John Smith, no stranger to Southland Conference championships, is in his fourth season on the men's basketball staff at University of the Incarnate Word. On December 18, 2015 Smith facilitated the scouting report that spring boarded the Cardinals to a 73-51 win over St. John’s University of the Big East Conference on national television. UIW followed up that performance with a Conference USA victory over Rice University on December 29, 2015. In just year three of Division I basketball, the Cardinals have already notched wins over opponents from the Big Ten, Big East, Conference USA, WAC, and Ivy League.
Most recently, Smith signed to National Letters of Intent the university's first-ever national three-star high school recruits in 6-7 guard Keaton Hervey, 6-11 center Jeremiah Allen, and 6-7 power forward Charles Brown. In 2016-17, junior point guard, Jalin Hart, was named Southland Conference Newcomer of the Year and an All-Conference selection after finishing fifth in the league in scoring. Sophomore forward Simi Socks was an All-Conference selection and finished seventh in the league in scoring.
In 2014-15 UIW earned a national postseason birth to the CIT after an 18-win season that saw the Cardinals win four non-conference road games including at Princeton, Grand Canyon, and Missouri Kansas City. On December 10, 2014, UIW pulled the school’s biggest upset over the Big Ten's Nebraska Cornhuskers on ESPN in front of 16,000 people. Smith also assisted in the scouting report of defeating Lamar University on Feb 7, 2015 on ESPN3, another nationally televised game in helping brand UIW.
In working with the guards, Smith helped Denzel Livingston achieve all-conference status, eclipse the 1,500 point plateau, finish third in the NCAA in scoring, and play NBA Summer League with the Houston Rockets (which included an invite to veteran training camp) and ultimately landing with the Rio Grande Vipers of the NBA-D League. Kyle Hittle surpassed 1,400 points in his career and finished his career second all-time in school history in three-pointers made. Jontrell Walker was named Freshman of The Year in the Southland Conference by College Sports Madness basketball publication in 2014-15. Walker led all of Division I in free throw percentage in 2015-16.
Coach Smith served on Billy Kennedy's staff in 2013-14 for the Texas A&M Aggies of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The Aggies went 18-16 overall, including a thrilling road victory over NCAA Sweet 16 conference opponent University of Tennessee. After falling to Missouri, in double OT in the first round of the SEC tournament, the season came to a close in the second round of the CBI at Illinois State.
Prior to being back in the NCAA ranks, Smith coached high school hoops in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metropolitan area where he was instrumental in the Arlington Seguin Cougars finishing the 2012-13 season with a 33-5 record as Class 4A Regional Finalists and climbing as high as a No. 19 ranking nationally. The entire starting five signed collegiate scholarships including TCU’s Brandon Parrish and Colorado State’s Kimani Jackson. Smith also spent the 2011 season at Garland Lakeview Centennial High School with LSU’s 7’1 center Elbert Robinson, and four seasons at Temple High School which was capped by a #8 final state ranking and a class 5A Regional Championship appearance with a 29-8 record in 2010.
Smith has worked past basketball camps at Texas A&M for head coaches Billy Kennedy and Mark Turgeon, at Baylor for Scott Drew, at Northwestern State for Mike McConathy, a few years as a skills development instructor for Five-Star Basketball, and a Grassroots coach for Dallas area based AAU program Texas Select 16U and 17U.
His career began as a student assistant at Northwestern State where he was on staff for back-to-back Southland Conference championships in 2004-05 and 2005-06.
The 2005-06 season saw the Demons have their best season in school history with a 26-8 record. The season concluded with a second round NCAA tournament loss to West Virginia after stunning the #3 seed Iowa Hawkeyes in the first round as a #14 seed.
The New Orleans, La. native, from Warren Easton High School, earned his bachelor's degree from Northwestern State in 2006. In 2013, Smith was named an "Honorary Captain" on the University’s All-Century Team celebrating 100 years of basketball for his contributions to the program.
Smith’s duties at UIW include coordinating recruiting, scheduling, player development (guards), scouting, and men’s basketball social media liaison.
A few players that Smith has coached in his career includes:
Emmanuel Mudiay - Denver Nuggets (7th pick 2015 NBA Draft)
Myles Turner- Indiana Pacers (11th pick 2015 NBA Draft)
Denzel Livingston – Rio Grande Vipers (Rockets NBA D-League Affiliate)
Jamal Jones - Delaware 87ers (76ers D-league Affiliate); Lille (France)
Kourtney Roberson- Mazatlan (Mexico) –Texas A&M
Winslo “CJ’ Barry- Honsu Basket (Finland)
Brandon Parrish - TCU
Elbert Robinson III - LSU
Jeremy Senglin - Weber State (Big Sky Freshman of The Year)
Kimani Jackson - Colorado State
Norense Odiase - Texas Tech
Jumani McNeace - Oklahoma
Nick Babb - Iowa State
Brocke Stepteau - Hawaii
