Hoops legend now consulting with Senators
Coaching Canadian university athletes and coaching National Hockey League pros is the same, Dave Smart says, but one athlete can be very different from another.
“It’s really the individual. A lot of professional guys are great to coach. They’re motivated and they want to get instruction from anyone who can help them.”
By contrast, Smart adds, athletes who rely solely on physical talent and don’t aspire to keep improving will always underachieve. “They got there because they’re good, not because they love it.”
Best known as the head coach whose Carleton Ravens won 13 Canadian university men’s basketball championships over 17 years, Smart also spent parts of several summers as an assistant with the Canadian men’s team, which brought him into contact with National Basketball Association players and pros from other international leagues.
I find (D.J. Smith’s) commitment to winning and his commitment to hard work a lot of fun to be around.
He stepped aside as Ravens head coach in March, becoming Carleton’s director of basketball operations, and the NHL’s Ottawa Senators have engaged him as a consultant to the staff of their new head coach D.J. Smith.
The offer was made after Smart spoke to rookies and other prospects at the Senators’ post-NHL draft development camp.
“I find (Smith’s) commitment to winning and his commitment to hard work a lot of fun to be around and I’ve found it hasn’t been disappointing at all,” Smart says. “I have enjoyed all my time around the team.”
Smith recently said Smart had been brought on board because he was “the winningest coach in college basketball, with the championships that he has.
“Whether it’s hockey, basketball, baseball, football, whatever, it’s still coaching and you’re dealing with people.
“He’s here to help me in a senior role, to see if we’re pushing the guys enough, (pushing) them too hard. It’s just his perspective from the outside.”
Smart says his focus with the Senators is to follow Smith’s lead and what he wants to talk about. “I give him my opinion and he takes some of them and he doesn’t take some of them.
“He’s great because he just wants me to speak my mind. I think sometimes he agrees and sometimes he doesn’t.”
With files from Bruce Garrioch gholder@postmedia.com Twitter.com/HolderGord