In 2005, he joined Roy Williams, Nolan Richardson, Denny Crum, and Jim Boeheim as the only head coaches to win 365 games in 15 seasons or fewer.

Brian, his youngest son, was a point guard at Ole Miss and is the head coach at Saint John Paul II Academy in Boca Raton, Florida.

Smith earned a Bachelor of Science degree in health and physical education while at High Point, and also met his future wife, Donna, who was the homecoming queen.

[15] Smith left Virginia Commonwealth in 1986 to join George Felton's staff at the University of South Carolina.

[17] Smith joined the University of Kentucky under then head coach Rick Pitino, who had the challenge of rebuilding a UK program that had been rocked by NCAA probation and player defections.

Future head coaches Ralph Willard, Herb Sendek, Billy Donovan, and Bernadette Locke-Mattox were all Smith's colleagues.

In his first season at UK, Smith coached the Wildcats to their seventh NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship, including a come-from-behind victory against Duke in the Elite Eight.

His 1998 national championship is unique in modern times, as being the only team in over twenty years to win without a first-team All-American or future NBA lottery pick.

Smith did come just a double overtime loss short of a Final Four appearance in 2005, losing to Tom Izzo's Michigan State Spartans.

Smith also had five double digit loss seasons (which led to his critics nicknaming him "Ten-Loss Tubby"), which caused the pressure to ramp up on him.

[3] In contrast, the coach Kentucky selected to succeed him, Billy Gillispie, went 40–27 for a winning percentage of .597, and missed the NCAAs in his second year.

[25] Coach Smith joined Minnesota on the heels of several disappointing seasons for the Gophers, who had made the NCAA Tournament only once since Monson's hiring in 1999.

In Smith's first season, the team improved from 8–22 in 2006–07 to 20–14 in 2007–08, and reached the Big Ten tournament semifinals after defeating second-seeded Indiana.

In the 2008–09 season, Smith led Minnesota to a record of 22–11 and a bid to the NCAA tournament, where the team was eliminated in the opening round.

[29] However, on March 25, 2013, Smith was relieved of his head coaching duties following a Round of 32 loss in the NCAA Tournament to Florida.

Texas Tech had failed to make the NCAA tournament in the 7 years prior to Smith's hire at the school.

The Red Raiders eventually led a turnaround and won 3 straight games against ranked opponents for the first time in school history.

The season featured young stars Evans, Gray, Odiase, and Smith as well as senior leaders Devaugntah Williams and Toddrick Gotcher.

The turnaround was the biggest in the Big 12 with the Red Raiders completing a six-game improvement from the year prior in arguably the toughest conference in the country.

On March 25, 2018, it was first reported by Jeff Goodman of ESPN that Smith was on the verge of finalizing a contract to become the next head coach at his alma mater, High Point University.

Smith was selected to help coach the United States men's national basketball team at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.

He served as an assistant to then-Houston Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich as the Americans captured the gold medal.

Smith was inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa - The National Leadership Honor Society in 2001 at the University of Kentucky.

Smith serves on the NCAA Committee to study basketball issues, joining Duke's Mike Krzyzewski and former Oregon head coach Ernie Kent.

He also serves on the National Association of Basketball Coaches Board of Directors and in June 2000, spoke at a Congressional hearing on the issue of gambling in college sports.

[35] Smith and his wife, Donna, gave $1 million to High Point University, their alma mater, for the building of a new basketball arena and conference center.