Stacked rosters, dominant regular seasons and winning tournament games are all part of what makes a great college basketball coach.
But in North Carolina, a state where those things are only the expectation, greatness depends on what’s accomplished in the season’s final weekend.
In the third season of a stint that has seen two ACC tournament titles and three NCAA tournament appearances, including a run to the Elite Eight in 2024, Duke men’s basketball coach Jon Scheyer has finally made it to where legends are made.
Scheyer will make his first Final Four appearance as a head coach when they take on Houston in a top-seeded showdown Saturday at the Alamodome in San Antonio. Tip-off is scheduled for 8:49 p.m. EST.
If there’s one thing Scheyer has in common with the state’s men’s coaching giants in his young career, it’s that the path to everlasting glory starts somewhere. For some, it ends where it begins, given this opportunity isn’t guaranteed more than once.
So, how has the first Final Four gone for N.C.’s coaches over decades of college basketball history?
Let’s start with March 29, 1986.
On that date, Scheyer’s former coach and predecessor Mike Krzyzewski led his top-seeded Blue Devils to a 71-67 win over No. 1 Kansas in his first career Final Four appearance.
Tied at 67 with less than 30 seconds left to play, Duke forward Danny Ferry followed a miss from his teammate Mark Alarie and scored the putback layup for the lead. With the Jayhawks looking to tie the game, Ferry drew a charge on Kansas’ Ron Kellogg while he went for a layup. Although he missed the one-and-one free throw, Duke guard Tommy Amaker pulled down the rebound on Kansas’ last tying attempt, got fouled and iced the game with two made free throws in the final second.
Krzyzewski went on to make his first national championship appearance, but Duke fell to No. 2 Louisville 72-69. The Blue Devils had no answer for Louisville’s freshman center Pervis Ellison who led the Cardinals with 25 points and grabbed two crucial rebounds late in the game to seal the win.
Of course, that wasn’t the end for Krzyzewski as he made 12 more Final Four appearances throughout the rest of his career.
Prior to Krzyzewski, former Duke coach Vic Bubas made his first of three Final Four appearances in 1963 (prior to the tournament’s expansion to 64 teams in 1985). The Blue Devils lost to Loyola (Illinois) 94-75 thanks to five Ramblers scoring in double digits.
As for Duke’s late, long-time coaching rival Dean Smith, Smith and his UNC squad lost to Dayton 76-62 in his first Final Four appearance in 1967.
Dayton forward Don May was unstoppable, recording a 34-point, 15-rebound double-double while shooting 16-for-22 from the floor.
Smith made 10 more Final Fours in his career, including his first national semifinal appearance in a 64-team tournament in 1991. That year, in a full-circle moment, Smith’s former assistant Roy Williams led his three-seeded Kansas squad to a 79-73 win over UNC in his first Final Four as a head coach.
The Jayhawks had four players score in double-figures, including guard Adonis Jordan and forward Mark Randall, who led the team with 16 points each. Williams ended his career with nine Final Four appearances.
Smith’s successor, Bill Guthridge, reached the Final Four in his first season. Guthridge’s top-seeded Tar Heels fell to No. 3 Utah in the national semifinal 65-59 despite 21 points from Vince Carter and a 14-point, 12-rebound double-double from Antawn Jamison.
Guthridge reached the Final Four again in his final season at UNC in 2000.
Former UNC coach Frank McGuire also reached two Final Fours in his career (once with St. John’s in 1952 and UNC in 1957), leading St. John’s to a 61-59 victory over Illinois in his first appearance before losing to Kansas in the national championship game.
And for the coaches who have made one trip to the Final Four, who could forget Jim Valvano and the 1983 NC State “Cardiac Pack?”
During its improbable run for a national title, six-seeded NC State took down No. 4 Georgia in the national semifinal 67-60. Guard Dereck Whittenburg and forward Thurl Bailey scored 20 points apiece as the Wolfpack held off a late-game comeback attempt from the Bulldogs.
NC State went on to beat the stacked “Phi Slama Jama” Houston team in the national championship 54-52. After the game had been tied at 52 for the final two minutes, NC State forward Lorenzo Charles caught Whittenburg’s missed three attempt and dunked the game-winning putback at the buzzer.
