Go Forth, And Coach Dean Smith Leaves Lasting Legacy; 36 Former Pupils Currently Coaching

They heard all the lectures. They digested all the chalk talks. They extracted all they could from North Carolina coach Dean Smith, squeezing his mind like an orange.

Then they scattered to juice up other basketball programs.

Three dozen men who played, coached or managed for Dean Smith at North Carolina now coach at some level around the country.

In large part because Smith enjoys playing Johnny Appleseed, slinging his men across America with a fervent determination, Dean disciples now fold their arms across their chests in 14 states - patrolling sidelines in places like Seattle; Kohler, Wis.; Normal, Ill.; and Lawrence, Kan.

When Smith, 63, eventually retires, these 36 men will be a major part of his legacy - preaching teamwork, striving for defensive perfection and (hardest of all for many) trying not to curse.

“The number of coaches who came out of this program is certainly gratifying to me,” Smith said. “It would be for any teacher. You want the people you teach to succeed.”

It is no coincidence that they have. Smith first teaches, then pushes his men for jobs around the nation, lobbying athletic directors and search committees with a hot phone and the weight of Smith’s 34 straight seasons at North Carolina.

“I’ve had about a half-dozen coaching jobs since I graduated from Carolina,” said Rick Duckett, a former UNC manager who’s now Fayetteville State’s head coach. “I wouldn’t have gotten any of them without Dean - except for a summer lifeguard job at a pool one time. And for all I know he may have helped in that one, too.”

Randy Wiel thanks Smith for helping him snare the head-coaching job at UNC-Asheville in 1993. “Once you’ve played or coached for him, it’s like you are his eternal son,” Wiel said.

Smith even told the UNC-Asheville folks that if they hired Wiel, Smith would consider letting North Carolina break a longtime policy of not scheduling UNC system schools not in the ACC.

That scheduling wall comes down Saturday, when Wiel’s team plays the top-ranked Tar Heels at Chapel Hill. Smith doesn’t win all of his placement battles.

“It’s my duty to try very hard to give them opportunities,” Smith said. “That’s why I was very disappointed when (current UNC assistant) Dave Hanners didn’t get the UNC-Wilmington job this year, for instance. That would have been a perfect fit.”

Smith said Hanners and Phil Ford are in good shape to earn head-coaching positions soon.

The success of men like Indiana Pacers coach Larry Brown, Kansas coach Roy Williams and South Carolina coach Eddie Fogler, who all prepped under Smith as assistants, help extend Smith’s reach.

“I got the head job at Kansas because of Dean,” Brown said. “Roy went to Kansas because of Dean. Then I basically got Eddie Fogler to Wichita State.”

Williams has now had two assistants of his own go on to head positions - Jerry Green at Oregon and Kevin Stallings at Illinois State. Former North Carolina point guard King Rice has worked for both of them, first as a part-timer at Oregon and now as a full-timer at Illinois State.

“When I came out to interview for my very first job, the Oregon job, I knew there was about 200 applicants,” Rice said. “But by the time I got there, the job was already mine. I was all excited, and then it finally hit me that Coach Smith probably got that done for me. Sure enough, he had.

“Then when the Illinois State job came open, Roy Williams called Stallings and said, ‘I’m not going to tell you who to hire, but you need to talk to King.’ Once you sign with that North Carolina program, they seem to look out for you forever.”

Jeff Lebo, another former Tar Heels guard, is now a Fogler assistant at South Carolina. “I don’t necessarily look for guys with North Carolina backgrounds, but it sure doesn’t hurt,” Fogler said.

And there’s Buzz Peterson, now Vanderbilt’s associate head coach. “When Dave Hanners left an assistant position at East Tennessee State under Les Robinson to go to North Carolina, Les called Dean up,” Peterson said.

“I liked Hanners an awful lot,” Robinson said. “Do you have another North Carolina guy in mind for me?”

Smith suggested Peterson, and he got the job. Later Peterson followed Robinson to N.C. State before obtaining his current position at Vanderbilt.

“The only reason I’ve gotten jobs is that I came out of that program,” Peterson said. “That’s all it is.”

Peterson did his part for the network by scheduling UNC-Asheville to play in Nashville this season. Fogler also has Wiel’s team coming to Columbia.

Not all of the coaches actively use Smith or his lieutenants as a resource. The most recent coach to come out of the North Carolina program is Eddie Wills, a basketball manager who graduated in May and snagged an assistant-coaching job with tiny Clark University in Worcester, Mass.

“I wanted to do it on my own, although I did meet the guy who hired me while I was working at a North Carolina basketball camp,” said Wills, one of seven former Tar Heels managers now coaching.

Jeff Wolf, older brother of current Hornets player Joe Wolf, now coaches the Wolfs’ old high school team in Kohler, Wis. Smith didn’t have to lobby anyone for Jeff Wolf to get that job, but Wolf said he does employ the North Carolina philosophy.

“Dean never swears and neither do I,” Wolf said. “I get on players only with sarcasm or just by giving them a look - just like he did. I try to command respect.”

Lastly, there are some coaches who can’t be found to tell you whether they used Smith’s influence.

Warren Martin, the former Tar Heels center and a longtime comic-book buff, now coaches the team at McDougle Middle School in Chapel Hill. Here’s the exact transcript of Martin’s voice mail message: “If you can’t reach me now in the seventh dimension, I’ll get back to you later.”

Perhaps time in the seventh dimension works differently. Martin never returned our calls.