We are still a couple of months away from the tip-off of the college basketball season this fall, which means that we have plenty of time to start preparing for the action ahead. We will do so via a series of season previews featuring the best players/coaches in the country. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel commences our coverage with Arkansas assistant coach Keith Smart, who talked about his 1987 NCAA tourney-clinching shot for Indiana and his expectations for this season.
You played for Coach Bob Knight at Indiana: what made him such a great coach, and what was the most important thing that you ever learned from him? Indiana was a program about winning and getting prepared to win. The thought process/training was to try to make the Final 4. There were plenty of former players who would come around for practices/games so it was definitely a family atmosphere. We also learned about having discipline both on the court and in the classroom. I remember 1 day in geology class when the professor called out my name and said that Coach Knight wanted to see me when I was done with my classes for the day. I had no idea what I had done but when I saw him that afternoon he just said he wanted to let me know that he was keeping an eye on me!
Take me through the magical 1987 NCAA tourney:
In the Elite 8 Daryl Thomas shot an air-ball but Ricky Calloway made a put-back with 6 seconds left in a 1-PT win over LSU: how exhausted were you and the rest of the starting 5 by the end of the game (as your bench only played a combined 7 minutes)? We played a lot of minutes during that tourney but were not worried about fatigue. Coach Knight trusted the upperclassmen to be on the floor as long as we did not get into foul trouble. Each guy on that team made at least 1 big shot during that season.
In the title game you scored 21 PTS including a baseline fadeaway jumper with 4 seconds left in a 1-PT win over Syracuse en route to being named tourney MOP: did you think your shot was going in, and how did it change your life (if at all)? My friends and I would always practice that kind of shot growing up because our cheerleaders in high school were on the baseline! We had an assistant coach named Ron Felling who would always say, “Jump up/shoot up”, which is exactly what I did.
In the 1987 Pan Am Games gold medal game you scored 12 PTS for team USA in a 5-PT loss to Brazil: where does Oscar Schmidt’s performance (46 PTS/7-15 3PM) rank among the greatest that you have ever seen? His brother played at Golden State when I was the coach so we talked about that game. Oscar was unconscious that night and nobody could guard him. At 1 point Coach Denny Crum turned to our bench and asked if anyone could guard him. Fennis Dembo said yes, went in to guard him…and Oscar made 2 quick shots over Fennis!
You played pro basketball for 10 years: what is the biggest difference between college and pro basketball? The way the pro game is moving now in terms of pacing/spacing, you are starting to see more college kids trying to do those things. In the pros the guys are professionals, whereas in college it is more about trying to teach the players the game. As a fan you might think that the college game is slower but as a coach last year I did not feel that way.
In the 2007 playoffs as an assistant to Don Nelson at Golden State you became the 1st #8-seed to ever win a 1st round best-of-7 series: how did you do it? I got to work with him for a long time as an assistant and actually got to coach about 17 games. Sometimes he would just tap me on the shoulder during the national anthem and tell me that I would be the head coach that night! He is a genius who could move a player 1 foot to the side and get him into the right defensive position. We had played Dallas and had success against them during the regular season so we knew that we would have a chance to win the series. I remember being in the locker room before Game 1 when Nellie came in and pointed out 2 things to the team: the Mavericks were not starting Erick Dampier because they were trying to go small, and then he did a shimmy to get everyone relaxed and said, “What is the worst that could happen?” We never looked at ourselves as the 8-seed and thought that we were just as good as Dallas.
Last year you were hired to be an assistant to Coach Eric Musselman at Arkansas: why did you decide to head to the college ranks after 2 decades as an NBA head/assistant coach? My wife and I used to have small kids and we knew that college would be a grind, whereas the NBA has a set schedule so it was the right thing for us at the time. However, once my youngest son graduated from college I figured that it was the perfect time to look at college jobs. I had interviewed with Indiana a couple of years ago before they hired Archie Miller. I had played/worked for Muss in the past so that helped a lot. I knew the basketball part but needed to learn about things like recruiting. Back in the day you just talked to the player and his high school coach but now you need to know the AAU coach/parents/other people around the player. There are also NCAA rules about who you can and cannot talk to and we have compliance people to help me out with that. I did not have to change my thought process but just had to learn about other things like scheduling. Muss wants to develop college players to become pros and in the NBA we develop rookies to become All-Stars. In the NBA you do not spend a lot of time around scouts until the draft, but when I see them now on the road I will ask them what they look for in a player: does he work hard, how does he go about warming up, etc. As a player you just have to take care of your business.
In the 2022 NCAA tourney you beat Vermont/New Mexico State/Gonzaga before losing to Duke: what did your team learn from that amazing run that you think will help this year? From a staff standpoint we learned that it keeps getting tougher the closer you get to the prize. We hit some bumps early before figuring things out defensively: getting the young guys to understand the importance of defense is our #1 goal, and we have to coach that part of the game a great deal. We also know that we will get everyone’s best effort.
You have an amazing freshman class including a trio of McDonald All-Americans in Nick Smith Jr./Jordan Walsh/Anthony Black: I know they have not even played a single college game yet but do you have a sense yet of how good any/all of them are going to be? I got to see them play live games over in Europe to see if they were picking up our concepts. They are talented and will be good players: we just need to make sure they are getting better/stronger every day, which they are. They have to understand how hard they have to work on the court and in the weight room and in the classroom.
Your son Jared played WR at Hawaii: who is the best athlete in the family? I have 2 photos that are next to each other: 1 of me making my shot against Syracuse and 1 of him going up for a catch…and he thought that he had me! He put a piece of tape up on our wall at home and said that if I could reach it then he would not bother me about getting a tattoo. I was not worried about getting up to the tape but was more concerned about the landing: I could not get it…but I still did not let him get a tattoo!
What are your goals for this season, and what are your expectations for this season? The biggest expectation is to get better every day rather than look too far down the road. When we won it in 1987 we did not have a goal of winning it all but we were able to put ourselves on the right path. If we focus on moving forward every day and playing great against the opponent in front of us then we will be fine.