Dean Smith: TV Schedule and Preview for Showtime Documentary

During his time prowling the sidelines for the North Carolina Tar Heels, Dean Smith helped set the standard for what a basketball coach should be, both in terms of on-court success and off-the-court guidance.

Smith, who passed away in February at age 83, will be the subject of a Showtime documentary simply titled Dean Smith, which is set to air Wednesday night at 9 p.m. ET. The documentary brings together a cavalcade of Smith's former players, coaches and rivals to expound upon on his overarching legacy.

Since it's been nearly a decade since Smith stepped away from coaching, some college basketball fans may be unaware of his success and impact on the game. Sure, they've heard the name, but they don't comprehend just how much he meant to the game.

When he retired, Smith owned the record for most wins in Division I history with 879. He's since been passed by Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim and Bobby Knight on the all-time list.

During Smith's 27 years at the school, North Carolina went to 11 Final Fours and won two national championships—1982 and 1993. Although the Tar Heels enjoyed plenty of success under Frank McGuire, Smith took the program to unforeseen heights.

Smith was also an innovator, most famously creating the "Four Corners" style that slowed the game to such a crawl that the NCAA instituted the shot clock in part to stop Smith and the Tar Heels from running the offense.

It was the perfect strategy with which to hold a lead. Your opponent couldn't just sit back and let you dribble the ball for the rest of the game, but running up to try to force a turnover meant leaving large swathes of the court wide-open for a layup or jump shot.

Gordon S. White Jr. of The New York Times wrote about the 1982 ACC championship game, which North Carolina won 47-45 after running the "Four Corners" during the final eight minutes. Smith was unapologetic about his style:

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A coach thinks to win a game under the rules. We were just trying to win, and did. They have a 7'4" guy you want to get out from under the basket, and he won't come out. If Sampson had come out, it might have been different. When I use the four corners and win, I'm a genius. When I use it and we lose, I'm all wrong.

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Roy Williams had the current iteration of North Carolina run the offense against Georgia Tech shortly after Smith's passing.

Smith's impact wasn't just limited to his on-court achievements. He brought along the first black scholarship athlete in school history—Charlie Scott in 1966—and pioneered the "Carolina Way" that many of his former players carried into the NBA.

Brooke Cain of The News & Observer viewed an advance screening of the documentary and wrote that the filmmakers did well to capture the totality of Smith's greatness:

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And the stories about Smith's political activism both before and after retirement, including a confrontation with former Gov. Jim Hunt over North Carolina's death penalty, are as illuminating as any of the basketball stories.

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But whether it's Smith "using basketball to teach us the importance of saying thank you," personal notes Smith sent to players and their families annually, or about Smith essentially teaching teenage boys how to be men, those player-coach relationships seem as important a legacy as anything that happened on the basketball court. Smith was an influence not just for four years, but for a lifetime.

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It's impossible to understate Smith's importance, and this documentary should help open up a new generation of fans to his legacy.

It would be cliche to say that they don't make coaches like Smith anymore, but that cliche would also be true.