His desire to be a coach I dont think ever stopped, Hanners said. 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 was a kind soul with a strong, competitive spirit. Im like, Coach, we won it, congrats! Jamison remembers. The following year, with the program bordering on a mutiny, Doherty resigned. Guthridge was the consensus National Coach of the Year in 1998. Why would a healthy 66-year-old call it quits and relinquish the chance to coach that team? Change). ", Roy: "I think that not only did he coach me on the freshman team he was another mentor. 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Everyone knows what happened next: Williams finally said yes to returning, having seen how quickly things fell off after his mentors left. If you played for him you loved him; working with him was a joy. 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. [6], National champion 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. 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. SCNext Top 25: Ranking the best high school boys' basketball teams in the 2022-23 season, Brown: There will never be another Bill Guthridge. I didnt really have to focus too much on a Plan B, Baddour says. How might everything be different? But theres also the fact that Dean did it his way, which was entirely predictable. Guthridge went 80-28 from 1997 to 2000 before retiring in June 2000. (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). Guthridge was the head coach of the Tar Heels for three seasons following Dean Smith's retirement in 1997. They shot just 39.1 percent from the floor and made only 3-of-23 attempts from 3. That image of Guthridge is accurate but not complete. Coach Smith always had a plan. 2 "The End of Absence" Michael Harris, Pt. But it really wasnt and we both knew it. Kansas chancellor Robert Hemenway said the school was privileged to have Williams. After Dean Smith retired, Bill Guthridge took over for three years and at some point, we can't remember exactly which year, Boswell struck. Of course, its not like UNC had a bad season in Guthridges first year. The ones he did have Coach Guthridge tried to fill. I was just happy that the team had success. North Carolina made 10 trips to the Final Four and won two national championships during the time Smith and Guthridge spent together. Coach Smith began showing signs of cognitive impairment before Coach Guthridge did. For starters, Baddour says he still would have offered Guthridge the job first. 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. "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.". After that loss, Carter and Jamison turned pro. I really believe thats exactly what happened.. Without question, every opportunity that I would have to hire Roy Williams. 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. (LogOut/ You accomplished something that takes some other people 20-plus years to do. He had interviewed for the Texas job, which went to Rick Barnes, after the 1998 season, after all. Hed have been two years into a rebuild at Notre Dame, and perhaps less reluctant to leave. 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. Guthridge, 62, said a few weeks ago that he planned to stay on another five or six years. Whether Williams would have returned at that time is impossible to say. Jordan is among many Tar Heels who had tremendous respect for Guthridge. You will be missed. Guthridge coached three years and took the Tar Heels to two Final Fours. 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. That Plan B, clearly, was Guthridge. He led his first team to the 1998 Final Four and had two players, Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison, selected in the top five . But it was as if the whole contraption was tilted, resting at an incline so that the sand would never get to the bottom. 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 . 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. The first is, if Guthridge hadnt wanted the job, would Williams have taken it? He also was an assistant to Smith on the 1976 U.S. Olympic team that won the gold medal in Montreal. I wouldve never thought of that in a million years.. 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]. Calhoun, elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2005, is . He tried to do every one of those little things that drove Coach Smith crazy. 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.. Baddour says he never got that far down the line because of Guthridges interest. But more than just that team, Smith left behind a mound of questions. That startling decision equated to the ultimate professional sacrifice. He once told a newspaper he never left the program because the other 300 Division I head-coaching jobs weren't better than his job as an assistant. Try a week on us. 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. Guthridge would still call on Smith, after all, to speak to the team at certain times. Bill was a great coach, but he never got enough credit during most of those years. Or does Doherty get his chance regardless? He spurned offers to interview for head coaching vacancies, preferring to remain out of the spotlight and continuing to team with Smith. The spring of 1997, it seemed, was no different. Born William Wallace Guthridge, he attended Kansas State University where he played guard on the basketball team and helped the Wildcats. 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. "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. On June 30th in 1969, Bill Russell announced his retirement from professional basketball after a 13-year NBA career. We didnt play well for just five minutes, and that decided the game.. "Mak said he gets this call from his mom: 'Mak, there's this man here in Africa, says he's your coach,' ". He has a keen sense of which ones will be very good players and which ones may be overrated. He was extremely special, important to every player, every coach who ever worked here. 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. Guthridge was a player and then an assistant coach at Kansas State before joining the Tar Heels staff in 1967. In 1976, he also served as an assistant coach to Smith as the United States won the gold medal in men's basketball at the Summer Olympics in Montreal. 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. The next day, Kenny Smith said, assistant coach Bill Guthridge wasn't at practice. Coach Smith had so many strengths and very few weaknesses, and the weaknesses that he did have Coach Guthridge tried to fill. The school scheduled a news conference for 2:30 p.m. today. 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. He played or coached in 14 Final Fours, more than any person in NCAA history. "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. 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? 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. That was quelled, but the chancellor had another thought: To the chancellor and many fans Williams was the obvious choice to succeed Smith. "Because I knew Coach Guthridge had the best interest for you and wanted to see you succeed.". But 1:57 was 1:57. He also was head golf coach for the Wildcats. My time is in the past now and we have to move forward.. It has to be one of those., Williams talked Thursday night with Kansas athletic director Bob Frederick. 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. One of his most tempestuous relationships had been with guard Shammond Williams, who even walked off the court at Virginia on one occasion. Guthridge, his wife said, suffers from vascular dementia - a condition that's a result of reduced blood supply to the brain. 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. After 36 years as the coach at North Carolina, it kept trickling down, grain by grain. CHAPEL HILL, N.C. ? 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. Bill Guthridge was consistently portrayed as a quiet gentleman. Smith wrote in his memoir, A Coachs Life, that before he retired in 1997, he told recruits: If Im not coaching, I am confident that your coach will be either Bill Guthridge, Eddie Fogler, Roy Williams, Larry Brown, George Karl or Phil Ford, not necessarily in that order. And with Guthridge having gotten his shot, there would have been no issues of whose turn it was. And come Monday, he got the fateful notice. On Oct. 9, 1997, Smith called it quits. He stopped when he did because he was afraid his memory wasnt as good as it was or had been. 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. 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.. He saw his memory issues coming long before the world did. Dean Smiths hourglass, it seemed, had an endless amount of sand. In his three seasons as head coach Guthridge led the Tar Heels to the NCAA final Four twice, in 1998 and again in 2000. Guthridge had ample opportunities to leave Chapel Hill and become the head coach of his own program. But obviously, the better head coach -- one of four or so best head coaches of all time in his sport -- and the decision to retire was seriously flawed by emotion. Which put Baddour on the search for a long-term replacement for the first time. 1 ranking in the Associated Press Top 25, earned the ACC Coach of the Year award and guided North Carolina to the Final Four before losing to Utah. But looking back, Hanners now believes Guthridge already had an inclination something was afoot. On one occasion, he actually accepted the head coaching post at Penn State, but stepped down from the post a few days later.[3]. 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. Sleep Behavior Disorder (Lewy Body Dementia), The Stressors of Communication, Vision, and Hearing, The Stressors of Unmet Needs, Physical Environment, and Routines, 2015 Research Offers New Insights Into Lewy Body Dementia Part 1, 2015 Research on Lewy Body Dementia Part 2, 2016 Research on Comorbidity and the Development of Dementia, A Strange Anniversary (and Where Going Gentle Into That Good Night Had Its Roots), Antidepressant Use and the Increased Risk of Developing Dementia, Confabulation, Alcohol Abuse, & Alcohol-Related Dementia, Daylight Savings Time Effects: Dementia, Health, and Sleep, Financial Assistance for Prescription Medications, Good Sleep: A Key Factor in Neurological Health, Military Service, War, and Dementia Risks for Veterans, The Fallacy of Silver Bullet Solutions to Dementias and Alzheimers Disease, The Layperson's Guide to Alcohol-Related Dementia, The Layperson's Guide to Alzheimer's Disease, The Layperson's Guide to Dementia Medications and Supplements, The Layperson's Guide to Early-Onset Dementias, The Layperson's Guide to Hepatic Encephalopathy, The Layperson's Guide to Home Health Care, The Layperson's Guide to Lewy Body Dementia, The Layperson's Guide to Palliative Health Care, The Layperson's Guide to Primary Progressive Aphasia, The Layperson's Guide to Vascular and Multi-Infarct Dementia, The Laypersons Guide to Neural Disorders That Often Lead to Neurodegeneration and Dementia, The Laypersons Guide to Revocable Living Trusts, Guardianships, and Conservatorships, The Laypersons Guide to Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), The Link Between Brain Injuries & Neurological Disease, The Rare Dementias: Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD), The Rare Dementias: Fatal Familial Insomnia, The Rare Dementias: Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, How Life Experiences Factor into Behavior, How Personality, Quirks, Foibles, and Flaws Factor into Behavior, How Temperament Factors Into Dementias and Alzheimers Disease, Smart Drugs, "Brain Enhancers," and "Mental Magic" (Nootropics), Comfortably Numb or All Jacked Up: Prescription Addiction, Technology and Neurology A Perfect Storm For A Lifestyle Dementia, Creating Life With Words: Inspiration, Love, and Truth, The Long and Winding Road: A Journey Through Alzheimer's Disease, "Less Medicine, More Health" H. 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. If he had, then thats where the what-ifs really go wild. And then Bill can decide along the way what he wants to do.. It wasnt until Oct. 3, 1997 a Friday about a week before the first practice of the season that Baddour got an indication that Smith wouldnt return. 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. And I think he probably had second thoughts, because at what point was it really a danger? Guthridge, who like Smith was a Kansas native, spent 30 years as an assistant coach and had ample opportunities to leave Chapel Hill and become the coach of his own program. Hanners, one of Fords close friends to this day, recalls the natural coaching instincts Ford had when the two oversaw the JV team. The possibilities were endless, but Baddour is certain of one thing: keeping things in the family was a must. I think its time to turn it over to somebody else, he said at a campus news conference. Maybe Phil Ford wouldve been the head coach then, Ndiaye says. Guthridge was the longtime assistant to UNC coach Dean Smith, who died earlier this year. Guthridge said he took a vacation in Europe in May, hoping to recharge, but wasnt able to. 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. Tim Crothers. A Tar Heel passing him in the hallway might greet him with a quick head nod and a greeting of, Coach. Guthridge would invariably respond with a similar head nod and, Player.. He was even more important to me. Guthridge did it all with a dry wit and style. The team performs dazzling spins and flips at campus events and even competes against other universities and jump rope clubs from around the country. He was 77. 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. (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 remember telling the chancellor that, Baddour says. In our prayers. "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 2000, the Tar Heels struggled in the regular season, falling out of the polls for the first time since the start of the 199091 season. But part of me, at the end of the day, thinks Coach Williams was destined to end up back here. 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. Ironically, both coaches developed dementia along the way (Coach Smith died in January 2015 of complications from dementia). As a coach, he was stubbornly competitive. When coach Smith retired in 1997, after a tenure of 36 season, Guthridge took over the job to begin a reign of great basketball playing at UNC. His calm demeanorhe could sometimes be found sitting in the stands an hour before road games eating popcorn or a hot dogmasked a passionate love for the Tar Heels. 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. 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 complaints turned to praise after the teams unlikely Final Four appearance. Guthridge spent 31 seasons as an assistant to Smith, the winningest coach in college basketball history. "You get old." 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