why did bill guthridge retire
And I said, I cant say to you with certainty what Bills gonna do, but this is how we have to approach it. College Basketball Coach. "Needless to say I'm tired of having meetings like this." 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. I needed Bill to tell me, Dick, yes, I want to do this, Baddour says, and he was clear that he wanted to.. Following Smith's retirement in 1997, Guthridge was head coach of the Tar Heels for three seasons. But in hindsight, Hanners says there were clues that everything might not have been like normal. Recharge your batteries, they told him. Which 16 teams should you buy or fade ahead of March Madness? One year against Laurinburg, Hanners squad was down about 18 with under nine minutes to play; suddenly, he felt Ford come up behind him. The spring of 1997, it seemed, was no different. Just a really good man who made Carolina, the ACC and college basketball better.. Guthridge did it all with a dry wit and style. 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. Case in point. That group, fresh off a Final Four appearance, was tabbed as the preseason No. When he retired as head coach in 2000, he knew he wouldnt be able to get through telling his staff about his departure. Williams and Ndiaye both graduated. Did Bill Guthridge win national championship? Everybody would have loved Coach Ford to get the opportunity, Frederick says. I wouldve gone to Roy.. He competed in one as a player at Kansas State in 1958, was an assistant coach at 11 before directing the Tar Heels at two as head coach. Its not what gets remembered for the rest of your life, at least not at a place like North Carolina. Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report. The announcement came nearly two months after the 6-10 center led the Boston . However, Coach Guthridge served as the perfect replacement as head basketball coach when Coach Smith unexpectantly announced his retirement from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1997. Note: Former University of North Carolina mens basketball coach Bill Guthridge passed away May 12. Jamisons teammates and Hanners and Baddour all agree. You come up one year, and that year you win the national championship. But if Williams had said no, as he did two years later, would Ford have been tapped for the job then? Only different alternate realities. He was a kind soul with a strong, competitive spirit. They made sure we knew it wasnt the most important thing in the world, but that we had been given a talent, and it was our job to use it., The Carolina community mourns the passing of Bill Guthridge, a great coach, devoted friend and loyal Tar Heel. Looking around at his devastated players in the locker room, Guthridge realized he simply couldnt leave. For what? 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. in mathematics in 1960 and an M.A. 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. 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. What happened, happened. Dick, lets talk on Monday, but Im pretty sure Im gonna tell you Monday its time to transition, Baddour remembers. 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. He stopped when he did because he was afraid his memory wasnt as good as it was or had been. He still had four seasons remaining on his contract, enough to carry him to the summer of 2001. "Coach Guthridge was instrumental in recruiting me to UNC and I have so many great memories of him and the lessons he taught me. "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. In 1998, Guthridge inherited a team that had been to the 1997 Final Four the previous year under Smith. He was a part of 867 wins in 33 seasons at Carolina and 960 college coaching victories overall, including 93 wins on the staff at Kansas State. Current coach Roy Williams referenced Smith's death, which occurred on Feb. 7 of this year, when commenting onGuthridge, via Andrew Carter of theCharlotte Observer: Here's Roy. 17 Miami at Cameron Indoor stadium, Report: Sylvia Hatchell made racially insensitive remarks, forced players to compete while hurt, NC State makes NIT, AD Debbie Yow upset Wolfpack not invited to Big Dance, NC State extends Doeren's contract through 2023, UNC women continue on despite Hatchell's absence, Forty years later, the story of '83 never gets old for NC State, Interactive 2023 NCHSAA boys & girls basketball state playoff brackets, What 7 classes could look like in the NCHSAA if realignment amendment passes, Raleigh-Durham Skyhawks: The football team that never won, Raising money for cancer research, playing golf and being a grandparent: Roy Williams dons retirement hat in style, Top sports stories of 2022 from WRAL SportsFan - The Biggest Sports Stories of 2022, Complete HSOT all-state football team revealed, HSOT Watch List: Boys basketball players to look out for in the 2022-2023 season, North Carolina high school sports scoreboard, 'Going to get left behind': NC State, Duke, UNC hope transfer portal delivers for men's basketball teams, If the Los Angeles Lakers stumble to start 2022-23 season, Mike Krzyzewski is waiting in 'retirement', The Fan plays 'Dungeons & Dragons' for ACC realignment, Former NC State AD Lee Fowler on ACC's 2005 expansion: 'It was a crazy 24 hours'. On Oct. 9, 1997, Smith called it quits. 33 yrs on UNC bench. After that loss, Carter and Jamison turned pro. Guthridge was the consensus National Coach of the Year in 1998. 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.. You will be missed. Says losing Guthridge "is another tremendous loss. Former UNC Coach Bill Guthridge passed away last night at age 77 w/ family at his side. 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. Capital Financial - Learn how to secure lifetime retirement income. Conference tournament champion. Watch more top videos, highlights, and B/R original content, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. 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. 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. ", Roy: "I think that not only did he coach me on the freshman team he was another mentor. Coach Smith began showing signs of cognitive impairment before Coach Guthridge did. All the things he couldnt do during the daunting in-season months. 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. Coach Guthridge made his retirement official on May 13, 2015. Smith and Guthridge had long maintained theyd retire together, the natural conclusion to a three-decade partnership in Chapel Hill. "My sympathies go out to his wife, Leesie, and their kids and family.". Though he was a head coach for a short time, he gracefully carried on a culture and legacy that many thought could not be perpetuated. End of conversation.. And that brings us full-circle, back to the original what-if: What if Dean Smith had finished out his contract, which ran through the end of the 2000-01 season? My guess is he would not have been, and then the first call, yes, wouldve been Roy, Baddour says. It left at 1:57 p.m. His reasoning? Change). Whether Williams would have returned at that time is impossible to say. With Williams, it was the restoration of the family, three national championships and potentially many more years. Chapel Hill, N.C. For all of his wins and championships, the Olympic gold medal, tactical innovations, social impact and fertile coaching tree, Dean Smiths unselfishness defined his career to an enormous, but often overlooked, extent. Which put Baddour on the search for a long-term replacement for the first time. Ndiaye even tried cracking the ice by joking that Guthridges years as head coach probably hadnt hurt his wallet. (Jed Jacobsohn / ALLSPORT via Getty), Theres a world where Ford got his chance to be UNCs head coach, and maybe still would be in that position. 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. The possibilities were endless, but Baddour is certain of one thing: keeping things in the family was a must. Neither Davis nor athletic director Ron Wellman would comment on his departure. 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. No, I couldnt even consider that, Smith said. He previously worked at The Charlotte Observer as a Carolina Panthers beat reporter, and his writing has also appeared in Sports Illustrated, The Boston Globe and The Baltimore Sun. Theyd had their disagreements, yes. He, like Coach Smith, was more of a mentor and father figure than anything else. Division 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. But if Smith was selfless in his handling of McAdoo, it was nothing compared to Smiths shocking retirement on Oct. 9, 1997. 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 . And so those players, all of them, kick around the questions to this day. 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? He would, however, have just lost his three best players at Kansas in Paul Pierce, Raef LaFrentz and Billy Thomas. 3 "The End of Absence" Michael Harris. It has to be one of those., Williams talked Thursday night with Kansas athletic director Bob Frederick. 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. He was a perfect sidekick for Coach Smith. All rights reserved. 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. Thank you Coach Gut for the many lessons you taught us at UNC. "Because I knew Coach Guthridge had the best interest for you and wanted to see you succeed.". If Bill Guthridge doesnt look familiar to you as a UNC-Chapel Hill head basketball coach, theres a very good reason for that. 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. "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.". What you saw was the quiet assistant sitting on the bench. 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.. 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. It didnt bother me that I was a lousy coach, and when we started winning I was a better coach. At Smith's retirement. You wouldnt think that would work, but it did. 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. But Guthridges request also made Hanners realize that plan might not come to fruition. Dean Smiths hourglass, it seemed, had an endless amount of sand. 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. I wouldve never thought of that in a million years.. Jordan is among many Tar Heels who had tremendous respect for Guthridge. His legacy lives on in each of the players who were privileged to call him Coach and countless Tar Heels and people across the nation who admired him. He said Friday he now knows how Smith felt in 1997 when he stepped down. Elizabeth A. Davis, Associated Press Writer, Call 1 (785) 843-1000 to contact any staff member. 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. School officials stressed that Guthridge was not merely a placeholder for then-Kansas coach Roy Williams, signing him to a five-year contract. 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. The school scheduled a news conference for 2:30 p.m. today. "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. It was an admirable, honorable action for Smith to take and Guthridge went on to win 80 games in three seasons. That Plan B, clearly, was Guthridge. Born William Wallace Guthridge, he attended Kansas State University where he played guard on the basketball team and helped the Wildcats. The manager put down his stuff and rifled through his pockets. Its very much a possibility, everyone admits. Ndiaye comforted his coach, who had become a friend in time. He stepped down 2 months later. He was on the sidelines for a record 73 NCAA Tournament victories, including 71 at Carolina and two at Kansas State. You will be missed. His loss is deeply felt by our university and the basketball world. Guthridge went 80-28 from 1997 to 2000 before retiring in June 2000. 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. #RIP, "It has been a trying time for the University of North Carolina basketball program over the past four months, and our thoughts and prayers are with them again today," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said in a statement. He held tight. 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. He was 77. He has a keen sense of which ones will be very good players and which ones may be overrated. He also coached 66 players who were selected in the NBA and/or ABA drafts. Guthridge didn't bother to recruit Jason Williams,. School officials stressed that Guthridge was not merely a placeholder for then-Kansas coach Roy Williams, signing him to a five-year contract. He was a friend. Guthridge was a player and then an assistant coach at Kansas State . 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. He led his first team to the 1998 Final Four and had two players, Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison, selected in the top five . (LogOut/ He led his first team to the 1998 Final Four and had two players, Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison, selected in the top five . Even 22 years after turning down the Nittany Lions, Guthridge still couldnt quite bear to leave. Guthridge, his wife said, suffers from vascular dementia - a condition that's a result of reduced blood supply to the brain. So was Williams always fated to end up back at North Carolina? He always knew what he was doing.. Coach Smith had so many strengths and very few weaknesses. And then Bill can decide along the way what he wants to do.. 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. Theres no right answer, no certainty. 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. He came up with the idea that Dean Smith, having . Of course, its not like UNC had a bad season in Guthridges first year. 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. When Smith was needlessly ejected from the 1991 Final Four, it was Guthridge who was furious in the tunnel after the game. WAKE FOREST: Former basketball standout Charlie Davis quit his job in the athletic department, reportedly for not being considered for advancement. "He was an unbelievable assistant to Coach Smith. 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. `` he was on the freshman team he was on the bench talk! As the preseason no couldnt quite bear to leave the manager put down his stuff and rifled through his.... 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