by Michelle Richardson

NCAA winningest coach of all time North Carolina head coach Dean Smith died on Sunday at the age of 83 at his Chapel Hill Carolina home. Coach Smith is legendary and when you talk about Duke head coach Mike Kryzewski or how many championships he’s won. Coach Smith was kind of a renaissance man. He also taught golf at the Air Force Academy he didn’t teach basketball but he taught golf, how many basketball coaches can say that they can teach golf?

Coach Smith and his coaching strategy impacted the game of college basketball after he left the game in North Carolina. He influenced such NBA players such as Rasheed Wallace, Michael Jordan, James Worthy, Sam Perkins, and Billy Cunningham and the names go on and on. Roy Williams the current head coach at NC is part of that Smith legacy. Smith is one of those coaches that other coaches highly respect they wanted to be him.

Coach Smith was a highly respected individual his greatness was not simply what he could do with players on the court but his greatness was definitely about who he was and what he was off the court.Tar Heel Nation is definitely suffering over the loss of Coach Smith. Coach Smith coached at NC State for 36 seasons with a 879-254 he coached from 1967-1991.

Coach Smith had a winning percentage of .776 he retired with more wins than any other coach in NCAA history for Division one. We know that former head coach Pat Summit has gone onto eclipse Smith and so has Kryzewski. Coach Smith is a man who really laid down the framework on how to do that. He had 11 Final Four appearances and had two World Championships in 1982 and 1993 that’s a career.

Some coaches get one national championship and he got two and he got 11 Final Four appearances some people get there once and never return. Coach Smith did it 11 times. There’s a loss in the basketball community one of our elder statesman has passed and nobody will take his place. They will put him on a Mount Rushmore for basketball coaches.

Basically you were glad that you were able to see him coach at one time at the time that he did. For other coaches they could go out and find big talent but can you make that talent better? Can you make them better people? Can you get them to a place that they never imagined before? Coach Smith played basketball at Kansas under head coach James Naismith from 1949-53.

Michelle Richardson does NCAA Commentary every other week listen to the her podcast below on http://www.sportsradioservice.com