ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 16, 1997 TAG: 9703170109
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
Dean Smith was 4.4 seconds from the pinnacle of a basketball coaching Pikes Peak no one else may ever scale.
Colorado was far off in the distance Saturday, and had been for a while. The Buffaloes were history. Adolph Rupp was about to be.
The late Kentucky coach was part of the reason a capacity crowd hadn't left the building, but a Colorado pep band trumpeter had long since quit waving a cardboard sign bearing the words, ``Rupp's Still the Greatest.''
And there stood Smith, the man in the blue suit, in front of the North Carolina bench. The Tar Heels' fans at the NCAA East Regional second-round game at Joel Coliseum already had been chanting his first name.
He was yelling, too - to the substitutes he had sent in 34 seconds earlier so they would be a part of this historic game - with Terrence Newby at the free-throw line.
With 4.4 seconds left and a 16-point lead, Smith was signaling a defense to his team. It may have been a special game, but he was coaching it like any other - to the end.
The seated Carolina regulars were thinking offense, however.
``We wanted to get him the ball,'' said center Serge Zwikker. ``We decided we were going to storm the court and get it.''
Zwikker raced onto the floor and grabbed the ball, then turned and headed for the Tar Heels' locker room. A female security guard chased him.
``She said, `We're going to give it to him later,''' Zwikker said. ``I told her, `We're going to give it to him now.'''
In their brief postgame locker room meeting following a 73-56 victory over the angry Buffaloes, the Heels handed the sphere to Smith.
``That,'' Smith said, ``is one I will accept.''
A few minutes earlier, the Tar Heels had given him what he really wanted.
No, not the 877th victory of his career, moving him past Rupp to the top of the NCAA career coaching list. With a second-half runaway, while its No3 scorer, Vince Carter, was on the bench with an injury, his 36th Heels team had given Smith a 15th trip to the tournament's Sweet Sixteen in 17 years.
``I'm delighted we'll be playing next week,'' Smith said.
He's also delighted he has Rupp behind him, in more ways than one. When Carolina was 0-3 in the ACC in mid-January and even 12-6 overall after a Jan.29 loss at Duke, it appeared the Rupp record was something everyone still would be discussing in December.
The Tar Heels haven't lost since.
Victory No.877?
``It was never a goal of mine,'' Smith said, still not mentioning Rupp's name. ``What's this? Twenty-six [victories this season]? Twenty-five?''
It was 26, he was told.
``We'd like to win 27,'' he said. ``That's my goal.''
There's no question Smith was touched by the many former players who came to his very special day. Many of them formed a well-wishing line in a Joel corridor.
He began thanking the university, his assistants, all of whom he named, and said, ``I can't name all of the players. Well, I could, but it would take me awhile.
``We've had over 200 lettermen, and 98 percent have graduated, and almost half of those have gone on to graduate school. I've had walk-ons every year I have coached and will continue to do so. I will insist the JV program continue, too, because it's important to me that the program be part of the student body.''
Through the years, if Smith has been anything more than successful, it is consistent and determined. That's why those subs didn't get in Saturday until the final 38.9 seconds.
Smith had called a 20-second timeout to empty the bench with 1:06 to play. The players were waiting in front of the scorer's table. Then, the regulars turned over the ball on a second consecutive possession.
Smith made them stay out there until they got it right.
``I was talking with Jimmy Black one day,'' freshman playmaker Ed Cota said of a fellow New York City schoolboy guard-turned-Tar Heel. ``He told me to listen to Coach Smith, and good things will happen.''
Cota, seemingly lost as his team passed the halfway point of the season, has taken Smith's guidance. Because of his maturation and penetration, Smith reached Rupp and another NCAA regional semifinal.
``I saw Sam Perkins back there,'' Smith said of the NBA star who returned with his Seattle SuperSonics coach and fellow Heels alumnus, George Karl. ``He might have the record with probably 110 [victories, for a UNC player].
``I didn't dream these men were all coming back. I don't know how they all got tickets. That is a special time, as any teacher knows when a pupil comes back, or for a coach when a player comes back.
``I've been fortunate to have some great players, some good players who became better, and some that helped the team and didn't play a lot. They all share in this moment, if there is such a thing as this moment.''
It is a moment even those who didn't take a ball home won't likely forget. It isn't every day someone literally becomes the Dean of his profession.
LENGTH: Medium: 92 linesby CNB