As the men’s national basketball team gears up for a summer of competition, Ravens head coach Dave Smart will be behind the bench for his third year as an assistant coach with Team Canada.
During his sixteen seasons with the Ravens, Smart has coached them to 11 Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) national titles in 13 years, as well as nine Ontario University Athletics championships.
The decision to include Smart on the coaching roster for the national team was a logical one, according to Rowan Barrett, the assistant general manager and executive vice president of Basketball Canada’s senior men’s program.
“We’re always looking for excellence at the highest level to work with our highest level players in our country, and Dave has a long track record of excellence,” Barrett said. “He’s also coached for a number of years within our program so for us it was a very logical choice, not too much discussion was needed there.”
Barrett also described Smart as a coach with extensive knowledge about the defensive end of the game.
“Clearly he’s had a defence that he’s employed, especially within the CIS, that has had record success, so for us it was always looking at that and seeing how much of that could potentially work within our context,” Barrett said. “Obviously not all of the things that he does at the university level translate, but there are definitely many concepts that do and we’ve been able to employ some of those.”
It’s the implementation of these concepts that Barrett credits with helping the team achieve a top three defensive rating in the world in 2013.
The team hopes to continue this defensive sucess in future years.
Raven’s guard Gavin Resch described Smart as a good motivator who is able to work with players with different personalities.
“He’s obviously very good technically, but I think what puts him over the edge is that he knows how to deal with people and really cares,” Resch said. “I think caring is as much one of his strengths as anything, because he genuinely does care about the kids, and they play hard for him for that reason.”
“He’s a very detail-oriented coach,” Barrett said. “He’s constantly pushing the limits of what we can do systematically, he’s pushing the limits of the athletes, he’s demanding more.”
Resch also highlighted the different roles Smart plays when coaching at Carleton compared to coaching the national team.
“He’s this kind of high-energy guy over here, and he has to be a little bit more reserved as an assistant coach to the national team,” Resch said. “People don’t usually see that with Dave, they see the high-energy, kind of intense guy that he is over here, and he’s not always like that.”
Smart will be joining head coach Jay Triano and fellow assistant coaches Jim Boylen and David Vanterpool as they look to coach the team to a spot at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.
Smart is the only coach who is currently not coaching an NBA team.
Triano is the former head Coach of the Toronto Raptors and current assistant coach to the Portland Trailblazers. Vanderpool is also an assistant coach of the Portland Trailblazers Boylen is an assistant coach with the San Antonio Spurs.
Canada’s men’s basketball team hasn’t qualified for the Olympics since 1999. Somthing the team will attempt to change this summer.
Team Canada will also compete in two other tournaments this summer.
In July the team will compete on home soil in the Pan American Games, where historically their best finish has been fourth place.
Then, in August, the team will head to Mexico City to compete in the all-important FIBA Americas Championships, which serves as a qualifier for next year’s Olympics.
With the roster set to be announced in July, Barrett said he is confident in the quality of the team that will represent Canada this summer.
“We believe it’s going to be maybe the strongest collection of players that we’ve had all on the floor all at the same time,” Barrett said.
“We’re hoping that will be a competitive advantage for us and that our coaching staff can bring everyone together, and meld everything together into a winning formula that qualifies us for the Olympics.”
