By Nicole Auerbach, Mark Puleo and Brian Bennett
After guiding Washington State to its first NCAA Match in 16 years, Kyle Smith is headed to Stanford to change into the Cardinal males’s basketball coach, this system introduced Monday.
Smith spent the previous 5 years with Washington State, garnering a 94-71 document and by no means ending with a document beneath .500. Earlier than Smith arrived in 2019, the varsity hadn’t completed with a successful document since 2011-12.
“The chance to function the pinnacle males’s basketball coach at Stanford is a dream come true, and I wish to thank Bernard Muir for entrusting me with this chance,” Smith stated. “From my perspective, Stanford has the assets and fame to draw the best student-athlete who’s in search of the character improvement elements of what our basketball program will supply. Stanford has the capability to offer a spot the place student-athletes can hone their management abilities and mind by onerous work and group constructing. I’m thrilled to attempt to present that kind of tradition for an establishment that prides itself on excellence in all areas.”
A No. 7 seed, Washington State defeated Drake within the first spherical Thursday earlier than dropping to No. 2 Iowa State on Saturday.
Previous to Washington State, Smith coached at San Francisco and Columbia, establishing connections with each the Bay Space and with an academically rigorous faculty.
At earlier stops, Smith’s embrace of analytics earned his fashion of play the nickname of Nerdball. Smith first started specializing in basketball knowledge as an assistant coach at San Diego, then later at Saint Mary’s. He rode that Nerdball system to his first head teaching gig with Columbia, then expanded on that after getting employed at San Francisco, the place he guided the Dons to 3 straight 20-win seasons.
It was that Nerdball fashion that caught the attention of Washington State, the place Smith and his employees used analytics and knowledge monitoring to chart greater than 50 numerical classes throughout apply time to permit the numbers to find out enjoying time throughout video games. The fashion labored, as Smith circled one of many hardest energy convention jobs within the nation.
Now he’ll take that program to Stanford, which is coming off its second consecutive 14-win season and fired coach Jerod Haase after eight seasons earlier this month. The Cardinal haven’t been to the NCAA Match since 2013-14.
Stanford star freshmen Andrej Stojakovic, a five-star recruit in 2023, and Kannan Carlyle introduced previously two weeks that they are going to are getting into the switch portal. Each have been top-50 recruits.
Earlier than Smith, the final coach to take Washington State to the NCAA Match was Tony Bennett. Bennett left the Cougars in 2009 and went on to take Virginia to an NCAA championship in 2019.
Each packages are altering conferences in 2024. Stanford will transfer to the ACC, whereas Washington State will compete within the West Coast Convention.
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(Photograph: Jamie Squire / Getty Photographs)