RIP - Dean Smith

[nyg]

83 years old.  Him and Al can now discuss hoops again......

[ChicosBailBonds]

When we retired the number 77 for Al back in 1998 he helped us along with many other coaches like Ray Meyer, Vitale, Digger, Carnesecca, etc to do some video viniettes in tribute to Al.  Was very giving of his time.

RIP

[Goose]

RIP Coach Dean Smith

[nyg]

2 NCAA Championships
11 Final Fours
13 ACC Championships
1976 Olympic Gold Medal

The one thing I remember reading somewhere over the years, was that Smith would take time out during the week to contact his former players (not just the stars) and make sure they were doing alright in life. 

[tower912]

Class act.  Thanks for going to the 4-corners too early in 1977.    RIP, coach. 

[willie warrior]

Truly one of the all time great coaches! RIP

[4everwarriors]

Legendary, aina?

[keefe]

Legendary, aina?

Well, hang on Doc! The man was no Stew Morill, aina?

[muwarrior69]

83 years old.  Him and Al can now discuss hoops again......

Yes, in Taps City.

[77ncaachamps]

2 NCAA Championships
11 Final Fours
13 ACC Championships
1976 Olympic Gold Medal

The one thing I remember reading somewhere over the years, was that Smith would take time out during the week to contact his former players (not just the stars) and make sure they were doing alright in life. 

Learned a lot about Dean in the past couple of hours:
- James Worthy was still sending his financial documents for Dean to look at
- Vince Carter is the last Dean-coached player in the NBA. Remarkable for VC since Dean stopped coaching in 97
- received an academic scholarship to attend KU where he played bk for Phog Allen

[Texas Western]

A giant passed. I enjoyed watching his team so much. Winning our championship against him was a huge thing.

[We R Final Four]

I think 2 Championships in 11 trips to the Final Four shows just how hard it is to take home the gold ball.  Dean won his first Championship on his 7th trip to the FF.
Imagine the folks around here after the 4th, 5th, and 6th trips with no hardware. 

Great to hear his players talk about him the way they have--much more than a coach.

[dgies9156]

I think 2 Championships in 11 trips to the Final Four shows just how hard it is to take home the gold ball.  Dean won his first Championship on his 7th trip to the FF.
Imagine the folks around here after the 4th, 5th, and 6th trips with no hardware. 
Great to hear his players talk about him the way they have--much more than a coach.

After Coach Smith lost to us in 1977, a reporter for the Charolotte Observer (I believe) did an extensive article about UNC's inability to win the big one at that time. Blamed it on the "system," as I recall from reading Coach Smith's biography. There was some unrest at the time, but Coach Smith proved his naysayers wrong over and over again.

He may have been 2/11 in Final Fours, but I'll tell you what, since 1978, I wish we were 2/11 in Final Fours. He was a great man who cared deeply about his students, aka, basketball players.

[Spotcheck Billy]

what some here need for perspective/or wait the full 5 years:

The low point came in January of 1965. UNC had lost three straight games, including a blowout loss at Wake Forest that dropped the team to 6-6 on the season. When the team returned to Carmichael in the early hours of the next morning, a mob of students were waiting with a dummy hanging from a tree.

"I knew it was me because of the long nose," Smith wrote in his autobiography. "It certainly wasn't an experience I'd wish on anyone. My standard comment over the years was that I was glad there was that much interest in basketball here and I'm glad it was a dummy and not the real thing."

Three days later, UNC went to Duke Indoor Stadium and upset No. 6 Duke with a perfectly executed game plan. But the next time out, UNC lost at home to N.C. State and Smith was again hung in effigy.

In hindsight, those students look as stupid as the Concerned Iron Dukes who tried to run off Coach K in his early years.

[The Lens]

Considering what Dean Smith stood for socially, and the care and concern he showed for ALL of his players / managers, I would have no problem naming the NCAA trophy after him.  An amazing life that meant so much more than basketball.  Incredible to spend the past 24 hours reading about his legacy and hearing many stories for the first time.  He obviously never had the press release machine fired up.

"...you should never be proud of doing the right thing, you should just do the right thing!”

- Dean Smith 1931-2015

[WI inferiority Complexes]

Considering what Dean Smith stood for socially, and the care and concern he showed for ALL of his players / managers, I would have no problem naming the NCAA trophy after him. 

I know little about Dean Smith and also very little about the "African-American Studies Scandal" at UNC, but I do know it involves athletes, (including basketball players), between 1989-2011.  Perhaps that investigation should be completed before the NCAA names a trophy after Smith.

[Spotcheck Billy]

I think the trophy's name is fine just the way it is now.

[CTWarrior]

I think 2 Championships in 11 trips to the Final Four shows just how hard it is to take home the gold ball.  Dean won his first Championship on his 7th trip to the FF.
Imagine the folks around here after the 4th, 5th, and 6th trips with no hardware. 

Great to hear his players talk about him the way they have--much more than a coach.

You forget how lucky he was to win the two he did win.  He won the first when Fred Brown screwed up Georgetown's chance for a win when, down 1, he mistakenly passed the ball to James Worthy, who was guarding nobody.  He won his second when Chris Webber called time out down 1, screwing up Michigan's chance for the win.

In my mind, a lot of his tactical brilliance was legislated out of the game, like the four corners (which basically is the reason Marquette has a NC).  I played center against Mike Gminski in a high school scrimmage (I wasn't quite as good as Ners, Gmiinski kind of dominated me) and remember watching a Duke-UNC game because he was playing and Smith refused to shoot in the first half because Duke was playing zone and I think the score was something like 7-0 at the half.  He basically won because he had better players than everyone else.  Of course, the fact that he was such a good man was proably the biggest reason why he had better players than everyone else.  If I was a high school kid with NBA talent I'd sooner go to UNC under Smith than go to Indiana and be bullied by Boby Knight for 4 years, no matter what a brilliat basketball mind he may have had.

[dgies9156]

Of course, the fact that he was such a good man was proably the biggest reason why he had better players than everyone else. 

I was a youth in Tennessee in the 1960s, when Dean Smith desegregated the ACC. At the time, Roy Skinner, the head coach at Vanderbilt, did the same thing in the SEC with Perry Wallace, a Nashville kid who was heavily recruited nationally. The abuse that was heaped on the African-American players, their teams and their coaches, was obscene.

To understand Dean Smith, you have to understand the South in the 1960s. You realize he was more than opportunistic. He was courageous and he did the right thing. Period. He was a decent, honorable man whose legacy is the quality of the players who played for him.

[dgies9156]

I think 2 Championships in 11 trips to the Final Four shows just how hard it is to take home the gold ball.  Dean won his first Championship on his 7th trip to the FF.
Imagine the folks around here after the 4th, 5th, and 6th trips with no hardware.  

Great to hear his players talk about him the way they have--much more than a coach.

Dude, for the record, let's lay out the record:

1968 -- Slaughtered by Kentucky in the regional semi-final
1969 -- Lost a chance at a Final Four by losing to Purdue on a Missed Free Throw and a 27' jump shot in OT
1970 -- NIT Champions
1971 -- Lost to Ohio State in regional semi-final. Referee named to all-Opponents team
1972 -- Slaughtered by Kentucky again, 85-69
1973 -- Lost to Bobby Knight in regional semi-final
1974 -- National runner-up
1975 -- Guess what, slaughtered by Kentucky yet again
1976 -- Lost in regional final to Bobby Knight again
1977 -- NATIONAL CHAMPION.

Any guess who this is? That's nine trips without hardware. But we accepted that because we knew sooner or later....  I suspect North Carolina felt the same way.

[77ncaachamps]

Dude, for the record, let's lay out the record:

1968 -- Slaughtered by Kentucky in the regional semi-final
1969 -- Lost a chance at a Final Four by losing to Purdue on a Missed Free Throw and a 27' jump shot in OT
1970 -- NIT Champions
1971 -- Lost to Ohio State in regional semi-final. Referee named to all-Opponents team
1972 -- Slaughtered by Kentucky again, 85-69
1973 -- Lost to Bobby Knight in regional semi-final
1974 -- National runner-up
1975 -- Guess what, slaughtered by Kentucky yet again
1976 -- Lost in regional final to Bobby Knight again
1977 -- NATIONAL CHAMPION.

Any guess who this is? That's nine trips without hardware. But we accepted that because we knew sooner or later....  I suspect North Carolina felt the same way.

Point well made.

Makes me wonder if we ran Buzz out too early.

[GGGG]

Great obit by Charles Pierce...with an obligatory Al mention.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/dean-smith-1931-2015-obituary-north-carolina/

[Dr. Blackheart]

Dean Smith + Al McGuire: Changed society, changed lives, was a winner.

[We R Final Four]

Dude, for the record, let's lay out the record:

1968 -- Slaughtered by Kentucky in the regional semi-final
1969 -- Lost a chance at a Final Four by losing to Purdue on a Missed Free Throw and a 27' jump shot in OT
1970 -- NIT Champions
1971 -- Lost to Ohio State in regional semi-final. Referee named to all-Opponents team
1972 -- Slaughtered by Kentucky again, 85-69
1973 -- Lost to Bobby Knight in regional semi-final
1974 -- National runner-up
1975 -- Guess what, slaughtered by Kentucky yet again
1976 -- Lost in regional final to Bobby Knight again
1977 -- NATIONAL CHAMPION.

Any guess who this is? That's nine trips without hardware. But we accepted that because we knew sooner or later....  I suspect North Carolina felt the same way.

Dude--11 Final Fours. 11.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

I saw this write-up on Dean Smith this afternoon.

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/the-dean-of-innovation-college-basketball-needs-another-coach-smith-20150210?utm_source=newsletter&utm_content=daily&utm_campaign=021015_16&utm_medium=email&ea=Z2Fnbm9uLnJvYmVydEBzYmNnbG9iYWwubmV0

The Dean of Innovation: College Basketball Needs Another Coach Smith

North Carolina's icon pushed the game forward, but his death reminds us that someone must take up his mantle

By Michael Weinreb | February 10, 2015

In early March of 1982, with seven minutes and 34 seconds remaining in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game and North Carolina leading 44-43, Dean Smith called a timeout to set up his Four Corners offense; and for the next seven minutes and six seconds, the Tar Heels stalled, passing the ball around the perimeter from man to man, refusing to make a single overture toward the rim.

It's difficult to even comprehend the rhythm of such a moment in a modern context. It is a stretch of basketball so infuriating that it even appears to have eluded capture on YouTube. Today's college basketball is sloppy and offensively challenged; still, most of that stultifying pace is indeliberate. What's amazing is that Dean Smith was doing this on purpose, with the express hope that he wouldn't have to do it again. "I don't care about the image of the sport," Matt Doherty, then a Carolina player, said after UNC's 47-45 victory, but it was clear that Dean Smith did.

In 1982, there was no shot clock in college basketball, but there would be soon after, in part because of this ACC championship game, in part because of Dean Smith's insistence upon pushing toward the existential nothingness. And amid all the eulogies for Smith over the past couple of days, this is what stands out to me: Even in his embrace of conservatism, Smith was advocating for liberalism, for a way of pushing the sport forward.

"As successful as he had been at slowing the game down, he knew playing the game faster would be to his advantage because he almost always had the best players," John Feinstein wrote in his own remembrance of Smith. "The more possessions there were in a game, the more time there was for that talent to take control."

There is, of course, a constant battle in college sports between coaches like Smith, who are able to lure the top talents, and those who are making do with less; college football, at least on a competitive level, is as great as it's ever been in large part because it is played at a myriad of tempos, because it is blessed with coaches who are unafraid to challenge the status quo. In the '70s and '80s and '90s and through the early part of the 21st century, college basketball had that feel, too.

Buoyed by Dean Smith's push into the shot-clock era, programs like UNLV and Loyola Marymount and Michigan embraced a flamboyant and fast-paced ethos. None of that might have happened without Smith, who was perhaps the greatest adapter in the history of the sport, a coach who found a way to effectively utilize both the shot clock and 3-point line when those things came along, who devised so many of the modern innovations we now take for granted that it's kind of astounding.

What once made college basketball great, from start of season to finish, was that it felt more like a laboratory for innovation than a breeding ground for the NBA. It was also defiantly egalitarian – a coach willing to think outside the box could win a game as a 14 seed, which is what made (and still makes) the opening round of the NCAA tournament one of the best weekends of the year. Yet somewhere along the way, without innovators and button-pushers like Dean Smith, without any real will to alter the rules to encourage that innovation, it no longer has that same energy. The regular season is a dead zone. It's a hard sport to watch now, tangled up in itself, devoid of any real progressiveness. It needs real change, which, with 350 Division I programs advocating different agendas, is not as simple as it might seem.

"A coach thinks to win a game under the rules," Smith said after that Virginia game, and all these years later, as we mourn the loss of one of the more unabashedly liberal coaches of all time, I wonder if college basketball needs another coach who isn't afraid to challenge those rules, and to trek into the existential nothingness, for the good of us all.

Michael Weinreb is the author of Season of Saturdays: A History of College Football in 14 Games. You can find him on Twitter @michaelweinreb


Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/the-dean-of-innovation-college-basketball-needs-another-coach-smith-20150210#ixzz3RNZV5DQl
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