You're all dressed up in blue

I was in a room with Dean Smith on a number of occasions.

That is, if you can consider yourself being in the same room if the room happened to hold some 20,000 others.

I saw many a game while at UNC, and I was, and am, a fan of the team, the program and the school. Most of these are a blur, no one game really stands out.

The one game that does still register with me was my first in the same building with him – when he was coaching the 1976 U.S. Olympic Team.

It was a hot summer night in King’s College Gym in Wilkes-Barre, PA, against the Eastern League All-Stars, a long defunct semipro league. Tickets were $3.

I still remember Dean orchestrating and substituting, trying different offenses and rotations. He was constantly off the bench signaling and working his butt off, even though it was, to me, a most meaningless game. But he was determined to find the best lineup for every situation. After the ’72 disaster when the U.S was screwed by the Soviets, Smith knew the importance of Bicentennial Olympics.

The U.S. won the ’76 Gold Medal.

By the way, the U.S. Assistant Coach was John Thompson from Georgetown.

Two other things stood out – Adrian Dantley was clearly the best player on the court, and the Eastern League team featured the legendary Gerald Govan, he with the Buddy Holly glasses held on by a fraying glasses strap. Govan arrived midway through the first half; he wandered along the benches looking for the locker room, carrying an old-school gym bag, the kind we took to our old school for our gym classes.

Anyway, back to Dean. I saw him twice in Chapel Hill, just out and about. Once  ordering a BLT from Merritt’s down on Columbia St., and once gassing up his car at the Glen Lenox Gulf Station – smoking a cigarette (!) while standing next to his Cadillac, gas pump in hand.

So, my memories of the coach who died yesterday are not all that personal, but whenever someone mentions UNC basketball, it will be Dean Smith that I think of.

I have long admired Springsteen for the way he brings it every single night.

So it was the same with Dean Smith – I think he brought it every single day, whether it involved basketball, his family, his faith, or just doing the right thing.

Until he couldn’t bring it any more.

That’s excellence.