Bill Guthridge, the longtime assistant to Dean Smith who succeeded him as North Carolina’s men’s basketball coach, died on Tuesday. He was 77.
The university announced his death and said the cause was not immediately known. It did not say where he died, but he had been in an assisted living facility in Chapel Hill.
Guthridge spent three decades as an assistant to Smith, helping him bring national championships to Chapel Hill in 1982 and 1993.
When Smith retired shortly before the 1997-98 season with the most coaching victories in Division I men’s basketball at the time, Guthridge replaced him.