With so many coaching influences, Shaka Smart says that his coaching style is “like a mutt”.
Having made several stops at different schools before taking over for Anthony Grant at VCU, Smart, 33, has picked up bits and pieces of the qualities of the head coaches that he worked under.
He borrows some of Bill Brown’s people skills from their time together at the University of California at Pennsylvania. Smart said that his four years with Oliver Purnell split between Dayton and Clemson taught him to approach all endeavors with positivity and optimism.
“It really dawned on me that it become a self-fulfilling prophecy when you approach coaching that way, when you approach kids that way and that was a valuable lesson I learned from him,” Smart said.
His oldest coaching influence might be his most important though.
“I come off of a lot of coaching trees, first of all, my mom, Monica King,” Smart said. “She was the best coach I ever had. She taught me so much about coaching indirectly, even though she’s never coached basketball or any sport.”
Smart was one of four children that King raised as a single-mother.
“I’m not a parent, my wife has a child on the way, so I don’t have experience in parenting,” Smart said. “But I think there are certainly a lot of parallels.
“She worked extremely hard. She sacrificed. She taught me quite a bit about leadership, about appreciation. When someone does something for you, you express gratitude. I think the biggest thing that she taught me, about coaching and about parenting, is that it’s not about you; it’s about the kids. I remember her saying that and then living it with all of the sacrifices.”
-Joshua Siegel
