theel4life
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Good chance he will be back next season
UNC/ACC Basketball History & UNC/Duke Rivalry
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donbosco
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The first reference I can find to “four corners” and Dean Smith is in the December 19, 1965 ‘News and Observer.” The article starts off, “Carolina’s Tar Heels used quickness and a pesky pressing defense to overcome Florida’s distinct height advantage for a 66-59 basketball victory over the Gators here Saturday night.” Norm Sloan was the FLA coach. The win made UNC 5-2. Mention is made that Carolina led the country in Field Goal percentage but that night ‘only’ shot 49.1%. The article concludes, “Once the Tar Heels manufactured their working margin at the end, they made good use of their four corners offense, designed to spread out the taller Gators and thus neutralize their height.” (The term does seem to be used quite familiarly here - as if it was already part of the vernacular in something other than newspaper reporting which leads me to imagine that Coach Smith had used it before and even provided the name to reporters)
Twelve days later Carolina deployed the Four Corners in a 90-85 win over Utah. This was in the “Triangle Doubleheader” played in Raleigh, a short-lived effort to revive the Dixie Classic.
Regarding Coach Smith’s decisions to go to the Four Corners Offense. This from A Coach’s Life: Coach’s first mention there is associated with that same 1965-66 season. This was the year after Billy Cunningham graduated and The L&M Boys were the designated stars. Coach decided to return to 4C against nationally ranked #2 Duke in the ACC Tournament. Carolina was 16-10 (8-6) and tied for third in the regular season. Duke lost in the Final Four semi to Kentucky (who would go on to lose to UTEP in an historic final). [The Blue Devil stars were Jack Marin, Bob Verga, Steve Vacendak, and Mike Lewis…Bubas coached]
Duke played a zone. “I decided our best chance to control the pace of the game was to go to the Four Corners and make them come out to chase us in man or zone press defense.” P. 81. ACL Bubas didn’t. It was 5-7 at the half. Duke won 21-20. It would have been a major upset.
The next memorable deployment of the Four Corners offense was in the 1968 NCAA Championship vs UCLA and Lew Alcindor. “I decided our best chance to win would be to shorten the game. I’m sure it wasn’t a popular decision among our confident players, but it was still our best chance to win against a truly great UCLA team.” P. 109, ACL (Tar Heel stars were Scott, Miller, Clark, Bunting, and Grubar)
Coach Smith abandoned the Four Corners in the second half (down by 7 at the break, final 78-55, Alcindor 34).
In the 1976-77 NCAA Finals Coach again turned to the 4C against a big, talented team — that played zone defense, Marquette. It was 43-43 with 14 minutes to go when Coach held up four fingers. It is a sad ending to a miracle run that included a string of near riots on Franklin Street after a Tar Heel team of walking wounded pulled out one kate victory after another. I was a freshman and it was glorious. Marquette won 67-59.
In 1978-79 UNC was picked to finish as low as 4th but surprised everyone and tied with Duke at 9-3 for ACC regular season co-champs. The Heels were not even nationally ranked pre-season. Al Wood (sophomore) was the big surprise but Yonakor, O’Koren, Colescott, Budko, and Bradley stepped up. (This season a freshman led Michigant State (Magic Johnson) came into Carmichael and fell to Carolina...in a game in which the Tar Heels used the Four Corners to perfection -- I remember an Al Wood dunk over Johnson to finish a round of Four Corners offense that raised the roof)
At time of the game, the previous year’s NCAA runners-up Duke was ranked #6. Duke = Gminski, Sparnarkel, Banks, Dennard, Bender, and Vince Taylor. They had started the season as consensus #1 after being NCAA runner-up the year before. The game before UNC traveled to Cameron, Clemson had lured Duke out of their zone and into man and had come away with a home upset.
This narrative should add to the discussion prompted by Bigs23’s question: “Which games did Dean use the 4 corners because he didn’t think his team could compete?”
By the way, UNC and dook played four times that year (1978-79) and were 2-2 with the Blue Devils winning in the Big Four preseason tournament, Carolina taking a win in Carmichael, the dook win 40-47 in the Tool Box, and a final UNC win in the ACC Tournament.
@nycfan
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@maxcrowder
It is interesting that in those early years that Coach Smith had a height deficit (Lewis was a 6-3 forward, Bunting a 6-7 center, Miller was 6-5 (probably actuallty 6-4) -- ) and often chose to spread the floor to neutralize the advantages of other teams while also taking advantage of the quickness of his own squads. Coach also pressed defensively with those smaller, quicker players and subsequently ran whenever at all possible.
Seems like we've got a similar profile this year. Now, nobody is expecting the Four Corners Offense but I am very interested in what ways Coach Davis will change things up given our line-up pluses and minuses.
I also wonder to what degree Coach Davis is a student of the history of Coach Smith's strategies over the years? He did play for Coach Smith and presumably was watching closely while his uncle was playing at Carolina.
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I generally agree with your post and agree with this point in particular, if you drop Bill Bunting out of the conversation. Bill Bunting, IIRC, was the same class as Rusty Clark. Bunting - forward. Clark - center.
Random thought about Clark. During the time at UNC when I was a floater orderly in the Gravely Sanitorium part of Memorial Hospital, Rusty Clark was an intern and cycled through Gravely. He was always a super-nice guy. By super-nice, in particular when we had to move a heavy patient, he would always pick up the shoulders and let me pick up the legs. Once an LPN who wasn't a basketball fan and didn't know Rusty Clark from any of the other interns cycling through, whispered to me, "How tall is he?" The words "six eleven" were on my lips to be whispered back, when Rusty turned to her and said, "I'm six nine." That surprised me because he was always listed at 6'11".
donbosco
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I misspoke...not Bunting but Bob Bennett was the center I was thinking of. Cool recollection.
4thgenheel
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4thgenheel
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i was thinking it may have been the version without the hard R.
center has cleared it all up now, anyway.
Centerpiece
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Exactly. Those were my thoughts, and I was in an ill-mood when max sent that directly to me. I reported it immediately and Rock went back and redacted it from his post. Also, I want to apologize to you (and the board) for not being sensitive enough to realize the old board's usage of "house" (house - anything) is insensitive - at the very least. Thanks for calling attention to that one. But I hope everyone can see the irony in all of this... and we can all learn from it.
Honestly, I had already mentioned to the mods that I may delete this entire thread (and start over)... and it looks like they've already handled that.
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And that was a good thing -mostly
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Maybe this is my imagination or my misremembering or my wishful recollection, but back when only one team per conference was allowed in NCAA Tournament, I recall everyone in the ACC uniting behind that one team. And even after, for a little while, everyone rooted for ACC teams. I know for an absolute fact that when NC State played UCLA in the NCAA semifinal game in 1974, the entire Hinton James dormitory cheered and rocked with every shot NC State made and every shot UCLA missed. And in 1978 every UNC fan that I knew was pulling for the Jim Spanarkel, Gene Banks, and Mike Gminski team from Duke.
My recollection of change away from pulling for the ACC to pulling against ACC teams that weren't your ACC team was in 1982 when UNC won the National Championship. The husband of my cousin, a very successful business man and a big Duke fan approached me at a family gathering and told me he had gotten me the signatures of all five starters of UNC National Championship team. He handed me a piece of paper that had four "X's" and one "Matt" on it.
There was a brief pan-ACC revival the next year with NC State and Jim Valvano, but nothing since. That's a shame. It was better when everyone united behind ACC teams as the NCAA Tournement progressed. But as the ACC's continued existance is probably measured in months, not years, I guess it is never coming back.
My recollection of change away from pulling for the ACC to pulling against ACC teams that weren't your ACC team was in 1982 when UNC won the National Championship. The husband of my cousin, a very successful business man and a big Duke fan approached me at a family gathering and told me he had gotten me the signatures of all five starters of UNC National Championship team. He handed me a piece of paper that had four "X's" and one "Matt" on it.
There was a brief pan-ACC revival the next year with NC State and Jim Valvano, but nothing since. That's a shame. It was better when everyone united behind ACC teams as the NCAA Tournement progressed. But as the ACC's continued existance is probably measured in months, not years, I guess it is never coming back.
Centerpiece
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And that is exactly how I remember it. I recall pulling for David Thompson and NC State in 1974. I also remember pulling for Spanarkel/Gminski 1978 against Jack Givens & Kentucky. I was among many Tar Heel fans who rooted for ACC teams in the tourney, as the feeling was: if it's good for the conference, by extension, it's good for UNC.
But your story about your cousin's husband speaks volumes. Volumes. There has always been racist overtones with UNC basketball coming from the d00k side ever since Dean and Charlie. Why on earth would your cousin's husband do that in 1982?
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No idea, but it was a popular thing among Duke's non-alumni fans in 1982. Somehow not having a majority white starting line-up made UNC's 1982 Championship illegitimate.
Centerpiece
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And there it is. What I have witnessed over the years. The MalWart d00k fans were and are simply racist. They much preferred K and d00k's predominately white line up in the 1980's and they had a huge problem with Carolina. J.R. "can't" Reid was not born out of a vaccuum.
4thgenheel
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absolutely. still a thing today with people from my generation (millennial).
tons of neck racists who are bandwagon dook fans in part because they usually had multiple good white players.
The rest of the ACC hates UNC lol. It’s been especially bad post academic scandal.
I think it’s generally a good thing when the conference has quality teams and is a competitive league, but I rarely find myself rooting for an ACC team in non-con games or in the tournament. (I realize that’s a bit of a contradiction)
I think it’s generally a good thing when the conference has quality teams and is a competitive league, but I rarely find myself rooting for an ACC team in non-con games or in the tournament. (I realize that’s a bit of a contradiction)
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Once he got going in about 1966, DES won more regular season ACC titles than every one else put together
No one from the other ACC schools was cheering for UNC post-1967, 1968, 1969………NO ONE. Then we added 1972, 1977, 1981, and ‘82. NO “ACC fans” were cheering for UNC. They’d been our bitch for too long.
Which “ACC fans” were cheering for the South Carolina Gamecocks in the 1971 NCAA Tournament?
Come on…….com’n…..someone fess up and say you were cheering for Roche, Ribock, Riker, and Owens in 1971?!
I wasn’t! Go Penn (79-64)! Go Fordham! 100-90! The Cocks lost two games in that regional. Villanova beat Penn 90-47 after Penn beat the Cocks.
I guarantee you that on Black Sunday in 1979, all ncsulol, Clemson, UVA, MD, and Wake fans were cheering for Penn (against UNC) and the Johnnies (against d00k)…..I sure was cheering for the Johnnies.
1974 ncsulol was unique because it was UCLA AND the sublime, exquisite, classy, wonderful, ACC GOAT that was DT was playing. That freakish fall he took in the Regionals in Reynolds after he tripped over 6’9” Phil Spence’s shoulder going up to block a shot on a fast break likely was a factor in some sympathy cheering.
No Carolina fans pulled for ncsulol because Tommy Burleson or Monte Towe were on that team or because Stormin’ Norman was the coach or because his wife sang horrible renditions of the Star Spangled Banner.
Which “ACC fans” were cheering for the South Carolina Gamecocks in the 1971 NCAA Tournament?
Come on…….com’n…..someone fess up and say you were cheering for Roche, Ribock, Riker, and Owens in 1971?!
I wasn’t! Go Penn (79-64)! Go Fordham! 100-90! The Cocks lost two games in that regional. Villanova beat Penn 90-47 after Penn beat the Cocks.
I guarantee you that on Black Sunday in 1979, all ncsulol, Clemson, UVA, MD, and Wake fans were cheering for Penn (against UNC) and the Johnnies (against d00k)…..I sure was cheering for the Johnnies.
1974 ncsulol was unique because it was UCLA AND the sublime, exquisite, classy, wonderful, ACC GOAT that was DT was playing. That freakish fall he took in the Regionals in Reynolds after he tripped over 6’9” Phil Spence’s shoulder going up to block a shot on a fast break likely was a factor in some sympathy cheering.
No Carolina fans pulled for ncsulol because Tommy Burleson or Monte Towe were on that team or because Stormin’ Norman was the coach or because his wife sang horrible renditions of the Star Spangled Banner.
Centerpiece
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I wasn’t necessarily rooting for State in 74 so much as rooting against UCLA. Same reason so many people in the world root against d00k the past 30 years. But I’ll admit I was pulling for David Thompson, he being from Shelby and all… I didn’t give two shits about Sloan or Burleson, etc.
Plus I was still a teen in HS at that time and was still of the naive mindset that “if another ACC team does well, it only makes Carolina look better”.
But I matured. I got over it. There are a couple of ACC teams I will root for in the NCAAT - other than UNC - Ga Tech or Wake Forest for example, assuming they ever make it to the tourney again in my lifetime. But of course I’ll never pull for d00k, State, UVa, etc in the tourney.