Tar Heels return to Winston-Salem 10 years after Smith earns victory 877.
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March 15, 2007
Carolina's placement in the NCAA Tournament is eerily familiar to 10 years ago, when the Tar Heels rolled to the Final Four in Dean Smith's last season on the bench.
The 1997 Tar Heels were also ACC champs, seeded No. 1 in the East Regional and sent to Winston-Salem for first- and second-round games on Wake Forest's home floor.
Unlike Roy Williams' current dozen-deep rotation, predominantly six men played that season and managed to avoid foul trouble and injuries most of the way. But that team was saddled with a different kind of pressure, a once-in-a-lifetime burden that represented the more than 100 players that came before them under Smith.
Their coach was about to break the all-time record for major college victories, surpassing the legendary Adolph Rupp for what was once considered an unreachable milestone.
The '97 Tar Heels had struggled early, losing their first three ACC games and nearly a fourth (rallying from nine points down in the last two minutes to beat N.C. State in Chapel Hill).
It looked like Smith wouldn't get there that season, and his former players fretted privately that he might retire short of breaking the record. Then his 36th Tar Heel team put together one of the more amazing streaks in Carolina Basketball history.
They ran the table (8-0) in the second half of the ACC schedule, defeated Virginia, two-time defending ACC champion Wake Forest (with Tim Duncan) and State to sweep the tournament in Greensboro and deliver Smith's lucky 13th ACC championship.
Suddenly, Smith had 875 career coaching wins and was one shy of Rupp's 876.
A buzz perhaps like no other ever in the storied program permeated North Carolina, centering on Winston-Salem. History was in the making and in the air. Tickets were impossible to get if you weren't a Rams Club major donor or willing to scalp your way into Lawrence Joel Coliseum for 10 times face value.
Nervous Carolina actually trailed 16th-seed Fairfield by seven points at halftime before senior Serge Zwikker's 19 points and 13 rebounds led a comeback that buried the Stags. Smith had tied Rupp, the famed Baron of the Bluegrass, and needed one win to break a record that had stood for more than 25 years.
CBS, which generally covered the second round regionally and often jumped around the country, had announced it would show Carolina's 12 Noon Saturday game nationally and in its entirety. The opponent was Colorado and a pretty good guard named Chauncey Billlups.
Of course, the main story line was Smith.
Meanwhile, former Tar Heel players around the country were scrambling to get to - and into - Joel Coliseum. Linda Woods, Smith's administrative assistant, had just so many tickets she could leave for the players who bothered to call, because team allotments to the first two rounds were so small.
Carolina's loyal and connected alumni would not be deterred, however.
Mitch Kupchak, then still assistant general manager of the Lakers, and George Karl, head coach of the Seattle Supersonics, flew red-eyes Friday night after their games on the West Coast. Bobby Jones picked up Kupchak in Charlotte and, after a mandated stop in Lexington for some North Carolina barbecue, they were in their seats by tip-off. Dozens of other players got there and somehow got in, which later flabbergasted Smith.
Of course, there was little doubt about the outcome. Carolina was better than Colorado, playing a virtual home game and now on a mission that no mortal could deny. With Antawn Jamison, Ademola Okulaja and Zwikker combining for 38 rebounds (seven more than the entire Colorado team), the Tar Heels broke open a close game early in the second half and cruised to the record-breaking 73-56 win.
As placards showing the number provided by a local newspaper dotted the crowd, chants of "EIGHT SEVENTY-SEVEN! EIGHT SEVENTY-SEVEN!" rang out. At the buzzer, Zwikker nearly tackled an NCAA official trying to retrieve the game ball so he could give it to Smith. CBS cornered the coach for a national TV interview, but after a few words he slipped through a couple of celebrating players and headed for the locker room.
Emerging a few minutes later for the walk down to the press conference, Smith received the surprise of his life. A throng of his players, plus their families, had somehow wangled their way into the hallway outside the locker rooms.
Caught between elation and emotion, Smith was almost aghast as he walked through the gauntlet of gratitude, gushing "hellos" and "thanks for coming" all the way to the end. He tried to reach out and touch, make eye contact with or say the name of every player he saw, including wives and children he remembered from having presided over the fabled Carolina Basketball Family for four decades.
As he finally reached the TV interview room, Smith was bear-hugged from behind by Michael Hooker, the Chancellor and UNC alumnus whose genuine respect and affection for Smith dated back to his student days in the 1960s.
"Thank you, Michael," Smith said to Hooker, who would be dead two years later from acute lymphoma.
The press conference was one of Smith's last in North Carolina as the Tar Heel coach. He retired the following October, saddening Tar Heel Nation but certainly not surprising the masses that had hung on his every word. The time had come, but at least his players, assistant coaches and managers since 1961 could now say they were part of history.
Smith returned the compliment that March 15, 1997, afternoon and, after he had taken an 11th team to the Final Four and won 879 games, again six months later in the Bowles Room next to the building that bears his name.
"All my players," he said, biting his lip both times, "they are so special."
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