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Craig Smith talks reasons for leaving, hopes for USD basketballMen's Basketball
Craig Smith, former USD head men's basketball coach, took the head coach position at Utah State in March. File photo | The Volante
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Craig Smith talks reasons for leaving, hopes for USD basketball

April 9th, 2018 Cheyenne Alexis Men's Basketball, Sports comments

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Craig Smith, former USD head men’s basketball coach, accepted the head men’s coach position at Utah State in March, leaving behind four years at USD.

Smith, who was named Summit League Coach of the Year in 2016-17, led the team to the Summit League regular season title and tallied a 79-55 record at USD.

The Volante talked with Smith about his reasons for leaving and his vision for USD basketball.

Cheyenne Alexis: Did you have any opening statements about your time at USD?

Craig Smith: I’ll be forever thankful to President (James) Abbott, David Herbster. It was an amazing four years for my family and I. Vermillion’s a tremendous community, they welcomed us with open arms from day one.

We have tremendous experiences and developed friendships that will last a lifetime, and there’s very special people there, certainly professionally and I can’t thank David Herbster and President Abbott enough for the opportunities that they gave me as my first Division I head coaching job. I had been a head coach before at a different level, but it was an amazing four years, from where we were four years ago to what we are now, going 49-21 over the last two years and being ranked, tied No.3 in the Mid-Major poll… that’s heavy-hitting company. We were very fortunate.

Really good players make the coaches look a lot smarter than they are, and I couldn’t be any more proud of our team and being associated with our guys in our program. I’ve said it on the record all year, but I don’t believe I’ve ever been part of a team that was more connected with better friendships, better chemistry than we had this past season. Those guys were bought in from the get go and I couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve accomplished these four years.

CA: When were you first considered/approached for the position at Utah State?

CS: I’m not sure when I was first considered. As a coach going through the ranks, I’ve always from a distance looked at Utah State. I’ve always admired what Utah State is all about. When I was at Colorado State for five years, we were in the Mountain West Conference… and I’ve always loved watching Utah State’s games at Utah State because the fans were absolutely crazy in a great way. The student atmosphere was tremendous.

As a younger coach, I always felt like that would be a cool place just seeing how important it was for the people. I firmly believed that when your leadership is great at the top, it all trickles down and certainly there’s no doubt in my mind that the leadership here was fantastic. And once the process got going and they offered the position, it was just a tremendous opportunity.

(They’re in) a very, very good conference. The Mountain West Conference, which is traditionally ranked out of 32 conferences, it’s almost always ranked in the top eight and sometimes even higher than that. What a tremendous opportunity to work at a school with rich tradition.

CA: Can you talk about your success with your seasons at USD?

CS: I think the biggest accomplishment is the guys in our program. Streaks and losses are great, and certainly you can look inside the numbers… we were a very, very good road team, obviously we were excellent at home in particular in the SCSC.

We had four guys at the All-Conference team and Triston Simpson as an honorable mention. All those things are great, it’s great for our guys to get those kinds of individuals honors, but that’s not why we coach. You coach because certainly you want competitive spirit and all that, but when you basically start it from scratch in terms of we really flipped the roster around and really try to improve the culture. And certainly winning the conference championship last year. It was disappointing that we didn’t get to the NCAA Championship… but that doesn’t define us. Those guys will be friends forever.

Being ranked in the top 10 Mid-Major poll is a tremendous accomplishment and that’s very, very difficult to do. I’m most proud of this year’s recruiting and having relationships with those guys. I know I can pick up the phone and call them at any point, and they’ll do the same. It’s always tough when you leave, because I believed in those guys with every fiber of my body and I can’t speak for them but I would like to think they’d say the same. That’s really what we’re about—we try to operate a team in a family-type atmosphere and I’d like to think we represented the University of South Dakota in a tremendous fashion throughout our duration there.

Certainly, the program is in a much, much better place now than it was four years ago when we took over. They’ve got a great group of men coming back. Returning five starters, top seven guys. I always said we are building a program at South Dakota, not building a team. And there’s no doubt that that program has got a bright, bright future ahead of it because of the work of our great players, tremendous staff.

I’m really proud that our whole staff was there all four years, that’s not easy to do at that level. And I think it speaks to the people we have and the chemistry we have in our program.

CA: Do you know anything about the new head coach, Todd Lee, and what are your hopes for him stepping in as head coach?

CS:  I really don’t know Todd, but I wish him nothing but the best. He’s gonna find out what our family did, it’s a great place with great people and with those guys in that program under David Herbster’s leadership, the future’s gonna be bright.

CA: What are you looking forward to at Utah, and how do you hope to bring to their program?

CS: The same thing we did at South Dakota and basically everywhere we’ve been: I think it’s got a rich tradition of excellence and we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, and at the same time really good, young men in our program as players and as people.

We had to develop some depth in our program, but every reposition, every job is different, being at a higher level, being in the Mountain West Conference, we have some heavy weights. Nevada won the regular season and got lost in the conference tournament, but that’s the beauty of this league is that you have a chance to have multiple good leagues most years… with a rich tradition here, obviously Mountain West is an established conference, we’re a relatively new program in the Mountain West. Everywhere I’ve been I expect to bring in great people that happen to be great players, and I expect us to win and I win at a high level, and that’s what we intend to do.

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Cheyenne Alexis

Cheyenne Alexis is a senior at the University of South Dakota from Omaha, Nebraska. She is majoring in media & journalism with a minor in creative writing. She currently works as the sports presentation editor for The Volante.

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People of the Pack

"I like a lot of music a lot of other people like, so if I’m just playing a lot of loud music to a crowd and getting paid for it, that sounds awesome."
"The nature here is amazing. The Vermillion River, the park, hanging out with my friends and I like cooking."
"I’ve had a couple uncles and a couple aunties come here. My grandmother attended USD in 1970. So they really inspired me and encouraged me to come to USD. They made it sound really awesome and it is an awesome school. I like USD."
"I’m most active with Alpha Phi. We have a lot of philanthropy events like we have our Red Dress Gala, which is just an event we hold every year to raise money for women’s heart health. I’m pretty involved with that, and we also do the Backpack Program where you pack lunches for kids in Clay County."
"After this year I will be doing my MBA after this. Hopefully I can get into a marketing firm and just work my way up. That’s what I’m hoping."
"I find it fun to go to the library in the student-athlete's section. It's nice because you can go there every night. I have been there every night this week just studying and stuff for my test tomorrow."
"USD really cares about its students. They just keep everything really nice here and it’s personal."
"I want to be a politician just for the simple fact of genuinely educating and helping people who don't understand certain policy issues. I want to help them see beyond the biased media so they can research on their own."
"I want to end up being a delivery nurse, anywhere honestly. That’s the end game. I want to travel a lot."
"I want to be a nurse somewhere, but I don’t really know what kind of area. I just want to help people and watch them achieve their goals and get better."
"I just love singing — singing’s my favorite thing to do. It’s always my escape for everything."
"I am going to become a counselor and try to create a safe and welcoming environment. I'll help them where they are, and try to get them where they want to be."
"I very much care for my family and try to take care of them in any way I can. Part of that when I lived in California was trying to take the stress off of my parents. I would do everything around the house: cooking, cleaning, yard work, taking out the trash, grocery shopping."
"I would travel anywhere, I don’t care. I just really like being in new places and meeting new people."
"I can deal with his (stuff), and he can deal with mine. We’ll be up until four in the morning."                         "We’re just social people, we like to talk and have a good time."
"I’ve definitely met people who are more free-spirited and not judgmental and more interested in the same things as I am. I studied abroad last summer in Ireland."
"(If I could go back) I would’ve stuck with basketball and played basketball in college. I just feel like I missed out on an opportunity. I still could’ve gotten a business degree while playing basketball. I just wish I would’ve worked harder at it. I played at first and then I quit. I signed at USF, University of Sioux Falls. I played summer ball with them, with their team, so I didn’t get to experience the full effect."
"I don’t think I’d change anything, because then if I changed something then something else wouldn’t have happened. Why change? My life is pretty good right now. Life is completely about perspective."
"My favorite artist is my band, Bread of Stone. We are growing up with Christian music and we have a lot of shows too. We already have a couple albums out."
"I was a sophomore in high school when my grandma Betty passed away, and it was two years before that when my grandpa Walter passed away. I don’t remember much of Betty because she had Alzheimer’s, so we would go see her once or twice a year in her home. I know that she liked to bake a lot. She would bake all kinds of things — cookies, pies, cakes. She was known for her little tea parties when we came over. The only thing I remember is her sitting in the back porch with my grandpa when we would go to visit them before they both moved to homes. I remember lots of my grandpa. He was a fiery, grumpy old man. He used to give us Sunkists and cookies every time we went to see him. We’d bring him meals when he still lived in his house, and later when he had moved, we would take him to church every Sunday and go for hour long drives that he loved and we all had to suffer through."

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