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NCAA basketball: Ranking the 25 best college basketball coaches ever

By Nate Williamson

Mike Krzyzewski, Duke Blue Devils, Roy Williams, North Carolina Tar Heels. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
Mike Krzyzewski, Duke Blue Devils, Roy Williams, North Carolina Tar Heels. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /
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Best college basketball coaches ever
(Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) /

No. 3: Dean Smith

It seems as though as basketball fans we, including myself, can sometimes think that most programs that are successful in this day and age have been built relatively recently.

That isn’t always the case. Before the days of Williams and even before the days of head coach Dean Smith the Tar Heels of North Carolina were a formidable force in the college basketball world. From their first season in 1910 to the 2018-19 season, the program amassed a .739 all-time winning percentage that ranked as the second-highest all-time.

However much success they had before his arrival, much of the reputation that North Carolina basketball holds can be directly attributed to Dean Smith and his “Carolina Way” mentality that brought such basketball traditions like the “Thank the Passer” point still used in basketball today.

Smith was not only a great coach but a deeply invested one in the health and well-being of his players. That upstanding reputation would bear great fruit for Smith and North Carolina, as he finished with an 879-254 record, two NCAA Championships, 11 Final Four appearances and 17 ACC Regular Season titles.

Did I mention Smith coached the likes of Michael Jordan, James Worthy, Jerry Stackhouse, Vince Carter and also coached the United States to a 1976 gold in Montreal?