CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Alfred Smith, father of North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith, died yesterday of a heart attack shortly before the Tar Heels' basketball game with Florida State.

Smith, 93, had been hospitalized with pneumonia at Rex Hospital in Raleigh. He suffered the heart attack 30 minutes before the game.

Dean Smith was made aware of his father's heart attack and death after the game by his wife, Linnea.

"We've lost one of our great fans," Smith said after the game. "He told me this was going to be the first game in my 34 years at North Carolina that he had missed when he was in the state and we were playing. But he had been planning to listen to the game on the radio."

Funeral plans were incomplete last night.