Dean Smith
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Dean Edwards Smith (born February 28, 1931) is a former basketball player and coach. He was the head coach of the men's basketball team at the University of North Carolina from 1961 to 1997.
He has been recognized as one of the greatest coaches in American sports history. He currently holds the record for most victories by an NCAA Division I men's basketball coach, finishing his career with 879 wins against 254 losses (a .776 winning percentage). His teams won two national titles and appeared in 11 Final Fours.
Background
Smith was born in Emporia, Kansas. His parents were public school teachers, and he was a four-year letter winner playing basketball at Topeka High School, including being named all-state as a senior.
He attended the University of Kansas on an academic scholarship and played varsity basketball, varsity baseball, and freshman football. He was a member of the Kansas teams that won the national championship in 1952 and finished second in 1953. His coach at Kansas was the legendary Forrest "Phog" Allen, who in turn was coached in college basketball by its inventor, James Naismith. After graduation, Smith was an assistant coach at Kansas in the 1953-54 season.
He then served a stint in the United States Air Force in Germany, then worked at the United States Air Force Academy as head coach of its baseball and golf teams. In 1958, North Carolina coach Frank McGuire asked Smith to join his staff as an assistant coach. Smith served under McGuire for three years until 1961, when McGuire resigned to become head coach of the NBA's Philadelphia Warriors. University chancellor William Aycock asked Smith, then 30 years old, to become the new head coach.
Years at North Carolina
Smith was not successful at first, going 8-9 in his first season, 1961-62. As it turned out, this would be the only losing season he would ever suffer. In 1965, he was famously burned in effigy on the university campus after a disappointing loss to Wake Forest. But Smith quickly turned the program into a consistent success. His first major successes came in the late 1960s, when his teams won three consecutive regular-season and tournament championships in the Atlantic Coast Conference, arguably the country's most competitive, and went to three straight Final Fours.
Among the accomplishments of Smith's teams:
- Two national championships (1982, 1993)
- 11 Final Fours (second only to John Wooden's 12)
- 22 seasons with at least 25 wins
- 30 seasons with at least 20 wins, including 27 consecutive
- 17 regular-season ACC titles, plus 33 straight years finishing in the conference's top three and 20 years in the top two
- 13 ACC tournament titles
- 27 NCAA tournament appearances, including 23 consecutive
Smith also stressed academics above all other issues. Unlike at many major college programs, where academics are sometimes sacrified in the name of athletic success, 96% of Smith's players graduated.
His players were often successful in the NBA. North Carolina has produced more NBA players than any other college program; five of Smith's players have been Rookie of the Year in either the NBA or ABA. Among Smith's most successful players in the NBA are Michael Jordan, Larry Brown, James Worthy, Sam Perkins, Phil Ford, Bob McAdoo, Billy Cunningham, Kenny Smith, Walter Davis, Jerry Stackhouse, Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter and Rasheed Wallace.
In 1976, Smith coached the United States team to a gold medal at the Summer Olympics in Montreal. Smith was selected after the United States' controversial second-place finish at the 1972 games.
Smith was often criticized for not being able to win enough championships. It took him seven trips to the Final Four before winning his first national title, and then it took him nine more years to return (and two more to get another title). However, it should be noted that several of Smith's first great teams played at the same time that UCLA dominated the sport. Also, he took four of his last seven teams to the Final Four.
Coaching style
Smith-coached teams varied in style, depending on the players Smith had available. But they generally featured a fast-break style, a half-court offense that emphasized the passing game, and an aggressive trapping defense that produced turnovers and easy baskets.
His teams always shot the ball well. From 1970 until his retirement, North Carolina shot over 50 percent from the floor all but four years – and led the ACC in field-goal percentage even in those four.
Smith was an innovator and is credited with creating or popularizing a number of basketball techniques:
- The "tired signal," in which a player would use a hand signal (originally a raised fist) to indicate that he needed to come out for a rest.
- The practice of huddling at the free throw line before a foul shot.
- Starting all his team's seniors on the last home game of the season ("Senior Day") as a way of honoring the contributions of the subs as well as the stars. In one season when the team included six seniors, he opted to put all six on the floor at the beginning of the game – drawing a technical foul – rather than leave one of them out.
- The practice of saving time outs for end-of-game situations.
- A number of defensive sets, including the point zone, the run-and-jump, and double-teaming the screen-and-roll.
- Running team practices on a strict schedule, with every minute pre-planned. (Example: If a team drill was to end at 3:10 exactly, it would end at 3:10 and the next drill would start.)
- Encouraging players who scored a basket to point a finger at the teammate who passed them the ball, in honor of the passer's selflessness.
One of his most famous strategies was the four corners offense, a strategy for stalling with a lead near the end of the game. The introduction of a shot clock in 1985, which he supported, made that offense mostly obsolete. Although fellow Kansas alum John McClendon invented the four corners, Smith is better known for utilizing it in games.
Recognition
Along with his teams' success, Smith has received a number of personal honors. Smith was named the National Coach of the Year four times (1977, 1979, 1982, 1993) and ACC Coach of the Year eight times (1967, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1988, 1993).
The basketball arena at UNC, the Dean Smith Center, was named for Smith. It is popularly known as the Dean Dome.
In 1997, upon his retirement, he was named Sportsman of the Year by the magazine Sports Illustrated.
He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame on May 2, 1983, two years after being enshrined in the North Carolina Hall of Fame. He has been awarded honorary doctorates by Eastern University and Catawba College.
Smith was the first recipient of the Mentor Award for Lifetime Achievement, given by the University of North Carolina Committee on Teaching Awards for "a broader range of teaching beyond the classroom."
ESPN named Smith one of the five greatest American coaches of all-time, regardless of sport.
Retirement
Smith announced his retirement on October 8, 1997, a decision which shocked the college basketball world. For a generation of Tar Heel fans, Smith was the only coach they'd ever known. He said that if he ever felt he couldn't give his team the same enthusiasm he'd given it for years, he'd retire.At the time of his retirement, Smith had been involved, in one form or another, in almost 1,000 of the Tar Heels' all-time wins in 39 years on the basketball staff--three years as an assistant and 36 years as head coach.
Bill Guthridge, his assistant for 30 years, succeeded him. Ironically, Guthridge attended Kansas State University, Kansas' longtime rival.
Political activities
Smith was perhaps the most prominent liberal in his traditionally conservative state. This is not surprising, since UNC has long been considered one of the more liberal schools in the United States. In 1964, Smith joined a local pastor and a black UNC theology student to integrate The Pines, a Chapel Hill restaurant. He also played a large part in desegregating the city of Chapel Hill when he integrated the Tar Heels basketball team by recruiting Charlie Scott as the university's first black scholarship athlete.
"When I was named head coach the first call I got was from Bob Seymour, our pastor at the Binkley [Baptist] Church," Smith has said, speaking of a church noted for its inclusiveness. "Bob said now that you’ve been named head coach, you can resign as chairman of the student affairs committee, and your first church work will be to find a black basketball player."
He opposed the Vietnam War and, in the early 1980s, famously recorded radio spots to promote a freeze on nuclear weapons. He has been a prominent opponent of the death penalty. In 1998, he appeared at a clemency hearing for a death-row inmate and pointed at then-Governor Jim Hunt: "You're a murderer. And I'm a murderer. The death penalty makes us all murderers." He often took his players to visit death-row inmates.
While coach, he was recruited by some in the Democratic Party to run for the United States Senate against incumbent Jesse Helms. He declined. But in retirement, he has continued to speak out on issues such as the war in Iraq and gay rights.
Although a staunch Democrat, Smith did support one of his former players, Republican Richard Vinroot, for governor of North Carolina in 2000.
Coaching tree
One hallmark of Smith's tenure as coach was the concept of the "Carolina Family," the idea that anyone associated with the program was entitled to the support of others, except when Smith decided to turn his back on some players, most notably Phil Ford and Matt Doherty. Many of his former players and assistant coaches have followed Smith into the coaching profession. (For more details, see Carolina Family and Naismith Family.
- Roy Williams, former KU coach and current UNC coach
- Bill Guthridge, Smith's successor at UNC
- Matt Doherty, a former Smith player and former UNC coach who now coaches at Southern Methodist University
- George Karl, a point guard under Smith, currently coach of the Denver Nuggets
- Larry Brown, a former Smith player, coach of the New York Knicks, winner of championships in both the NBA (Detroit Pistons) and college (Kansas)
- Eddie Fogler, former National Coach of the Year at Vanderbilt
- Billy Cunningham, coach of the 1983 NBA champion Philadelphia 76ers
- Jeff Lebo, coach at Auburn
- Buzz Peterson, coach at Coastal Carolina
- Mitch Kupchak, general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers
- Tony Shaver, reserve point guard under Smith, now head coach at William & Mary
- Terry Truax, former Smith assistant and former head coach at Towson University
- Randy Wiel, former Smith player and former head coach at Middle Tennessee and the University of North Carolina at Asheville
External links
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