On March 19, long-time Carleton Ravens men’s basketball coach Dave Smart announced he would be stepping down from his position with the team.
“It’s been a great run,” Smart said in a statement. “Coaching is my second love, my first being my wife and children. I am very thankful to the university, and I am looking forward to my new role. This gives me an opportunity to stay involved in basketball while having more time to spend with my family.”
Smart is slated to take over as the program’s director of basketball operations.
Taffe Charles, now outgoing head coach of the Ravens women’s basketball team for the past 12 seasons, will be replacing Smart as the men’s head coach.
Smart leaves his position as one of the most decorated coaches in U Sports history. Since taking over as head coach in 1999-2000, he has guided the Ravens to 14 national titles, with the most recent championship victory earlier this month in Halifax over the University of Calgary Dinos.
A nine-time recipient of the University Sports Coach of the Year Award and two-time recipient of the OUA Coach of the Year, Smart’s .922 winning percentage against U Sports opponents ranks first all-time among coaches in Canadian university men’s basketball history.
He leaves behind a remarkable legacy, as he ranks third on the all-time U Sports wins list with 557 career victories against domestic competition.
Several Ravens basketball players weighed in on their time with coach Smart, and what this transition could mean for the program.
“I think Dave Smart is a genius, a basketball genius,” said Alain Louis, a second-year guard. “But, what sets him apart even more, is that he cares so much about the off-the-court stuff.”
Louis added that the team dynamic established by Smart was critical to its success this season.
“He set the tone in the locker room,” Louis said. “He set the tone for us to just be good people, players, everything.”
“He was obviously the stepping stone of what Carleton is today,” said guard Mitch Wood, who just capped off his fifth and final season this year.
Wood further emphasized that Smart’s abilities ranged far beyond the court.
“Off the court, he had to do a lot of extra stuff,” said Wood. “I feel like it goes unnoticed of how much actual time and effort he put into the program and the guys in it.”
For other players, it is Smart’s desire to win that makes him unique.
“His competitive edge—he’s competitive in everything that he does,” said first-year forward Simon Chamberlain. “I think I’ve had some good coaches before, but that’s what really sets him apart.”
Even before the biggest game of the season, it was abundantly clear how much the Ravens team trusted their head coach.
“Before the national championship, a lot of guys talked about who they were playing for and what their reason was for trying to win, and he came up with basically everyone,” said Chamberlain. “We all want to play hard for him.”
Coming off their 14th title in the last 17 years, Ravens players are very excited about the future of the men’s basketball program.
“It’s Taffe’s team now,” said Wood. “He’s going to be the one bringing in his beliefs and attitudes towards the team. So, I still believe it’ll be a real highly competitive team and still have that end goal of always trying to get to the nationals.”
“(Charles) is a good guy—he knows the game well. I think he will be the best guy to keep the culture alive,” said Louis.
Louis was adamant that the Ravens team expects nothing but the best going forward.
“The future is going to look great.”
Taffe’s tough decision
Twelve years ago, Charles embarked on the challenge as head coach for Carleton women’s basketball. His role as the men’s basketball coach will be a new one for him.
“The only difference with that challenge, it was no expectations, so the expectations are a lot higher,” Charles said with a laugh. “It’s quite a challenge, but I’m not worried about the challenge.”
“I think it was too hard, too hard to not take,” Charles added on his decision. “I think that’s the biggest thing.”
Charles said it was “extremely tough” to leave the women’s program. He won Carleton’s only national championship and two provincial titles with them in 2017 and 2018.
Once the announcement was made, Charles said the reaction has been “overwhelming for him.” The women’s players didn’t know until he told them a week prior to the coaching change.
“That was a very emotional conversation,” Charles said. “Obviously, there’s a lot of shock in terms of that.
He said the players’ shock comes from uncertainty in their development going forward.
“Once they’re finished with [the] recruiting process, that’s one thing that they’re happy about is that now they have some certainty,” Charles said on the players. “So, when you do a decision like this, what that does is it changes the certainty level in terms of who’s going to be directing.”
He added that he “doubled-back” with some players to “reassure them that you’re going to be okay.” Charles said he’ll continue to support them and help with the transition.
“We’re still hosting the nationals [next season]. As much as the coach has a lot of play in terms of the direction of the team, at the end of day, players play the games . . . they’ve got to continue to work hard,” Charles said.
This decision wasn’t in the works for just one week but up to half a year, according to Charles. He calls Smart a mentor, having been an assistant coach under him from 1998-2007.
“Dave’s actually a caring person,” Louis said. “He’s really hard on you but . . . he wants you to be at your best.”
Louis calls Smart his “saviour,” as Smart helped him with his life and basketball career.
“So many things I couldn’t see, bad habits, so many things that he pointed out and, now—now I know it, and now I’m moving forward,” Louis said.
Louis and the players from both teams didn’t find out about the change until a week prior to the announcement.
“In my head, I was like it’s going to be different, it’s going to be totally different, but when I heard it was Taffe, I knew that the change wasn’t going to be that different because he used to work for Dave,” Louis said.
The Charlatan reached out to players from the women’s basketball team, but they declined to comment.
Moving forward
Carleton is now looking for a new head coach of the women’s team. Charles said people have reached out about it, and there’s going to be an “overwhelming response.”
“It’s a great job,” Charles said. “Being an Ottawa, Carleton basketball school, [the next coach] can do really well here—lot of resources. It’s a job that people would want that already have jobs . . . we’re going to get a lot of really awesome candidates.”
He took the men’s coaching job because of the opportunity to grow professionally.
“I just feel like I hit a ceiling in terms of what I could do, my potential as a coach, as a women’s basketball coach,” he said. “I think that’s probably it.”
“In terms of what’s exciting about it is now I coach the men’s basketball team. Now, some avenues may open up, more avenues, maybe pro, maybe national team,” Charles added.
Charles said there’s pros and cons to coaching both men’s and women’s.
“The women I had on my team, they were awesome,” he said. “They’re great people.”
Now, he’ll have to get to know the men’s players as well. Charles said his biggest challenge will be understanding the men’s basketball recruiting landscape.
“At the end of the day, you need players,” Charles said. “Yeah, coaching’s nice, but players are the ones who actually play and are able to be developed and able to execute and able to do it at the highest level.”
“That’s something that you build over time over relationships, where to go—it’s ever-moving,” he added. “I think that’s probably the biggest challenge—is understanding the recruiting. Who can you get? What are the challenge of getting them? Who you’re dealing with . . . where are the players?”
Charles will have help from assistant coaches, as well as Smart to build those networks. He will also have his current players on the court next season.
“It’s Carleton basketball,” Louis said. “We’re going to be back playing hard, pretty much the same thing.”
– With files by Tim Austen
Photo by Tim Austen
