Dean Smith

Dean Edwards Smith (born February 28, 1931) is a retired American head coach of men's college basketball. Originally from Emporia, Kansas, Smith has been called a “coaching legend” by the Basketball Hall of Fame. Smith is best known for his successful 36-year coaching tenure at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Smith coached from 1961 to 1997 and retired with 879 victories, which was the NCAA Division I men's basketball record at that time. Smith has the 9th highest winning percentage of any men’s college basketball coach (77.6%). During his tenure as head coach of North Carolina, the team won two national titles and appeared in 11 Final Fours.

Smith is also known for running a clean program and having a high graduation rate for his players, with 96.6% of his athletes receiving their degrees. While at North Carolina, Smith helped promote desegregation by recruiting the University’s first African American scholarship basketball player, Charlie Scott, and pushing for equal treatment for African Americans by local businesses. Smith coached and worked with numerous individuals at North Carolina who went on to achieve notable success in basketball, as either players or coaches or both. Smith retired as head coach from North Carolina in 1997, saying that he was not able to give the team the same level of enthusiasm that he had given it for years. Since retirement, Smith has used his influence to help out in various charitable ventures and political activities.

Early years
Smith was born in Emporia, Kansas, on February 28, 1931. Both of his parents were public school teachers. Smith's father, Alfred, coached the Emporia High Spartans basketball team to the 1934 state title in Kansas. This 1934 team was notable for having the first African-American basketball player in Kansas tournament history. While at Topeka High School, Smith lettered in basketball all four years and was named all-state in basketball as a senior. Smith's interest in sports was not limited only to basketball. Smith also played quarterback for his high school football team and catcher for the high school baseball team.

College years
After graduating from high school, Smith attended the University of Kansas on an academic scholarship where he majored in mathematics and joined Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. While at Kansas, Smith continued his interest in sports by playing varsity basketball, varsity baseball, and freshman football, and was a member of the Air Force ROTC detachment. During his time on the varsity basketball team, Kansas won the national championship in 1952 and were NCAA tournament finalists in 1953. Smith's basketball coach during his time at Kansas was the legendary Forrest "Phog" Allen, who had been coached at the University of Kansas by the inventor of basketball James Naismith. After graduation, Smith served as assistant coach at Kansas in the 1953–54 season.

Early years in basketball coaching
Smith next served a stint in the United States Air Force in Germany, later working as a head coach of United States Air Force Academy's baseball and golf teams. Yet, Smith's big break would come in the United States. 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 was forced to resign by Chancellor William Aycock in the wake of recruiting and point-shaving scandals. Aycock asked Smith, then 30 years old, to become the new head coach to replace McGuire beginning in fall 1961. Believing that McGuire had compromised UNC's image while building a basketball powerhouse, Aycock told Smith that wins and losses didn't matter as much as running a clean program and representing the university well.

The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) had canceled the Dixie Classic, an annual basketball tournament in Raleigh, North Carolina, due to a national point shaving scandal including one North Carolina player (Lou Brown). As a result of the scandal, North Carolina de-emphasized basketball by cutting their regular-season schedule. In Smith's first season from 1961–62, North Carolina played only 17 games and went 8-9. As it turned out, this would be the only losing season he would ever suffer. In 1965, he was famously hanged in effigy on the university campus following a disappointing loss to Wake Forest. After that game, his team ended up winning nine of the last eleven games. After a slow beginning, Smith turned the program into a consistent success. After the 1966 season, Smith's teams never finished worse than a tie for third in the ACC; for the first 20 of those years, they didn't finish worse than a tie for second. By comparison, during that time the ACC's other charter members each finished last at least once.

His first major successes came in the late 1960s, when his teams won three consecutive regular-season and ACC tournament championships, and went to three straight Final Fours. Unfortunately, this run occurred in the middle of UCLA's run of 10 titles in 12 years; in fact Smith lost to UCLA's John Wooden in the 1968 title game.

It took Smith 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 national championship.

First National Championship
Dean Smith's first national championship occurred in 1982, when the team was composed of future NBA players such as Michael Jordan, James Worthy and Sam Perkins. After winning the NCAA Tournament, North Carolina had a record of 32-2. The other teams that advanced with North Carolina were Georgetown, Houston and Louisville. In the Semifinals, North Carolina defeated Houston 68-63 in New Orleans, while Georgetown defeated Louisville 50-46.

The national title game against Georgetown was evenly matched throughout. However, with 17 seconds left on the clock, and the Tar Heels behind by 1 point, Jordan made what ended up being the game-winning shot to put the Tar Heels up 63-62. On Georgetown's ensuing possession, Hoya guard Fred Brown mistakenly passed the ball to Worthy. Worthy attempted to dribble out the clock, but was fouled with 2 seconds left. He missed both free throws, but Georgetown had no timeouts left. The Hoyas missed a halfcourt shot and lost the game.

Second National Championship
Dean Smith's 1993 squad featured George Lynch, Eric Montross, Brian Reese, Donald Williams and Derrick Phelps. The Tar Heels started out with an 8-0 record and were ranked #5 in the country when they met #6 Michigan in the semi-finals of the Rainbow Classic. The Wolverines, led by the Fab Five in their sophomore season, won 79-78 on a last-second shot. North Carolina bounced back with nine straight wins before losing back-to-back road games against unranked Wake Forest and #5 Duke. After seven more straight wins, the Tar Heels were ranked #1 heading into the last week of the regular season (their first #1 ranking since the start of the 1987-88 season). North Carolina beat #14 Wake Forest and #6 Duke to close out the regular season and clinch the top seed in the ACC tournament. North Carolina reached the tournament final, but they lost 77-75 to Georgia Tech without Derrick Phelps who was injured. Nonetheless, North Carolina was awarded the top seed in the East Regional of the NCAA Tournament, defeating #16-seed East Carolina (85-65), #8-seed Rhode Island (112-67), #4-seed Arkansas (80-74) and #2-seed Cincinnati (75-68) to reach the Final Four in New Orleans.

In the National Semifinals, Smith's Tar Heels defeated his alma mater Kansas (coached by future North Carolina coach Roy Williams) 78-68, setting up a rematch with #3-ranked Michigan in the Finals.

The national title game was a see-saw battle throughout, but is remembered best for Chris Webber calling a time-out that Michigan didn't have with seconds left. Michigan was assessed a technical foul and North Carolina ended up winning 77-71, giving Smith his second national championship. What most people forget is that Webber dragged his pivot foot earlier in that same play for an obvious travel that was overlooked by the referees.

Retirement
Smith announced his retirement on October 9, 1997. He had said that if he ever felt he could not give his team the same enthusiasm he had given it for years, he would retire. His announcement was unexpected, as he had given little warning that he was considering retirement. Bill Guthridge, his assistant for 30 years, succeeded him as head coach.

During his retirement, Smith has had a large influence on the North Carolina basketball program. In 2003 Smith talked to Roy Williams regarding his decision about whether or not to replace a struggling Matt Doherty as head coach. Williams had previously declined the head coaching position three years earlier when Guthridge retired.

In July 2010, John Feinstein disclosed that he had abandoned a biography of Smith because of Smith's deteriorating memory. Shortly after, Smith's family released a letter on July 17, 2010, stating that he had a "progressive neurocognitive disorder", which has not been diagnosed as Alzheimer's or anything else. He has trouble remembering the names of some of his players, the letter said, but he cannot forget what his relationships with those players mean. He also remembers words to hymns and jazz standards, but does not go to concerts. He has difficulty with traveling but continues to watch his former team on TV. Williams said, "He does have his good days and bad."

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. From 1970 until his retirement, his teams featured an impressive shooting percentage of over 50% in all but four years.

Smith is credited with creating or popularizing the following 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, huddling at the free throw line before a foul shot, 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, instituting a variety of defensive sets in one game, having the point guard call out the defense set for the team, and creating a number of defensive sets, including the point zone, the run-and-jump, and double-teaming the screen-and-roll.

But strategically, Smith is most associated with his implementation of the four corners offense, a strategy for stalling with a lead near the end of the game. Smith's teams executed the four corners set so effectively that in 1985 the NCAA instituted a shot clock to speed up play and minimize ball-control offense. Although fellow Kansas alum John McLendon actually invented the four corners offense, Smith is better known for utilizing it in games. Smith is also the author of Basketball: Multiple Offense and Defense, which is the best-selling technical basketball book in history.

Smith also instituted the practice of 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 a season when the team included six seniors, he put all six on the floor at the beginning of the game – drawing a technical foul – rather than leave one of them out.

During the 1993 run for the national title, Smith used a method that was introduced to him at a conference in Switzerland. At the conference, Smith was presented a tape by a lecturer who used doctored images to achieve his goal of losing weight. The photos showed the lecturer what he would look like if he were thinner as motivation to reach his weight-loss goals. Smith took a picture of the scoreboard from the 1982 Championship, modified it to read 1993 and erased the name Georgetown, leaving that space blank. He proceeded to place copies of the doctored photo in all of the players' lockers.

Personal life
Smith married Ann Cleavinger in 1954, shortly before his deployment overseas with the United States Air Force. They had three children: daughters Sharon and Sandy, and son Scott. Smith and Cleavinger divorced in 1973. Smith married Linnea Weblemoe on May 21, 1976. They have two adult daughters, Kristen and Kelly.

Accomplishments
Among the accomplishments of Smith:
 * 879 wins in 36 years of coaching, 4th most in men's college Division I basketball history behind Bob Knight, Mike Krzyzewski, and Jim Boeheim . Adolph Rupp's 876 wins came after 41 years of coaching. Smith compiled a 77.6% winning percentage while coaching 1,133 games at an average of 31.5 games a season. Rupp coached 1069 games in 41 years at an average of 26 games a season with an 82.2% winning percentage.
 * 77.6% winning percentage, which puts him 9th on highest winning percentage.
 * Fourth total number of college games coached with 1,133.
 * Most Division I 20-win seasons, with 27 consecutive 20-win seasons from 1970–1997 and 30 20-win seasons total.
 * 22 seasons with at least 25 wins
 * 35 consecutive seasons with a 50% or better record.
 * Two national championships (1982, 1993)
 * 11 Final Fours (tied with Krzyzewski for second all-time to John Wooden's 12).
 * 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.
 * 96.6% graduation rate among players.
 * Recruited 26 All-Americans to play at North Carolina under him.
 * His players were often successful in the NBA. Five of Smith's players have been NBA 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, Rick Fox, Vince Carter, Scott Williams and Rasheed Wallace. Smith coached 25 NBA first round draft picks. When Jordan was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, he said, "There's no way you guys would have got a chance to see Michael Jordan play without Dean Smith."
 * In 1976, Smith coached the United States team to a gold medal at the Summer Olympics in Montreal.
 * Smith is one of only three coaches to have coached teams to an Olympic gold medal, an NIT championship and an NCAA championship. The others are Pete Newell and Bob Knight.
 * At the time of his retirement, Smith was one of only three people, along with Bob Knight, and Joe B. Hall who had both played on and coached a winning NCAA championship basketball team.

Recognition


Smith received a number of personal honors during his coaching career. He 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). Smith was also inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame on May 2, 1983, two years after being enshrined in the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.

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." He has also been awarded honorary doctorates by Eastern University and Catawba College.

The basketball arena at North Carolina, the Dean E. Smith Center, was named for Smith. It is also widely referred to as the "Dean Dome". In 1997, upon his retirement, Smith was named Sportsman of the Year by the magazine Sports Illustrated. ESPN named Smith one of the five all-time greatest American coaches of any sport. In 1998 he won the Arthur Ashe Courage Award, presented at the annual ESPY Awards hosted by ESPN.

On November 17, 2006, Smith was recognized for his impact on college basketball as a member of the founding class of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. He was one of five, along with Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell, John Wooden and Dr. James Naismith, selected to represent the inaugural class. In 2007, he was enshrined in the FIBA Hall of Fame.

Political activities
Smith is one of the most prominent Democrats in North Carolina politics. Politically, he is best known for promoting desegregation, a reflection of his roots in Kansas. In 1964, Smith joined a local pastor and a black North Carolina theology student to integrate The Pines, a Chapel Hill restaurant. He also integrated the Tar Heels basketball team by recruiting Charlie Scott as the university's first black scholarship athlete. In 1965, Smith helped Howard Lee, a black graduate student at North Carolina, purchase a home in an all-white neighborhood. 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." As head coach, he periodically held North Carolina basketball practices in North Carolina prisons.

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, death penalty 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. In 2006, Smith became the spokesperson for Devout Democrats, an inter-faith, grassroots political action committee designed to convince religious Americans to vote for Democrats. Smith was featured in an ad that ran in newspapers across North Carolina and was featured in an Associated Press article. On October 13, 2008, he endorsed Senator Barack Obama's candidacy for President of the United States.

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. Many of his former players and coaching staff became successful basketball coaches and executives. Smith's coaching tree includes:


 * Larry Brown, a former Smith player, current head coach at Southern Methodist University; former coach of the New York Knicks, San Antonio Spurs, Indiana Pacers, Philadelphia 76ers, Charlotte Bobcats; winner of championships in both the NBA (Detroit Pistons) and college (Kansas)
 * Scott Cherry, former Smith player and former women's assistant coach at Middle Tennessee State University. Current head coach at High Point University, also former assistant coach at Western Kentucky University and South Carolina.
 * Billy Cunningham, coach of the 1983 NBA champion Philadelphia 76ers
 * Matt Doherty, former Smith player. Former head coach at Notre Dame, North Carolina, Florida Atlantic University, and Southern Methodist University; also a former assistant under Roy Williams at Kansas.
 * Eddie Fogler, National Coach of the Year at both Vanderbilt and South Carolina, also former head coach at Wichita State University
 * Phil Ford, former assistant coach of the Charlotte Bobcats
 * Bill Guthridge, former Dean Smith's assistant coach and former UNC Head Coach, National Coach of the year at UNC
 * Dave Hanners, former assistant coach of the Charlotte Bobcats, Detroit Pistons, Philadelphia 76ers and New York Knicks. Currently assistant coach of the New Orleans Hornets.
 * Michael Jordan, majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats
 * George Karl, a point guard under Smith, currently head coach of the Denver Nuggets
 * John Kuester, former head coach of the Detroit Pistons
 * Mitch Kupchak, general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers
 * Jeff Lebo, head coach at East Carolina and former head coach at Tennessee Tech, Chattanooga, and Auburn
 * Doug Moe, former NBA coach (Denver Nuggets) and former NBA coach of the year
 * Mike O'Koren, assistant head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers
 * Buzz Peterson, currently head coach at UNC Wilmington. Most recently Director of Player Personnel of the Charlotte Bobcats; previously head coach at Coastal Carolina, Tennessee, Tulsa and Appalachian State.
 * King Rice, current head coach at Monmouth; former assistant at Oregon, Illinois State, Providence and Vanderbilt
 * Tony Shaver, head coach at The College of William & Mary
 * Pat Sullivan, assistant coach of the Detroit Pistons
 * Roy Williams, former University of Kansas coach and University of North Carolina Tar Heels assistant, current North Carolina head coach
 * Hubert Davis current assistant coach at University of North Carolina.