CHARLOTTE - One of the many exhibits in North Carolina's new basketball museum is a giant logo meant to be signed by every Tar Heels player and coach, past and present. Side by side, where the "N" intersects the "C," are the autographs of Bill Guthridge and Joe Holladay.

It seems fitting that the longtime assistants made their marks so close together.

By staying one of head coach Roy Williams' right-hand men for 15 seasons, Holladay has displayed a longevity that is rare these days in college assistant coaching. And he has shown a loyalty to Williams that is similar to Guthridge, who was Dean Smith's assistant for 30 seasons before himself serving as UNC's head coach from 1997-2000.

Like Guthridge, Holladay is responsible for developing the program's big men. Like Guthridge, Holladay has recruited plenty of superstars. Like Guthridge, he dishes out plenty of wry wit with ample knowledge.

And like Guthridge (before Smith retired), he really has no intention of leaving his head coach's side.

"I think I'm the luckiest guy in the world; I've got the best job in the world," Holladay said, echoing Guthridge's memories of his assistant coaching days. "I don't have to be a head coach; I feel like if I'm helping out and making a difference, I'm perfectly happy,"

Guthridge connection

Like Guthridge, Holladay started his career as a high school coach. Unlike Guthridge, it took him awhile to move to the college ranks.

The former point guard and shortstop at Oklahoma was content with his career as a successful prep coach when, in 1981, Guthridge made a trip to Jenks High in Oklahoma to recruit Steve Hale, one of Holladay's prize players.

Holladay ended up paying his own way to Chapel Hill to accompany Hale on his recruiting trip. The point guard eventually chose UNC, and at the invitation of Carolina's coaches, Holladay began working the school's summer basketball camps from 1983 to 1990, as well.

"My first impression was that this was really a sharp guy who would be successful," Guthridge said. "He was very ethical, very honest about everything. And as I got to know him, we became friends."

Holladay became friendly with Williams during his summer camp days, as well. And looking back, Hale -- now a pediatrician in Vermont -- said he's not surprised that his high school coach fit in so well with college coaches.

"He had the most intense practices -- we used to go 3, 3 1/2 hours every day, and it seemed like we started the first day of school," Hale said. "So when I got to Carolina, and coach Smith had those hard, down-to-the-minute practices, that wasn't new to me. I was prepared."

For all his summer camp experience, though, Holladay said he was surprised when Williams, who had moved on to become head coach at Kansas, called him to interview for an assistant coaching job with the Jayhawks in 1992. He came in second that time around, "and I figured it was just an honor to be invited up to talk about it."

The next spring, however, at age 45 and after 22 years coaching high schools, he was hired as the Jayhawks' junior assistant coach.

Content at Kansas

Holladay, like Guthridge before him, at first had visions of moving to the college head-coaching ranks. Guthridge interviewed for several jobs in the 1970s and turned down Penn State in the early '80s.

Holladay looked around, too, but he eventually realized Father Time worked against him. So as Williams' assistants came and went, he moved all the way up to the second chair, where he can be found charting fouls and possessions each game, tweaking jump hooks and rebounding form during practice and coaxing future NBA stars on the recruiting trail.

"He's very quiet, but everything he says is always useful, always helpful, always observant," wing Marcus Ginyard said. "Definitely when you're having a tough practice, you walk over to coach Holladay, and he'll say something to lighten you up."

Indeed, having Holladay beside him so long has added a continuity that has been key to the programs at Kansas and UNC, Williams said. And it "means a great deal to me because when you have a guy who is your assistant coach for so long, you're trusting your life with him -- your professional life."

So when Williams opted to return to North Carolina in 2003, there was no doubt that Holladay would move with him. Williams got his college education in Chapel Hill; Holladay got his big break into the coaching world there.

"It was just an honor for me if I ever came into these offices during camp," Holladay said, looking around his office -- which used to belong to Guthridge. "I didn't really have a reason, but I'd come over and watch some tape sometimes.

"... In fact, when we first got back here, he [coach Guthridge] would come in the office, and I'd say, 'Coach, here's your office, this is your office.' He still comes by just about every day."

Holladay, now 60, said he has no timetable for how long he will coach. But he's not even looking at head coaching jobs any more because "it's hard to beat these kids and this staff and this environment and this university. You've got the whole package."

And the grass is not always greener on the other (head coaching) side.

"To stay somewhere for a long time probably means you're having success -- because if you weren't having success, your head coach would not be there for very long, so your assistants would not be there for very long," said UNC assistant coach Steve Robinson, who has coached under Williams for 13 total years, with head coaching stints at Tulsa and Florida State in between.

Holladay has been a part of three Final Fours, but has a chance to go to a fourth if the top-seeded Tar Heels beat third-seeded Louisville in the NCAA East Region final tonight. For his part, Guthridge's teams were so successful that he was a part of 14 Final Fours -- including one as a player and two as a head coach -- before he retired and signed the huge logo in the Carolina Basketball Museum.

Each called it a compliment to be compared to the other; perhaps why their autographs are side by side on that interlocking "N.C."

"They are different in some ways," Hale said of his former coaches. "But they are very similar in that they are very humble. ... It takes a realization that your role -- and not being in the limelight -- is important. It takes a lot of humility and a lot of loyalty. And they both have that."