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Carolina Basketball 2011-12 DEAN SMITH When ESPN's award-winning SportsCentury program selected the greatest coaches of the 20th Century, it came as no surprise that Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith was among the top seven of all-time. Smith joined other legends Red Auerbach, Bear Bryant, George Halas, Vince Lombardi, John McGraw and John Wooden as the preeminent coaches in sports history. Smith's tenure as Carolina's basketball coach from 1960-97 is a record of remarkable achievement and consistency. In 36 seasons at UNC, Smith's teams had a record of 879-254. His teams won more games than those of any other Division I men's basketball college coach in history, a record broken in 2007 by Bob Knight and surpassed again in 2011 by Mike Krzyzewski. • Smith coached Carolina to the 1982 and 1993 NCAA champi- onships and the 1971 NIT title. • Under Smith, the Tar Heels won at least 20 games for 27 36 Seasons 879-254 (.776) EDUCATION B.A., Communications Kansas '53 3 Smith retired with more wins (879) than any other coach in NCAA Division I history, a total since sur- passed by Bob Knight. 3 In 36 years, Smith coached Carolina to 11 Fi- nal Fours, two national titles and 13 ACC Tournament Championships. 3 More than 95 percent of Smith's lettermen gradu- ated. 3 From 1981 to 1989, Carolina was ranked in the final Top 10 of both the Associated Press and coaches' poll each year. 3 Smith was named the second-best coach in college basketball history (behind John Wooden) by the NABC in 2000. 3 Smith was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., in 1983. He was also inducted into the North Carolina Hall of Fame in 1981. In 2006, he was named to the inaugural class of the National Col- legiate Basketball Hall of Fame (along with James Naismith, John Wooden, Oscar Robertson and Bill Russell). He was inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2007. 116 3 Smith was voted ACC Coach of the Year eight times - in 1967, 1968, 1971, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1988 and 1993. straight years and 30 of his final 31. No coach in history has ever produced that many consecutive 20-win seasons. • Carolina was ranked in the final Top 10 of both the Associated Press and coaches' polls each year from 1981-89. That nine-year run is the second-longest streak of Top 10 finishes in history, ex- ceeded only by UCLA's 13-year string from 1967 to 1979. • The Tar Heels were ranked among the nation's final Top 15 teams in 28 of his last 31 seasons, missing only in 1970, 1990 and 1996, and were among the Top 10 on 23 occasions during that pe- riod. Smith's teams finished the season ranked No. 1 in at least one of the two major polls four times (1982, 1984, 1993 and 1994). • Smith's teams were also the dominant force in the ACC. The Tar Heels under Smith had a record of 364-136 in ACC regular- season play, a winning percentage of .728. • The Tar Heels finished at least third in the ACC regular-season standings for 33 successive seasons. In that span, Carolina finished first 17 times, second 11 times and third five times. • Smith's teams finished in the ACC upper division all but one time. That was in 1964, when Carolina was fifth and had its only losing record in ACC regular-season play under Smith at 6-8. • Carolina won 13 ACC Tournaments under Smith. • His teams played in 11 Final Fours. • Smith's teams made 23 consecutive appearances in the NCAA Tournament. • In his last 31 years, Smith led the Tar Heels into the NCAA Tournament 27 times. • Carolina reached the Sweet 16 of NCAA play each season from 1981-93. That 13-year streak is the second-longest in Tour- nament history to a 14-year stretch by UCLA from 1967 to 1980. The awards and accolades continue to be given to Smith, even after he stepped down as Carolina's head coach on October 9, 1997. Smith was named Sportsman of the Year by Sports Illustrat- ed and received the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at the ESPY Awards. He was inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2007. He received the Naismith Good Sportsmanship Award in 2011. Upon the announcement of that honor, Duke's Mike Krzyzewski said, "Dean set the standard for bas- ketball – and not just college bas- ketball – that everyone is still try- ing to reach. He demanded that his teams play as one. And what he got in return from all these guys who played for him was the intense loy- alty that they feel toward him. And that's something I've admired since I started coaching. It's really one of the great things in all of sport: that intense loyalty the Tar Heel players have for Coach Smith." In 2006, he was named to the inaugural class of the National Col- legiate Basketball Hall of Fame (along with James Naismith, John Wooden, Oscar Robertson and Bill Russell). Smith also became 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's recognized throughout the sports world for his character, his innovations to the game and his ability to have established Carolina's program as one of the greatest in college basketball. Smith's players consistently produce on the floor, in the classroom and in life. When Smith broke Rupp's record in 1997, his coaching peers had this to say: John Wooden: "What's more impressive to me about Dean than the record is how good he is as a teacher of basketball. I've always said he's a better teacher of basketball than anyone else. I couldn't begin to teach players the things Dean has taught them. I've admired him because there's more to him than just wins." Bob Knight: "Let me say some things that he won't say. He's going to say an awful lot about teams and that's the way it should be. But let me put it in perspective. His being able to do that and do it at a single institution, do it through all the years without ever having a problem with any kind of recruiting violation or pro- bation, is a very singular accomplishment in college basketball. I think it's a great achievement, indicative of a guy who really knows how to coach and has decided from day one that things are going to be done the absolute right way. He's not going to tell you, but just take my word for it. That's a great, great accomplishment for a coach." Roy Williams: "He has a basketball program, he doesn't have a team. And when you have a program, you're concerned about the kids' entire lives, their entire existence ... and what they're going to do after they leave you and what kind of effect you can have on them as they mature." Perhaps his greatest form of praise on a worldwide level came when a group of his peers, including Hall of Fame coaches Henry Iba, Pete Newell and Auerbach, chose Smith to coach the U.S. Olympic basketball team in the 1976 Montreal Games. The Amer- icans finished a controversial second to the Soviet Union at Mu- nich in 1972. Smith was given the challenge of trying to develop a team to regain the gold medal against a group of improving in- ternational teams. Smith molded a group of college all-stars into a cohesive unit during a few short weeks in that summer of 1976 and led them to the gold medal, sweeping through the Games undefeated and beat- ing Yugoslavia in the championship game. Emphasizing a tough pressure defense and a fast-breaking, attacking style on offense, the Americans returned to the top of the international game. Just as Smith used his talents to develop that 1976 all-star team into an Olympic champion, he has pre- pared a host of players for successful careers in the NBA. "UNC is a plus-four school," Orlan- do Magic Vice President of Basketball Operations-Player Personnel John Ga- briel said about Smith's teams, "mean- ing that if I rate a player as the 10th-best player in the NBA Draft, being a Tar Heel automatically jumps him to num- ber six. The plus-four rating is based upon the success of former Tar Heels in the NBA." During his last 31 seasons, since Smith's Tar Heels won their first ACC title in 1967, the Tar Heels had a record of 813-207, winning 79.7 percent of their games. In 23 of those 31 seasons, Carolina won either the ACC regular-season, tournament or both. Most schools are happy just to win 20 games in a sea- son. At Carolina, it became a habit. No school in the country won more total