Extra Effort Award, Extra Effort: Bunn's unassuming, tenacious three-sport star Carlee Tart, Krister Sjoblad sets the pace and honors father at Athens Drive, Extra Effort: Jordyn Brown overcomes heart surgery to cap off illustrious SJHS volleyball career, Jimmyll Williams helps Hillside to undefeated regular season, dreams of studying biotech, South Johnston's Lance Parker puts Extra Effort into giving back, Beddingfield twins Nate and Drew O'Neal win the Tom Suiter Extra Effort Award, Extra Effort: Addison Rowan's comeback from cancer, Rocky Mount Academy's Wells Hutson makes extra effort to mentor special needs students, Photos: Duke takes down No. His desire to be a coach I dont think ever stopped, Hanners said. Its not fair, but thats just the way it is for assistant coaches, Smith said. 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 was inducted into the N.C. Sports Hall of Fame in 2013. He was even more important to me. 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 . 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. Everybody would have loved Coach Ford to get the opportunity, Frederick says. Bill was a great coach, but he never got enough credit during most of those years. It was an admirable, honorable action for Smith to take and Guthridge went on to win 80 games in three seasons. He led his first team to the 1998 Final Four and had two players, Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison, selected in the top five . 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. Assistant coach Phil Ford is at right. He still had four seasons remaining on his contract, enough to carry him to the summer of 2001. 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. How close did Raleigh come to getting an NFL team? He is probably best remembered for his loyalty to Smith, who died in February at age 83. He had recently been in an assisted living facility in Chapel Hill. Even 22 years after turning down the Nittany Lions, Guthridge still couldnt quite bear to leave. Its hard, man. Postseason invitational champion Everyone knows what happened next: Williams finally said yes to returning, having seen how quickly things fell off after his mentors left. Williams and Ndiaye both graduated. Ford whispered for Hanners to try running 21 defense really sagging off defenders, even inside the 3-point line. 1 team in America. 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. Guthridge didn't bother to recruit Jason Williams, conceding him to K, even though Jason reportedly had an interest in UNC. At the time, their run of 172 consecutive weeks in the AP Poll was the second-longest in college basketball history. 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. Division regular season champion Later during that conversation, I suggested to Smith that he still had a lot of quality coaching mileage left and that maybe he should consider returning for an encore. . My guess is he would not have been, and then the first call, yes, wouldve been Roy, Baddour says. [6], National champion 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. 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]. 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. He said to me, I have felt this way before, but in the early fall, Ive always gotten the energy back, and I expect that thats gonna happen, but I do want to alert you to the possibility that it might not. Whether or not deep down inside he thought that energy wouldnt come back, I dont know the answer to that. He bought into everything. In that scenario, Williams never leaves Kansas and Ford probably never leaves North Carolina. Veteran sports reporter Peter Gammons had high praise for the former coach: Saddened to learn Bill Guthridge passed away. On Oct. 9, 1997, Smith called it quits. 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. At age 66 and in sound health, Smith easily could have coached another five or more seasons and done so with the same recruiting success that allowed him to turn over a team with Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter, Ed Cota and Shammond Williams to Guthridge. Guthridge didn't bother to recruit Jason Williams,. We offer our deepest condolences to the Guthridge family as they grieve the loss of a wonderful husband and father.. But theres also the fact that Dean did it his way, which was entirely predictable. North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball head coaches, North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball 198182 NCAA champions, North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball 199293 NCAA champions, Atlantic Coast Conference men's basketball Coach of the Year, Learn how and when to remove this template message, List of NCAA Division I Men's Final Four appearances by coach, http://static.espn.go.com/ncb/news/2000/0630/612432.html, http://www.heraldsun.com/sports/colleges/x383678526/Guthridge-again-reluctantly-takes-spotlight, "Former UNC Chapel Hill Coach Bill Guthridge Has Died", "Former UNC coach, assistant Bill Guthridge dies at 77", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bill_Guthridge&oldid=1115268631, College men's basketball head coaches in the United States, Kansas State Wildcats men's basketball coaches, Kansas State Wildcats men's basketball players, North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball coaches, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty, Articles with dead external links from February 2018, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles needing cleanup from September 2022, Articles with bare URLs for citations from September 2022, All articles with bare URLs for citations, Articles covered by WikiProject Wikify from September 2022, All articles covered by WikiProject Wikify, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 10 October 2022, at 16:39. The University is currently operating under normal conditions. But it was all as a team, no one mans fault or wrongdoing for the groups shortcoming. 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. That was the presumption Baddour and the basketball program operated under. Its another tremendous loss for our University, our basketball program and our entire community. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Not only did he coach me on the freshman team, he was my coach, another mentor, a friend, a father figure, a big brother for me just like he was for so many players. That possibility isnt one Baddour had previously considered. My time is in the past now and we have to move forward.. He also was head golf coach for the Wildcats. He played or coached in 14 Final Fours, more than any person in NCAA history. 2 "The End of Absence" Michael Harris, Pt. 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. But the Tar Heels suffered a soul-crushing NCAA Tournament loss that also ended Phil Fords career. Coach Smith had so many strengths and very few weaknesses, and the weaknesses that he did have Coach Guthridge tried to fill. "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. Fast-forward to present day, and he has surpassed Smith in both national championships and wins. 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