Turgeon Adds Smith to Coaching Staff
Apr 25, 2007 | Men's Basketball
April 25, 2007
Former University of Houston standout Byron Smith has been named assistant men's basketball coach at Texas A&M, Head Coach Mark Turgeon said Wednesday.
"I was very impressed with Byron during the interview process," Turgeon said. "He has developed many contacts Texas, especially in the Houston area. He'll he a great recruiter for us in the state, which will be very important to our success."
"I'm obviously very excited to be a part of Coach Turgeon's staff," Smith said. "Coach Gillispie did an outstanding job reviving the interest in the basketball program here and it's exciting to be an integral part of continuing what he started."
Smith has experience in all levels of basketball in Texas. He was the head coach of the highly-successful Houston Swoosh AAU program for the last three seasons. Prior to that, he was the head coach of the Harlem Globetrotters in 2002-03.
In 2001-02, he served as an assistant coach at McClennan Community College in Waco, helping the team to the regional finals. In 2000-01, he was the interim head coach at Texas Southern. Smith was the director of basketball operations at his alma mater, the University of Houston, under Clyde Drexler from 1998-00.
Smith was a standout player at UH from 1989-91, twice earning All-Southwest Conference honors under Coach Pat Foster. Prior to that, he was an all-conference player at Tyler Junior College in 1988-89 and played at Northwestern State in 1987-88.
A native of Bossier City, La., Smith earned all-state honors as a senior at Airline High School after leading the state in scoring with a 30.6 average.
After graduating from UH in 1991, Smith played professional basketball overseas for six seasons, including four years in Australia. He also played in Turkey and Greece.
Smith and his wife, Melanie (A&M Class of '91) have two children ? 4-year-old Christopher and 3-year-old Kayla.
