by Charlie Adams, StokeTheFireWithin.com
When legendary former North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith died recently, one of my first thoughts was a connection he had to coach Herb Brooks of the Miracle on Ice in how they built a particular team.
In 1976, Dean Smith was head coach of the U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team. He raised eyebrows when he went with four of his current Carolina players as well as having seven ACC players out of the roster of twelve.
The Carolina and ACC players were:
Phil Ford North Carolina
Mitch Kupchak North Carolina
Tommy LaGarde North Carolina
Walter Davis North Carolina
Kenny Carr North Carolina State
Steve Sheppard Maryland
Tate Armstrong Duke
They won gold, beating Yugoslavia 95-74 in the gold medal game.
In 1980, Herb Brooks was head coach of the soon-to-be famous U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team. He left his job as head coach at the University of Minnesota to take over.
Herb raised eyebrows too when he went nine of his Univ of Minnesota boys and two others from Minnesota-Duluth. Eleven of the twenty were from Minnesota.
Mike Ramsey Minnesota
Rob McLanahan Minnesota
Bill Baker Minnesota
Dave Christian Minnesota
Neal Broten Minnesota
Steve Christoff Minnesota
Steve Janaszak Minnesota
Buzz Schneider Minnesota
Eric Strobel Minnesota
John Harrington Minnesota-Duluth
Mark Pavelich Minnesota-Duluth
They won gold, beating the dynasty Soviet team 4-3 in the semi finals along the way. Sports Illustrated named what they did as the greatest U.S. sports moment of the 20th century.
I was living in Durham, North Carolina in 1976 when Dean Smith built that team and I remember the howls from around the basketball nation about how he was favoring his Tar Heels and the ACC.
When Herb Brooks put together the Olympic team, he caught heat for going with a whopping nine who were playing for him then or had at the University of Minnesota.
Both went with their heart, instincts, sport knowledge, and determination to build the best team possible.
What is interesting is that Dean Smith’s team had 7 of 12 from the ACC, but the two best players in the 1976 Games were Adrian Dantley of Notre Dame and Scott May of Indiana. Dean obviously built things to where those two were far and away the top two options on offense. Dantley averaged 19 points a game while May averaged 17.
With Herb, even though he had all those Minnesota guys, Mike Eruzione of Boston University was the captain and Jim Craig was the goalie. Those are the two most important positions/titles on a team. Herb also had a 1st team All American for him at Minnesota on that team in Steve Janaszak. He never played Janascak a second in the Games, going with Craig all the way. Also, his best offensive player was Mark Johnson of Wisconsin. One time on a plane Herb told Mark that the team goes about as far as he takes them. He scored two of the four goals in the historic 4-3 win over the Soviets.
It’s like Herb and Dean knew their North Carolina and Minnesota area guys may not rack up stats or dominate, but their core would be familiar to them as coaches and they knew what they could do.
What they did is somewhat like that college coach that leans heavily on a certain club system or certain high school or conference. That coach may take some heat, but in the end you have to go with your evaluations, heart, instinct and determination to build a team that is best fit to win a championship. You may not make everyone happy, and others may think you are showing favoritism, but as Dean Smith and Herb Brooks showed, they were doing what was best.