Smith, Dean Edwards

▪ 1998

      The 1982 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) championship game between the University of North Carolina and the University of Virginia featured some of the greatest players in college basketball—among them North Carolina guard Michael Jordan and Virginia centre Ralph Sampson. As a national television audience watched, however, Dean Smith, the North Carolina coach, instructed his players to stall en route to a 47-45 victory. Smith's name had become synonymous with the low-scoring style of play known as the four-corner offense. Opponents of Smith's strategy, craving the high-scoring game played in the National Basketball Association (NBA), pointed to that ACC championship contest as proof that changes were in order. The outcry was loud enough to effect two rules changes that would significantly alter the college game: the 45-second shot clock and the three-point basket. Smith guided his team to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championship that year, but observers predicted that his mastery would fade as the game changed.

      On March 15, 1997, Smith made a mockery of those predictions, earning his 877th career win to surpass Kentucky's Adolph Rupp as the NCAA basketball coach with the most victories. Not only had Smith adapted to the new up-tempo game; he had thrived, achieving unprecedented runs of 27 seasons with at least 20 wins and 23 straight NCAA tournament appearances, including another championship in 1993. He had amassed more wins (65) in the tournament than any other coach. Successfully recruiting and coaching some of the game's most notable players (Jordan, James Worthy, Sam Perkins, Billy Cunningham, Bobby Jones, Phil Ford, Walter Davis, Eric Montross, Jerry Stackhouse, Rasheed Wallace), Smith guided his team to no worse than a third-place finish in the highly competitive ACC regular season for an astonishing 33 consecutive seasons.

      Smith was born Feb. 28, 1931, in Emporia, Kan. After a standout athletic career at Topeka (Kan.) High School, he attended the University of Kansas, where he played basketball under the lengendary F.C. ("Phog") Allen. With Smith serving as a reserve guard, Kansas won the NCAA title in 1952. After his graduation in 1953, Smith joined Allen's staff as an assistant coach before joining the U.S. Air Force in 1954. After a stint as an assistant coach at the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colo., Smith was hired in 1958 as an assistant on the staff of Frank McGuire at North Carolina. When that program was penalized by the NCAA for recruiting violations, McGuire left to take a job in the NBA, and Smith replaced him in 1961. Smith coached the 1976 U.S. Olympic team and was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1982.

ANTHONY G. CRAINE

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