Kyle Smith Announced as Columbia's 22nd Men's Basketball Head Coach (Video)
5/6/2010 10:27:00 AM | Men's Basketball
NEW YORK – Columbia welcomed Kyle Smith as its new head men's basketball coach at an introductory press conference at Levien Gymnasium on Wednesday, May 5.
Several local media outlets attended the press conference – here are links to their articles about head coach Kyle Smith coming to Columbia:
ESPN New York: Columbia's new Lion is ready to roar
New York Magazine: Meet Kyle Smith, Columbia's new coach
amNew York: Q&A: Columbia basketball adds Kyle Smith to New York's much-changed coaching mix
SNY.tv: Smith takes over at Columbia
Fans can also watch video of the full press conference via SideLION Pass and below is a transcript of a brief Q&A session with Smith and gocolumbialions.com:
Q: What are your impressions of Columbia?
A: It's just a super place. People are so warm and friendly – to be honest, not what I expected. Dianne, she's from Tennessee, she made me feel welcome here and I thought if she can make it here, I'll be fine. It's been great.
Q: What do you think a Kyle Smith team might look like on the court?
A: I think we'll play hard. We'll defend, we'll rebound. We'll take care of the ball. We'll get good shots. That's what you need to do to be competitive. Unfortunately, coming in right now, I don't get to work with the guys, but we'll gear up for that in the fall.
Q: What do you think you can take from your experience at St. Mary's, a solid mid-major program you've helped build, and transfer it here?
A: That's the model – obviously there's a distinction between the BCS schools and mid-majors but Cornell proved it can be done in the Ivy League and what I'm taking from that is the belief we have in ourselves. It doesn't matter what resources you have, you got a chance if you're working hard and get good players that are committed, you got a chance to compete with anybody.
With St. Mary's when I got there, we were 2-27 so I saw [a program] grow from nine [wins] to 15 to 19 to 25 and then the last three years we averaged 27. It can be done. It'll be obviously different with a different student-athlete but there's no reason we can't think that can happen down the road.
Q: What are some short-term and long-term goals for you here?
A: A short-term [goal] would be just get to know all the guys. There are 16 guys returning and I think the key with me is I'm a relationship guy by nature. I want those guys to know that they have an open line between us and they can talk to me. I'm spending all day [Thursday] with them. So that's the short-term goal – saying here's what I'm all about. They're going to get tired of hearing it a little bit, but at least they know they have someone to go to because there's going to be some anxiety and change with turnover and they have enough stuff on their plate. I want them to know they at least have a coach that cares about them.
Long term, let's try to get a winning season. Let's try to get there – that would be a huge confidence boost, and move in that direction and see what happens from there. Eventually we want to be a team that can compete for Ivy League championships.
