Lost in the magic that was Butler’s March Madness run was that another Cinderella, St. Mary’s of California, also did some damage in this year’s NCAA Tournament. The Gaels, in fact, advanced to the Sweet 16 by upsetting Richmond and Villanova.
Columbia didn’t forget.
Yesterday, some three weeks after Joe Jones left for an assistant coaching position at Boston College, the Ivy League school named former St. Mary’s assistant Kyle Smith as its new head basketball coach.
“He will be very successful,” St. Mary’s head coach Randy Bennett said. “He has been a huge part of what we’ve done. It’s been he and I together. It’s been like having a co-coach.”
Smith, 40, was with the Gaels for nine seasons. Over the last three, they won 81 games and went to postseason play all three times.
“Kyle is an outstanding leader and successful recruiter with a terrific basketball mind,” Columbia athletic director Dianne Murphy said. “We are thrilled to welcome him to Columbia.”
The Lions, who went 11-17 last season, return their leading scorer Noruwa Agho, who averaged 16.3 points last season.
Jones was 86-108 overall and 39-59 in the Ivy League in seven years at Columbia.