Bill Guthridge

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Bill Guthridge (born July 27, 1937 in Parsons, Kansas) is a retired American basketball coach. He gained notoriety for succeeding Dean Smith as head basketball coach at the University of North Carolina in 1997, after serving for 30 years as Smith's assistant. He coached the Tar Heels for three seasons before retiring in 2000 [1].

1 Background
2 Head Coaching Career
3 Record as Head Coach of North Carolina
4 External links

[edit] Background

Guthridge attended Kansas State University, and graduated with a B.S. in Mathematics in 1960 and an M.A. in Education in 1963. While a student at Kansas State, Guthridge played guard under legendary head coach Fred "Tex" Winter, and helped the team advance to the 1958 Final Four. From 1962-1967 he was an assistant coach at Kansas State, where has also served as head golf coach. From 1967-1997 he was an assistant at North Carolina. In 1976, he served as an assistant coach to Dean Smith as the United States won the gold medal in men's basketball at the Summer Olympics in Montreal.

As an assistant, Guthridge was renowned for his success in coaching the fundamentals of pivot play to a long series of successful UNC big men, and as the Tar Heels' primary shooting coach. Guthridge also handled many day-to-day responsibilities in the program and oversaw UNC's summer basketball camps. While serving as an assistant coach, Guthridge turned down several head coaching opportunities, preferring to remain in Chapel Hill working alongside Smith.

[edit] Head Coaching Career

In his three seasons as head coach Guthridge led the Tar Heels to the NCAA Final Four twice, in the 1998 tournament and again in the 2000 tournament. In 1998, Guthridge inherited a team that had been to the 1997 Final Four the previous year under Coach Smith. With a wealth of returning talent, Guthridge instituted a "six starters" system, whereby the team's top six players, Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter, Ed Cota, Shammond Williams, Ademola Okulaja and Makthar Ndiaye rotated positions in the starting five. Guthridge coached that team to the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championship, a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and to the National Semifinal game, where they lost to Utah. Following the 1997-1998 season, several organizations named him National Coach of the Year and he received the Naismith College Coach of the Year award.

The next season, the team earned a #3 seed in the 1999 NCAA tournament, but was upset in the first round by Weber State. In 2000, the team struggled in the regular season, but came alive at tournament time. They earned only a #8 seed, after an 18-13 record, but upset top-seeded Stanford in the second round and continued on to the National Semifinal game, where they lost to Florida. After the 2000 season, Guthridge retired from coaching.

[edit] Record as Head Coach of North Carolina

Season	Overall Record	ACC Record	Postseason
1997-98	34-4	13-3	NCAA Final 4
1998-99	24-10	10-6	NCAA First Round
1999-2000	22-14	9-7	NCAA Final 4
All seasons	90-28	32-16	3 NCAA

[2]

[edit] External links

Tarheel Blue Bio

Preceded by Dean Smith	UNC Basketball Coaches 1997–2000	Succeeded by Matt Doherty

North Carolina Tar Heels Head Basketball Coaches
Cartmell • Doak • Peacock • Boye • Shepard • McDonald • Sanborn • Ashmore• Shepard• Skidmore • Lange • Carnevale • Scott • McGuire • Smith • Guthridge • Doherty • Williams