Kyle Smith (basketball)

Kyle Andrew Smith (born June 15, 1969) is an American college basketball coach and the current men's basketball head coach at Washington State. Prior to joining the Cougars, Smith was the head coach at Columbia University and then at the University of San Francisco. In his final season at Columbia, he led the team to a CIT Championship over UC Irvine. His coaching style has been dubbed “Nerdball”, which is a system that utilizes analytics to track and make decisions on many aspects about the team.^[1]

Playing career[]

Smith was a member of New York's Hamilton College men's basketball team that achieved a 26–1 record his junior season and achieved the national Division III #1 ranking.^[2] He also shot 51.3 percent from three-point range, which still stands as a Hamilton single-season record.^[3] Additionally, University of Richmond head men's basketball coach Chris Mooney referred to Smith as "the smartest man in college basketball. I think he has the best feel and overview of basketball programs and coaching of anyone I've ever met."^[4] Smith has a master's degree in educational leadership from the University of San Diego.

Coaching career[]

In his first season at Columbia, Smith piloted the Lions to a 15–13 record, becoming the first new Columbia head coach in 33 years to notch a winning season in his inaugural campaign. Smith backed up his offensive reputation with sterling numbers on that side of the ball in year one in Morningside Heights; the Lions scored more than 10 points per game more in 2010–11 than they did the year before and scored more than 70 points 15 times during the entire season.

Smith followed up his first season with 15 more wins in 2011–12, becoming the first Columbia basketball coach to record as many as 30 wins in his first two seasons since Lou Rossini in 1952. Under Smith's tutelage, Columbia starting point guard Brian Barbour was voted first team All-Ivy League, the second straight year a Columbia guard was given this honor (Noruwa Agho, 2010–11).

Smith coaching Columbia in 2012

Smith steered Columbia to an RPI of 186 in both 2010–11 and 2011–12, the highest finish in the program's history. Prior to his appointment at Columbia in May 2010, Smith spent 18 seasons as an assistant coach on the NCAA Division I level, including nine seasons (2001–2010) at Saint Mary's College of California, one season at the Air Force Academy (2000–01) and eight years at the University of San Diego (1992–2000).

While at Saint Mary's, he played a role in building the Gaels program into a perennial contender in the West Coast Conference. In his nine seasons with the Gaels, they made three NCAA Tournament (2005, 2008, 2010) appearances and earned one National Invitation Tournament (2009) bid. Saint Mary's averaged 23 wins over his last six seasons on the staff, including an 81–20 record over the last three seasons.

University of San Francisco[]

Kyle Smith was named as the head coach of University of San Francisco, on March 30th, 2016.^[5] Smith led the Dons for three seasons, winning at least 20 games in each season and making two postseason appearances. At the conclusion of 2018–2019 season, Smith left USF to take the head coaching job at Washington State.

Washington State[]

On March 27, 2019, Smith was named as the 19th head coach of Washington State, agreeing to a six year contract worth $1.4 million annually. He was formally introduced at a press conference on April 1, 2019. In his first season at Washington State, Smith led the Cougars to a 6-12 conference record(16-16 overall), their best since 2011-12. In the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament, Washington State beat Colorado, their first win in the conference tournament in over 10 years.

Personal life[]

Smith and his wife, Katie, have three sons, Rocco, Bo, and Luke.

Head coaching record[]

References[]

External links[]

• San Francisco profile
• Columbia profile