Lamont Smith (basketball)

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Lamont Smith
Smith in 2017
Biographical details
Born (1975-10-19) October 19, 1975 (age 48)
The Colony, Texas, U.S.
Playing career
1995–1999San Diego
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1999–2001Saint Louis (asst.)
2001–2007Saint Mary's (asst.)
2007–2008Santa Clara (asst.)
2008–2012Arizona State (asst.)
2012–2013Washington (asst.)
2013–2015New Mexico (asst.)
2015–2018San Diego
2018–2019UTEP (asst.)
Head coaching record
Overall40–52 (.435)

Allen Lamont Smith[1][2] (born October 19, 1975) is an American former college basketball coach, who was most recently an assistant coach at the University of Texas at El Paso for the UTEP Miners men's basketball team. He was previously the head coach at his alma mater University of San Diego, which he left in March 2018.[3] Smith resigned from UTEP in March 2019 after the University of San Diego revealed that Smith was accused of accepting a bribe in the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal.

Early life[edit]

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 the University of San Diego in 1998 with a bachelor's degree in communications.[6][4]

Coaching career[edit]

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 the last game he coached on February 24, 2018, San Diego was 18–12 (9–9 WCC), the most successful record during his tenure.[9]

Legal issues[edit]

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, assault with force likely to commit great bodily injury, and false imprisonment.[10][11] 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.[12] 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.[13]

Smith resigned from UTEP on March 20, 2019, after the University of San Diego revealed that Smith was accused of accepting a bribe in the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal for allegedly illegally helping a Beverly Hills real estate developer's children gain admission to the university.[14][15][16][17] On November 13, 2020, Martin Fox was sentenced to three months in prison, three months of home confinement, 250 hours of community service, forfeiture of $245,000 and an additional fine of $95,000 after pleading guilty to bribing Smith.[18] In March 2022, it was reported that of all of the coaches implicated in the 2019 college admissions scandal, which included Smith, Jovan Vavic was the only one of these coaches to challenge the charges brought against them in court, and, unlike Smith, the only coach to remain a defendant in the case as well.[19][20] Unlike Martin Fox and other plaintiffs, Department of Justice does not list Smith as among those who were charged during the admission scandal's investigation.[21]

Head coaching record[edit]

Statistics overview
Season Team Overall Conference Standing Postseason
San Diego Toreros (West Coast Conference) (2015–2018)
2015–16 San Diego 9–21 4–14 9th
2016–17 San Diego 13–18 6–12 7th
2017–18 San Diego 18–12 9–9 T–4th
San Diego Toreros: 40–51 (.440) 19–35 (.352)
Total: 40–51 (.440)

      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[edit]

  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. ^ a b Canepa, Nick (April 1, 2015). "Timing weird, but USD hires Smith". San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved July 29, 2015.
  4. ^ a b c "Lamont Smith". San Diego Toreros. Archived from the original on April 2, 2018. Retrieved March 21, 2019.
  5. ^ "Lamont Smith College Stats - College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com". College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com.
  6. ^ a b 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. ^ a b c 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. ^ "San Francisco DA won't charge USD coach Smith". 7 March 2018.
  11. ^ Self, Zac (26 February 2018). "USD basketball coach Lamont Smith placed on administrative leave". 10news.com. KGTV. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  12. ^ Goodman, Jeff (March 8, 2018). "San Diego's Lamont Smith resigns from basketball post". ESPN.com. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
  13. ^ 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.
  14. ^ "College Basketball Coach Resigns from Texas University After Being Linked to Admissions Scandal".
  15. ^ UTEP, former San Diego coach Lamont Smith implicated in college admissions scandal
  16. ^ "UTEP assistant basketball coach resigns, implicated in college admissions scandal". KTSM. March 21, 2019. Retrieved March 21, 2019.
  17. ^ Ziegler, Mark; Davis, Kristina (March 21, 2019). "Lamont Smith identified as USD coach in bribery scheme; resigns as UTEP assistant". San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved March 21, 2019.
  18. ^ Ziegler, Mark (November 13, 2020). "Man who bribed USD basketball coach is sentenced in admissions scandal". San Diego Tribute. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
  19. ^ Marcelo, Philip (March 10, 2022). "Trial opens for ex-USC coach in college bribery scandal". Associated Press. Retrieved March 20, 2022.
  20. ^ Korn, Melissa; Levitz, Jennifer (March 7, 2022). "Last Coach Charged in Varsity Blues College Admissions Case Heads to Trial". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 20, 2022.
  21. ^ "Investigations of College Admissions and Testing Bribery Scheme". United States Department of Justice. Retrieved April 14, 2022.
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