Dean Smith Produced Stats Breakthrough; His Players, 332,066 NBA Points

In the 1950s, Dean Smith, a math major and assistant coach to Frank McGuire at UNC, moved three decades ahead of his time when he wrote that “points per possession” played as the key stat—the entire basis for every basketball stats innovation from Dean Oliver’s Basketball on Paper to www.kenpom.com to my own www.valueaddbasketball.com measurements of players.

Vince Carter’s 20-foot jumper for the Memphis Grizzlies on January 29 gave Smith-coached players 332,066 points in the NBA. The NBA stats for all 52 of his players are listed at the bottom of the article.

The Wall Street Journal today quoted Dean Oliver, considered the godfather of modern basketball stats due to the 1988 book, as saying he did not realize until after writing the book that Smith had already discovered it three decades earlier.

His innovations in understanding how basketball games are won was coupled with his incredible innovations on the court such as the 1-3-1 zone, four-corners offense, huddling before free throws to plan how to box out opponents and not give up a rebound, and many others. But even Smith learned in his first year of head coaching that you need quality players—as he suffered the only losing record of his 36-year career because the first of his 52 future NBA players had to play for UNC’s freshmen team.

McGuire, the older brother of the coach who would defeat Smith in the 1977 title game, left Smith with his first future NBA player in Billy Cunningham, whom he had met after taking over from McGuire as head coach at Chapel Hill in the Fall of 1961. According the NBA Encyclopedia Cunningham “was all skin and bones, a freckle-faced redhead with a clumsy, pigeon-toed gait,” and Smith remembers thinking, “Oh my God. How in the world can this kid play ball? He can’t even walk.”

NCAA rules at the time made Cunningham play on UNC’s freshman team that first year, where he scored 21 points and grabbed 13 rebounds a game while the varsity squad fell one game below .500. In his first year playing for Smith, Cunningham had 27 rebounds in one game against Clemson en route to three dominating years (career more than 24 points and 15 rebounds per game at UNC) and went on to be ranked one of the Top 100 players in the history of the NBA by Basketball Reference while going to All-Star games and winning titles with the 76ers as a player and later as their coach. A Breitbart Sports analysis of other stats at Basketball Reference is the basis for the table at the bottom of the story of all of Smith’s NBA players.

Smith would recruit 51 more players that he would mold into NBA players, including Bob McAdoo, Sam Perkins, Rasheed Wallace, and, of course Michael Jordan, who referred to Smith as “a second father” today in a statement.

Smith’s final team in 1996-97 included 2nd team All-American Antawn Jamison (19.1 points, 9.4 rebounds), Vince Carter (13.0, 4.5) Shammond Williams (14.1, 3.3, 153 assists), and a young Makhtar N’Diaye (1.8, 1.6). All four went onto play in the NBA, with Carter being the last active. That season Smith’s Tar Heels were edged out by Mike Krzyzewski’s Duke and Tim Duncan’s Wake Forest to finish 3rd in the ACC but 4th in the country. It was the 33rd straight season he had finished in the top three of the very tough ACC.

Those four delivered Smith’s final win in the 1997 Elite 8, when he destroyed Louisville 97-74 to make his 11th Final Four, matched only by John Wooden (12) and Krzyzewski (11).

Smith’s last 31 seasons his UNC teams reached 8th or higher in the AP poll every year, and finished ranked in all but two of those seasons—winning the national title twice. The following are the NBA stats for the 52 players who played under Smith. Carter is the last one active, and he was injured after the January 29th game.

Player	Points	Rebounds	Assists	Steals	Blocks
Dean’s Players in NBA	332066	118284	67395	21716	11704
Michael Jordan	32292	6672	5633	2514	893
Vince Carter	23456	5718	4300	1312	754
Antawn Jamison	20042	8157	1761	1048	421
Walter Davis	19521	3053	3878	1280	133
Bob McAdoo	18787	8048	1951	751	1147
Jerry Stackhouse	16409	3067	3240	869	437
James Worthy	16320	4708	2791	1041	624
Billy Cunningham	16310	7981	3305	390	66
Rasheed Wallace	16006	7404	1994	1090	1460
Sam Perkins	15324	7666	1975	1105	933
Charlie Scott	14837	2846	3515	608	152
Bobby Jones	11391	5739	2522	1387	1319
Brad Daugherty	10389	5227	2028	422	397
Kenny Smith	9397	1454	4073	759	65
Rick Fox	8966	3517	2649	967	355
Larry Miller	6595	2434	1155	57	6
Doug Moe	6161	2560	1197
J.R. Reid	5680	3381	639	514	264
Phil Ford	5594	854	3083	589	29
Hubert Davis	5583	1045	1172	297	44
Jeff McInnis	5396	1170	2514	371	31
Mitch Kupchak	5202	2730	377	164	176
George Lynch	5109	3902	1121	817	258
Al Wood	4902	1262	742	310	159
Larry Brown	4229	1005	2509
Scott Williams	3825	3506	431	393	421
Mike O’Koren	3355	1391	856	311	89
Dudley Bradley	3131	1098	1147	940	182
Pete Chilcutt	2494	1935	488	267	210
Joe Wolf	2485	1933	596	257	131
Tom LaGarde	2376	1593	456	94	131
Eric Montross	2071	2159	207	122	275
Shammond Williams	1892	518	765	196	14
George Karl	1703	369	795	232	20
Bobby Lewis	1481	533	555
Dennis Wuycik	684	323	128	22	5
Bill Bunting	623	417	95
Darrell Elston	601	169	204	83	9
John Kuester	451	141	305	83	3
Bill Chamberlain	415	198	113	20	12
Donald Washington	220	102	33	13	20
Geoff Crompton	99	139	28	10	23
Dave Popson	76	46	13	4	6
Stephen Previs	55	14	24
Kevin Salvadori	42	45	13	2	24
Rich Yonakor	33	27	3	1	2
Steve Bucknall	23	7	10	2	1
Matt Wenstrom	18	12	0	0	2
Jeff Lebo	6	4	3	2	0
Makhtar N’Diaye	5	5	1	0	1
Dick Grubar	4	0	1
Derrick Phelps	0	0	1	0	0