John Feinstein - A March to Madness: A View from the Floor in the Atlantic Coast Conference

ON THE MORNING of the 1997 national championship game, I was sitting in an Indianapolis coffee shop with a couple of friends when I heard someone calling my name. I looked over and saw a couple, probably in their late sixties, sitting at a table diagonally across from where we were seated.

John, who do you like tonight? the man said once I looked in his direction.

I was prepared for the question. Since I appear on ESPN during the basketball season, its not unusual for basketball fans to recognize me. Most are either polite or friendly. Some are neither. These folks fell into the polite and friendly category. So, I smiled and gave them the answer I had been giving everyone since late Saturday night.

I like the Wildcats, I said firmly.

This was my kind of pick, since the final matched the Kentucky Wildcats and the Arizona Wildcats. The couple looked at me blankly for a moment, figured out that I was firmly entrenched on a comfortable fence, and laughed. The man walked over to our table and introduced himself.

If you dont want to answer that one, he said, check in hand, his wife now standing next to him, answer a serious question for me.

Im not big on serious questions, especially when I dont know the motivation behind them. Then again, if the serious question was something like, How do you like Indy? I could handle it. (I love Indy.)

Whats the question? I asked, cautiously.

Youve been around, the man said. So far no argument. Didnt you think Dean got outcoached on Saturday?

I burst out laughing. Dean Smith has won more college basketball games (879) than anyone who has ever lived. He is a role model for almost anyone who has ever coached at any level. In 1,132 games as a head coach, I would guess hes been outcoached a half dozen times. Maybe. Of course, since I am a 1977 graduate of Duke and since Smith has coached all of those 1,132 games eleven miles down the road at the University of North Carolina, many people assume that my relationship with Smith is a hostile one. Thats just not true. We agree often and disagree often. He is as stubborn and competitive as anyone I have ever met, intensely shy and difficult to interview because he literally begins squirming when you ask any question that is even a little bit personal. But I have tremendous respect for him and the program he has created over these many years in Chapel Hill.

Let me ask you a question, I said in reply to the query about Dean being outcoached. Was it Deans fault that his best shooter was one for thirteen? Was it his fault that his team couldnt make a jump shot all day? Is that coaching?

The man shook his head. Its just that Deans sixty-six. Maybe the game is passing him by.

This had to be a setup. Yeah, I guess youre right, I said. After all, he only won twenty-eight games this year and got to the Final Four. And hed only won sixteen straight games before Saturday.

Now the man looked surprised. Im not saying he hasnt been a wonderful coach, he said. You see, were Carolina fans and we just want whats best for the Tar Heels.

Of course. Whats best for the Tar Heels. Sir, with all due respect, if you think that Dean Smith not coaching Carolina is whats best for the Tar Heels, then you dont know anything at all about basketball.

Now, he was put out. Ive been watching basketball since before you were born.

I dont doubt it. I guess well just have to agree to disagree.

His wife was tugging on his arm. Seriously, he said one more time, who do you really like tonight?

I really like the Wildcats.

The conversation reminded me why coaching is never as easy or glamorous as it appears to be, especially in the Atlantic Coast Conference. After all, if the winningest coach ever can be a target for disgruntled fanshis own fansafter losing a Final Four game, who isnt a target? My guess is the couple in Indy do not represent a majority of Carolina fans, but I would also guess they arent unique either.

And it isnt as if Carolina fans are any different from fans at other schools. Here is a small sampling of comments I have heard from ACC fansseason-ticket-holder types who follow the game closelyin the last twelve months:

Hes lost interest. He isnt working at recruiting, thats why we arent getting any players. He ought to just go coach in the NBA and well get someone in here who cares (longtime Maryland fan and booster talking about Gary Williams after the Terrapins had reached the NCAA tournament for a third straight year in 1996 but lost in the first round).

I cant believe were paying him that kind of money. We could get a dozen guys in there to do what hes done (Wake Forest alumnus and self-proclaimed basketball expert talking about Dave Odom, who has taken a program that had missed the NCAAs for five straight years before he arrived to seven straight tournaments and back-to-back ACC titles in 95 and 96 after Wake had gone thirty-three years without winning one).

He owes us all an explanation for not playing Newton. If he had played Newton, we might have gone to the Final Four (Duke fan angered by the benching of senior center Greg Newton, insisting that he knows more basketball than Mike Krzyzewski, who has only won two national titles and been to seven Final Fours and who won the ACC regular season title in 1997 after sitting Newton down).