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. 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. Its one game, Jamison says. In our prayers. 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. 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. Just like Smith, Guthridge found a way to impact his players beyond teaching them offensive and defensive principles. 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. What about Ford? Guthridge was Smiths assistant for 30 years. He would, however, have just lost his three best players at Kansas in Paul Pierce, Raef LaFrentz and Billy Thomas. He was even more important to me. 3 "The End of Absence" Michael Harris. But if Smith was selfless in his handling of McAdoo, it was nothing compared to Smiths shocking retirement on Oct. 9, 1997. 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. 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. Veteran sports reporter Peter Gammons had high praise for the former coach: Saddened to learn Bill Guthridge passed away. He will certainly be remembered for what he did as opposed to what else he might have done. In our prayers. Following the 199798 season, several organizations named him National Coach of the Year and he received the Naismith College Coach of the Year award. He directed UNC to the 1998 Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament championship and was named the ACC Coach of the Year. We offer our deepest condolences to the Guthridge family as they grieve the loss of a wonderful husband and father.. 2023 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Improving child and adolescent mental health, A message from the chancellor: We are a global university, Carolina Engagement Week Returns for a Second Year, Feb. 27 Through March 3, Book Publishing I: The Process with Christopher Ahn, Parr|Bioethics Joint Lecture: Elizabeth Barnes (University of Virginia), Disability and Health: An Its Complicated Relationship, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Former University of North Carolina mens basketball coach Bill Guthridge passed away May 12. 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. Ndiaye remembers taking his son for a campus tour years later, and Guthridge coming out of the Smith Center to greet him. He was an unbelievable assistant to Coach Smith. As good a person as I ever met. He is probably best remembered for his loyalty to Smith, who died in February at age 83. In 1998, the Bill Guthridge Distinguished Professorship in mathematics was established. The University is currently operating under normal conditions. I want to spend the weekend thinking about it. 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. As a coach, he was stubbornly competitive. 1 team in America. The possibilities were endless, but Baddour is certain of one thing: keeping things in the family was a must. My time is in the past now and we have to move forward.. And everything that happened, for better or worse, led the program to where it is today. I remember telling the chancellor that, Baddour says. 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. He saw his memory issues coming long before the world did. If Bill Guthridge doesnt look familiar to you as a UNC-Chapel Hill head basketball coach, theres a very good reason for that. 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. But the Tar Heels suffered a soul-crushing NCAA Tournament loss that also ended Phil Fords career. Guthridge had once accepted Penn States head coaching vacancy in the 1970s, only to return to Chapel Hill before his connecting flight to State College. 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. Guthridge did it all with a dry wit and style. 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. While serving as an assistant coach, Guthridge turned down several head coaching opportunities, preferring to remain in Chapel Hill working alongside Smith. Penn State was a good situation, he said in an interview in 2010. Theyd had their disagreements, yes. "When Coach Smith announced he was retiring and that Coach Guthridge was taking over, then it all clicked into place for me," Hanners says. But looking back, Hanners now believes Guthridge already had an inclination something was afoot. How would his retirement alter the short- and long-term trajectory of a program built on consistency? That startling decision equated to the ultimate professional sacrifice. 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. But theres also the fact that Dean did it his way, which was entirely predictable. "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. And as the confetti fell on UNCs first title A.D. After Dean Guthridge burst into tears alongside his former players. I think its time to turn it over to somebody else, he said at a campus news conference. Hed told reporters he expected to honor the remaining four years on his deal. I really liked the attitude of the team, the way they worked hard and how they were rewarded finally. No, I couldnt even consider that, Smith said. 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. 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. That Plan B, clearly, was Guthridge. Copyright 2013 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. End of conversation.. It was an admirable, honorable action for Smith to take and Guthridge went on to win 80 games in three seasons. Together, they taught us basketball is secondary. Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report. One of the best testaments to Guthridges impact came on that retirement day, June 30. The team fundamentally changed, that opportunity disappearing into the ether. For more than three decades, Coach Guthridge served this University he loved so much with a deep commitment to academic and athletic excellence. The Kansas native took over the role of head coach following Smith's departure. But I already had a better job than that and I was happy here. I would have been as vigorous and go after that as hard as I could possibly go.. I was just happy that the team had success. 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. "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.". Smith, after all, kept an office in the arena for several years after retirement. 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. (Robert Willett / Tribune News Service via Getty). Thank you Coach Gut for the many lessons you taught us at UNC. We ended up beating em easily, and I thanked him later for it, Hanners says. He wasnt going to entertain a room full of boosters with behind the scenes stories. 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. He also was head golf coach for the Wildcats. 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. As things went, by the end of the 1999-2000 season which concluded with a surprise Final Four run, Guthridges second trip in three seasons Smiths right-hand man was finally ready to step away himself. He was like Coach Guthridge in that both of them loved and bled Carolina blue so much that they never wanted to leave the program.. 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. Hed have been two years into a rebuild at Notre Dame, and perhaps less reluctant to leave. 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. Coach Smith began showing signs of cognitive impairment before Coach Guthridge did. He was on the sidelines for a record 73 NCAA Tournament victories, including 71 at Carolina and two at Kansas State. 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. (LogOut/ Fast-forward to present day, and he has surpassed Smith in both national championships and wins. He also was an assistant to Smith on the 1976 U.S. Olympic team that won the gold medal in Montreal. 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