The ACC tourney docuseries sent Dean Smith out the right way.

After watching the first two episodes of the 10-part documentary, I wondered how it would treat Smith’s last years on the bench after painting him as the coach who brought the ACC into the modern era.

I was pleasantly surprised that Smith remained the focal point of the 1980s and ’90s even though Duke had caught and, for a while, surpassed the Tar Heels on the court. That must mean a lot to Carolina fans.

Coach K’s breakthrough game in 1984 had to be over the top-ranked UNC, or else it wouldn’t have been a true advance.

In games Carolina did not win, or even reach the ACC finals, Smith’s Tar Heels had a role. After he led Maryland to the first win by a visiting team in the Smith Center, Len Bias and the Terps crushed injury-depleted UNC in the first round of the 1986 tournament.

Compared favorably to Michael Jordan, Bias had won his second straight ACC Player of the Year before his tragic death from cocaine overdose the following summer.

And, of course, Carolina’s brutally physical 1989 ACC title win over Duke in Atlanta led Smith into his final decade with a reboot of four more trips to the Final Four.

Through almost each storyline, Smith and UNC are in there — from Bobby Cremins’ first ACC championship over the Tar Heels to Shammond Williams’ tearful tribute to the coach who gave him a chance to become the tourney MVP.

Two years before Shammond led Smith’s last team over Wake Forest and All-American Tim Duncan, Randolph Childress’ record-breaking 1995 tournament gave the Deacons their first ACC title in 33 years by beating you know who in overtime.

When Smith retired, he left the 1998 championship team to Bill Guthridge with four starters back. And though Guthridge was the new head coach, it would be easy to share that title between the two Hall of Fame coaches.

Two more episodes remain of the documentary that will surely make it to ESPN and reap Emmy nominations, but without Smith’s presence can they measure up? By the time Ol’ Roy came home, the ACC tourney had turned into a different animal.

 

Photo via AP Photo/Bob Jordan.

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