Smart Facts

Keith Smart's legacy goes far beyond The Shot. Some fun facts about Smart that you may not know:

- Smart barely played on his high school team - not reaching 5'7 until his junior year. He broke his wrist his senior year, thus ending his career. He worked at McDonald's for three years after graduating.

- Smart originally went to Garden City Community College in Kansas at a student, and had no plans at playing basketball on a collegiate level. He was one of two juco transfers welcomed in by Bobby Knight, the other being Dean Garrett from the City College of San Francisco.

- On his recruiting visit to Bloomington, Smart spent most of the day sitting in classrooms and talking to professors. This impressed him to the point where he cancelled his remaining visits and committed to Indiana, spurning Georgetown, N.C. State and LSU.

- The Most Outstanding Player of the 1987 NCAA Final Four, scored 12 of his 15 poins in the second-half of the Championship game over Syracuse. However, that was far from being his best performance of the Tournament. Smart was a rebound away from a triple-double in IU's 107-90 second-round win over Auburn with 21 points, 15 assists, and 9 rebounds.

- He spent six years as head coach of the Fort Wayne Fury in the CBA. He finished his playing career as a player/assistant coach with Fort Wayne in 1996. He played only one season in the NBA (1988-89), which spanned 12 total minutes, and Smart scored two career points.

- Smart tried out for the 1988 Summer Olympic team, and during tryouts he roomed with Syracuse's Derrick Coleman for a full week. Smart said that the two never discussed the outcome of that title game.

- Smart could be the reason that LeBron James is in Cleveland. Why? He was the interim head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers during the second half of the 2002-03 season following the firing John Lucas and was just 9-31 during his tenure. That included just two wins over the final two months of the season, and allowed the Cavs to have the best chance at securing the top overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft.

- He has coached the Lativa National Team (2009 European Championships), and the Dominican Republic National Team (2005 FIBA Americas Championships).

You can catch our conversation with Keith on The Zone podcasts page.