Lamont Smith (basketball)

Lamont Smith
Sport(s) Men's basketball
Current position
Title Assistant coach
Team UTEP
Conference Conference USA
Biographical details
Born (1975-10-19) October 19, 1975
The Colony, Texas
Playing career
1995–1999 San Diego
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1999–2001 Saint Louis (asst.)
2001–2007 Saint Mary's (asst.)
2007–2008 Santa Clara (asst.)
2008–2012 Arizona State (asst.)
2012–2013 Washington (asst.)
2013–2015 New Mexico (asst.)
2015–2018 San Diego
2018–present UTEP (asst.)
Head coaching record
Overall 40–52 (.435)

Allen Lamont Smith[1][2] (born October 19, 1975) is an American college basketball coach, currently working as an assistant coach at the University of Texas at El Paso. He was previously the head coach at his alma mater University of San Diego.[3]

Early life

Born and raised in The Colony, Texas, Smith played for the San Diego Toreros from 1995 to 1999.[4][5] He earned team defensive player of the year honors in 1997 and 1999.[4] Smith graduated from San Diego in 1998 with a bachelor's degree in communications.[6][4]

Coaching career

Smith began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Saint Louis. He was an assistant coach at Saint Mary's from 2001 to 2007, when he took an assistant gig at Santa Clara University. Smith was at Santa Clara for one season, and he left to fill an assistant position at Arizona State. At Arizona State, he helped develop James Harden and the Sun Devils experienced two 20-win seasons in his four years with the team. Smith became an assistant coach at the University of Washington in 2012 and spent one season on the bench with the Huskies.[7] From 2013 to 2015 Smith served as an assistant coach at the University of New Mexico.[6]

On April 1, 2015, Smith was hired as head coach of the San Diego Toreros. He takes over for the fired Bill Grier.[3] "We're irrelevant right now in terms of basketball in this city," said Smith.[8]

San Diego went 9–21 in his first season of 2015–16 and improved to 13–18 in 2016–17. As of February 24, 2018, San Diego was 18–12 (9–9 WCC), the most successful record during his tenure.[9]

San Diego placed Smith on administrative leave on February 26, 2018, a day after Smith was arrested at the Oakland International Airport on charges of domestic violence.[10] The arrest was shortly before the team's flight back to San Diego following a win over San Francisco on February 24.[9] Smith was released from jail on a reported $115,000 bail.[9]

On March 7, 2018, Smith resigned after three seasons as San Diego's head coach, just hours after the domestic violence charges against him were dropped.[11] A month later, on April 11, he was hired by Rodney Terry to be an assistant coach for the UTEP Miners men's basketball team.[12]

Head coaching record

Season Team Overall Conference Standing Postseason
San Diego Toreros (West Coast Conference) (2015–2018)
2015–16 San Diego 9–214–149th
2016–17 San Diego 13–186–127th
2017–18 San Diego 18–139–9T–4th
San Diego Toreros: 40–52 (.435)19–35 (.352)
Total:40–52 (.435)

      National champion         Postseason invitational champion  
      Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion
      Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion
      Conference tournament champion

References

  1. ↑ "USD Directory - Allen Smith". University of San Diego. Archived from the original on November 13, 2017. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
  2. ↑ Higgins, Ben (February 25, 2018). "University of San Diego basketball coach Lamont Smith arrested on domestic violence charges". KGTV. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
  3. 1 2 Canepa, Nick (April 1, 2015). "Timing weird, but USD hires Smith". San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved July 29, 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 "Lamont Smith". San Diego Toreros. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  5. ↑ "Lamont Smith College Stats - College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com". College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com.
  6. 1 2 Phillips, Scott (March 31, 2015). "San Diego hires New Mexico assistant Lamont Smith as new head coach". NBC Sports. Retrieved July 29, 2015.
  7. ↑ "USD To Introduce Lamont Smith as Men's Basketball Head Coach on Wednesday". San Diego Toreros. University of San Diego. March 31, 2015. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
  8. ↑ Norlander, Matt (July 2, 2015). "Lamont Smith hopes to be the man who defines San Diego basketball". CBS Sports. Retrieved July 29, 2015.
  9. 1 2 3 Norcross, Don (February 26, 2018). "USD basketball coach Smith placed on paid leave for rest of season". San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  10. ↑ Self, Zac. "USD basketball coach Lamont Smith placed on administrative leave". 10news.com. KGTV. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  11. ↑ Goodman, Jeff (March 8, 2018). "San Diego's Lamont Smith resigns from basketball post". ESPN.com. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
  12. ↑ Knight, Bill (11 April 2018). "UTEP basketball coach Rodney Terry hires ex-San Diego head coach Lamont Smith as assistant". El Paso Times. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
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