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<a href="http://www.newsandobserver.com/front/Sports/story/1765429p-1775576c.html" target="_blank">http://www.newsandobserver.com/front/Sports/story/1765429p-1775576c.html</a>

1. Mike Krzyzewski
Duke, 1981-present
At 38-47 overall and 13-29 in ACC play after his third season, Krzyzewski was hardly a hit with many Blue Devils fans. The turning point was an ACC Tournament semifinal victory over North Carolina and Michael Jordan in 1984. Since then, he
We can argue all day over this -- I pull out the fact that Dean continually whooped up on K, and K didn't start to dominate the ACC until Dean was gone.

Dookies will pull out the fact the K had one more title, among other things.

But, I really think it's so close between these two that you almost have to call it a tie. I have my own reasons for liking Dean better, just as dookies will like K better. Truth is, though, they are both unique and great in their own ways.

-JD
Well said, JD Heel!
I (gulp) will agree with JD. That would be like arguing whether chocolate ice cream is better than vanilla! <img border="0" alt="[Bow]" title="" src="graemlins/bow.gif" />
-doh
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by JD Heel:
I pull out the fact that Dean continually whooped up on K, and K didn't start to dominate the ACC until Dean was gone.

</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Very, very well said JD. <img border="0" alt="[Cheers]" title="" src="graemlins/cheers.gif" />
I agree completely.
<img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="biggrin.gif" />
comparing coaches is as ridiculous as comparing players from different eras. The only real manner in doing so is in head-to-head competition. Amazingly, Barnett never even bothers to include their records against each other, a huge oversight that can only suggest laziness or incompetence. (By the way, the record was 30-15 in Smith's favor, including a run from 1993-97 -- when Smith was supposedly slipping, of nine wins out of ten. Unlike Duke's official record-keepers, we did not simply toss 1994-95 out of Krzyzewski's overall record. He built that team through recruiting and did everything but coach it for several months while out with a back injury and exhaustion, so it was his team whether the Duke people want to believe it or not.)
Deano himself admitted that winning the "big one" was all that really counted.
<a href="http://www.tarheeldaily.com/article.html?aid=1053" target="_blank">http://www.tarheeldaily.com/article.html?aid=1053</a>
I must also agree with JD. Even though I'm a rabid Tar Heel, Coach K deserves respect because of the dynasty he has built. And about <a href="http://www.tarheeldaily.com" target="_blank">www.tarheeldaily.com</a> , I knew I would like their site! They're a slight bit more pro-UNC than goheels.com was, less objective if you get my meaning, but that is fine with me. No matter how much they may be biased...the truth is the truth!

Go HEELS!
The case for Dean Smith

By CAULTON TUDOR

To fully appreciate what Dean Smith accomplished with North Carolina's basketball program, it's important to understand the conditions under which he began.

It was the ACC's darkest hour.

Outraged by a point-shaving scandal that involved players at Carolina and N.C. State, lawmakers and officials at both schools reacted by de-emphasizing the sport.

When UNC hired Smith to replace Frank McGuire before the 1961-62 season, the Tar Heels were on probation, and the school administration had held the team out of the 1961 ACC Tournament. Out-of-state recruiting was virtually prohibited. Smith's first team was allowed only two non-conference games -- against Indiana in Greensboro and against Notre Dame in Charlotte.

Even the decision to hire Smith was seen by many as a surrender. He had no head coaching experience in varsity basketball and had done little recruiting.

It's somewhat surprising that North Carolina, N.C. State and ACC basketball in general survived the early '60s crisis.

The league was less than 10 years old. Wolfpack coach Everett Case was approaching the end of his career. The basketball popularity that the league had enjoyed in the '50s was waning. Most of the facilities, including Carolina's tiny Woollen Gym, were antiquated.

"Very few coaches have ever had the deck stacked against them as much as Coach Smith did," said Philadelphia 76ers coach Larry Brown, a member of Smith's first team.

Yet, expectations were still unreasonably high. When the Tar Heels lost at Wake Forest in early 1965 -- Smith's fourth season -- students hung him in effigy.

Most coaches would not have survived. Not only did Smith survive, he restored Carolina to national prominence by 1967 and regenerated the ACC's spirit.

By the time, Smith retired after the 1997 season, he had two national championships, an Olympic gold medal, a .728 winning percentage against ACC opponents and a .707 mark in 92 NCAA games. His 879 victories are a Division I record.

Deciding whether Smith or Duke's Mike Krzyzewski is the ACC's greatest coach ever is a classic no-lose choice, of course. With the exception of Krzyzewski's third national title, there's virtually nothing on paper to separate them. Along with UCLA's John Wooden, they are at the very top of the historic pecking order.

The only major difference is the unique winning pressure that Smith faced and largely conquered in his first 20 or so seasons.

The prime example is Smith's 1971 team, which finished 26-6 overall and 11-3 ACC and went 15-3 down the stretch. That team didn't play in the NCAA Tournament because leagues in those days were limited to one NCAA bid each. When Carolina lost the ACC championship game to South Carolina by one point, the Heels could go only to the NIT. They won their four games in New York by an average of 18 points.

From the time Smith got the job to the full-scale expansion of the NCAA field in 1980, he had six teams that would have received NCAA bids by today's standards. Four of those settled for the NIT. Two simply went home because the ACC didn't allow its teams to play in the NIT until 1967.

At least five more of Smith's teams had to sweep the ACC Tournament to get into the NCAA. Carolina's 1975 seniors went 70-22 overall yet got to play in only one NCAA Tournament.

"The pressure in the league back then was so intense you couldn't get it out of your mind," said former N.C. State star David Thompson, who was selected by The N&O as the greatest ACC player of all time.

"The ACC Tournament was tougher than the NCAA. With our team, Maryland and Carolina, there were three of the best five or six teams in the country every year, but only one of us got to go," Thompson said. "Plus, you felt like if you didn't go into the ACC with the No. 1 seed from the regular season, you were really in a hole. Losing any conference game at any time put you in big trouble. I'll never be able to imagine how tough that must have been on the coaches."

Smith was really the only survivor of that period, which former Wake Forest coach Bones McKinney once described as the "Russian Roulette Era." One by one, Smith's primary rivals -- McKinney, Norman Sloan, Terry Holland, Lefty Driesell, Vic Bubas, Bill Foster, Frank McGuire, Carl Tacy -- moved on.

By the time a new wave of challengers -- Krzyzewski, Jim Valvano, Dave Odom, Rick Barnes, Gary Williams, Bobby Cremins, Pat Kennedy -- arrived in the 1980s and '90s, the pressure had eased substantially. ACC teams with losing league records occasionally got NCAA bids.

Smith's success made it easier for all of those coaches to flourish. More than any other coach, player or administrator, Smith pulled the ACC through the scandal backwash and kept the league on the national stage during UCLA's dominance. His presence turned the league into a recruiting lure.

The ACC is 50 years old. It's the league of Krzyzewski, Thompson, Case, Randy White, Bobby Bowden, Charlie Ward, Valvano, Michael Jordan, Marion Jones, Mia Hamm, Arnold Palmer and on and on.

But the league's most important individual throughout those 50 years was Dean Smith.
<img border="0" alt="[Bow]" title="" src="graemlins/bow.gif" /> <img border="0" alt="[Bow]" title="" src="graemlins/bow.gif" /> But the league's most important individual throughout those 50 years was Dean Smith. <img border="0" alt="[Bow]" title="" src="graemlins/bow.gif" /> <img border="0" alt="[Bow]" title="" src="graemlins/bow.gif" />

<small>[ September 27, 2002, 06:24 AM: Message edited by: tarheelsben1 ]</small>
But the league's most important individual throughout those 50 years WAS Dean Smith. <img border="0" alt="[Wavy Guy]" title="" src="graemlins/wave.gif" />

-doh
Doh, this is an endless arguement. Neither side is willing to give an inch. Both are great coaches, on that I think we can all agree. It will be fun to see what happens to Duke when K retires.
Fellows, I think we can all agree that Bob Staak was better than the two of them together.
I gotta look up and find out if dook won the acc tourney each time they won the NC. If not, we can "eliminate" one.
1991 -- North Carolina def. Duke, 96-74 (Rick Fox

SO, if we determine that Dean had to play with a different set of rules, and make everything equal,,,,,,,,,they would be even.
Of course, you cannot convince a dookie of that. Kinda like, you know, coach sdlfkjwoeiuytrwotrkki did not lose those games and all.........so they should not go on his record. I am sure he NEVER spoke with Petey about how things should be run........ <img border="0" alt="[laugh]" title="" src="graemlins/laughing.gif" />

<small>[ September 27, 2002, 01:46 PM: Message edited by: rickheel ]</small>
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by rickheel:
Doh, this is an endless arguement. Neither side is willing to give an inch. Both are great coaches, on that I think we can all agree. It will be fun to see what happens to Duke when K retires.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">We're gonna clone him! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Razz]" src="tongue.gif" />

-doh
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I gotta look up and find out if dook won the acc tourney each time they won the NC. If not, we can "eliminate" one. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Before someone else calls you out on this, we lost in the 1993 ACC championship game to Tech.

-JD

<small>[ September 27, 2002, 06:38 PM: Message edited by: JD Heel ]</small>
The main point being, there were teams which could not go to the NCAA's because of the old rules. Who know what Dean might have won if he had been involved every year they were "qualified".
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