North Carolina Tar Heels: Bill Guthridge Passes Away

By Daniel Tran | May 13, 2015

After fighting an extended illness, former North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Bill Guthridge passed away in his home. He was 77 years old.

There is a prevailing thought amongst casual college basketball followers that before Roy Williams was stalking the sidelines for the North Carolina Tar Heels, it was Dean Smith who directly preceded him as the head coach of the Carolina blue and white. It seems that only fans of the university or die-hard admirers of the sport know that there was a six-year gap between Smith and Williams.

Filling in the void for the first three years of that gap was Bill Guthridge, an assistant coach under Dean Smith for 30 years. Forgotten in vacuum between the greatness that has defined both the Smith and Williams regimes, Gutheridge helped sustain North Carolina’s relevance in the national spotlight with the help of Smith’s last, and one of his greatest, teams.

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In his first year as North Carolina head coach in 1997, Guthridge took a team consisting of Vince Carter, Antwan Jamison, and Shammond Williams and guided them to a second consecutive Final Four appearance while winning a school record 34 games. All of this was done with Dean Smith’s crew who made it a year before, but that surely is not a guarantee to make it back to the national semifinal round.

After an early first round exit in the 1999 NCAA Tournament, and finishing the 1999-2000 season with an 18-13 record, Guthridge’s tenure at North Carolina was going to remembered for riding the coattails of Dean Smith’s great players, while being unable to recruit and coach himself.

That’s when the real magic began. After a first round loss to Wake Forest in the ACC Tournament, North Carolina was given a No. 8 seed in the 2000 NCAA Tournament. After dominating Missouri in the first round, Guthridge led the Tar Heels over No. 1 seeded Stanford in the second round, holding the powerful Cardinal team featuring Jason and Jarron Collins, Mark Madsen, and Casey Jacobsen to 34.5 percent shooting from the field.

Under Guthridge’s leadership, the team would reach their third Final Four in four years. Though they fell to Florida in the national semifinal round, Guthridge, though often overlooked, deserves a lot of the credit for bringing the players together when it mattered most, and made a magical run into the Final Four when everyone expected it the least.

Guthridge would retire at the end of season, giving way to three futile years under Matt Doherty before Roy Williams was brought in to right the ship. After that happened, all that occurred were national championships, Final Four appearances, and a general return to prominence.

Though he will most likely be a footnote in North Carolina basketball history, Guthridge should receive the recognition he deserves after taking a less talented team to Final Four in 2000, and for staying loyal to Dean Smith for 30 years when he could have had any Division I head coaching job he wanted. That kind of loyalty in the current era may never be seen again.

Rest in peace, Bill.

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