One year after a dominant 23-4 record last season, head coach of the Trinity University men’s basketball team, Jimmy Smith, returns looking for more in his fifth year with the Tigers. Smith joined the Tigers in 2020 and has built one of the strongest teams in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) over the last four seasons. Now, preparing for the upcoming season, coach Smith sat down to discuss his trips abroad, his long journey to Trinity and last year’s meeting with Adam Sandler.
Last season was great record-wise. What are your thoughts on how it went?
“I thought, all in all, it was a great season. Another step forward for the program. Disappointed with how it ended, obviously, but I think most years you feel that way, you know? I think the biggest takeaway for me was that we knew we’d be good. We didn’t know we were going to be good at the level that we were, particularly record-wise.”
You got to do some stuff with the team in Germany last summer and with Team USA in Mongolia the summer before that. What were those experiences like?
“I mean, anytime you can play basketball somewhere else, I think you’re going to get a different perspective. You see styles and strategies that you haven’t seen in the States. In the U.S., a lot of the game is based on athleticism, and so you just see some different schemes when you’re abroad.”
Before coming to Trinity, you kind of bounced around: played at [Mary Hardin-Baylor], then coached at Schreiner, Texas Lutheran (TLU) and Millsaps before coming here. What brought you to Trinity?
“It’s a good question. I’ve always had a lot of respect for Trinity. I played against them as a player, when I played at Mary Hardin-Baylor, and then as a coach, I had a lot of different stops. The coaches are pretty well-tenured here. You’ve got Coach [Julie] Jenkins, Coach [Paul] McGinley, a lot of people or alums that come back. Usually, when you have that kind of longevity at a place, there’s some good things going on, right? I was interested in moving back to Texas. We were in Mississippi at the time the job opened up. I applied, learned more about it and thought, ‘This could be a fit for not just me, but for our family, living in San Antonio.’”
You’ve moved around a lot, but is San Antonio starting to feel a bit like home?
“Absolutely. I really enjoy working with the team. I enjoy working with the people here, people like yourself, that are interested in what we’re doing and giving some spotlight to the things that our student athletes are doing. It’s just a really enjoyable place to work. So it would take something crazy for me to leave.”
What were some of the biggest struggles or challenges you’ve had as a coach that have given you a better perspective?
“There’s been a lot through the years. COVID was a big one. That was my first year at Trinity. COVID was going on, there was a lot of unrest in the U.S., like all the George Floyd stuff had happened and everyone was remote. So you’re trying to have conversations with a team that you don’t really know yet, you haven’t met in person and then getting here, it’s like, gotta try to be six feet apart and have masks on. We could only travel [with] a certain number of people due to restrictions. So that was a big adjustment. … I feel like every head coaching job I’ve had I just happened to take over when programs weren’t winning. And so I think that is always a big challenge, like trying to change the culture from losing to winning, because there’s a lot of factors that go into winning. It doesn’t just happen overnight.”
What are some of the proudest moments you’ve had in your career?
“There’s a lot. I can go back to last year, Grayson Herr, as an example. A guy who is a really good basketball player and just got stuck behind players. He could have easily quit, transferred or done something else but he didn’t. He stuck with it, and in the NCAA tournament, he almost won the game for us by himself. I’m proud of seeing guys that have stuck with us and the process and haven’t quit and then seeing them go out and perform at a high level.”
Trinity’s been the practice site for a lot of Spurs opponents and a few celebrities like Adam Sandler last year. What’s your favorite celeb story you’ve got?
“It’s got to be Adam Sandler. Obviously, growing up just watching his movies and Saturday Night Live. For someone my age, he’s kind of a legend. So to look down on the court and see him and then playing him in three-on-three, it was pretty cool.”
What’s something you’d like to say to the readers?
“One, thanks for everyone that have supported us and are paying attention to the program. Whether it’s showing up to games or professors being reasonable and understanding the travel schedule. I’m hoping to encourage people to come out; we don’t have a home game until Dec. 20, but second semester, when we’re playing home games, students come out and support and see a high level of basketball.”
