After death, sends players $200
In his will, Smith directs his trust to give $200 to every letter winner who played for him during his 36 years at UNC. The checks were sent to about 180 letter winners with a letter saying “enjoy a dinner out compliments of Coach Dean Smith.”
My wife opened the letter and handed it to me. At first I didn’t know what it was, but when it hit me, it put a tear in my eye. Even after he passed, he was still all about his players.
1070 The Fan in Indianapolis interview
Williams discusses what he learned during North Carolina’s loss to Butler:
I don’t know that it’s the best thing, but it did open our eyes a little bit, because we really haven’t played … a very difficult schedule. My nine years that I’ve been here, our schedule’s been ranked in the top 25 most difficult schedules every year, I think, except one, and like five times in the top 10. … Butler, all of the sudden, is a good team, and they hit us right in the mouth, and they backed us up. And we never came back for about 28 minutes, and then all of a sudden, we did have a sense of urgency. … I liked our toughness at that point, but, man, we let them hit us right in the mouth to start with. … It showed us a lot of holes in our game.
Van Pelt and Russillo interview
Rivers discusses hitting a game winning shot on North Carolina:
It was just an amazing feeling. It was a big team win. I think everybody contributed to the win and just to get the win at North Carolina, versus a great team, meant a lot. Everybody stepped up and when that ball went through the net I couldn’t even tell you what I was thinking man. Everything went so fast.