Byron Smith
Byron Smith (born September 26, 1969)
Current position: Head men’s basketball coach
Current team: Prairie View A&M Panthers
Current conference: Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC)
Prairie View A&M record: 113-114 (.498)
Overall record^: 113-114 (.498)
Career Accomplishments:
- NCAA National Championships: 0
- NCAA Tournament Appearances: 1 (2019)
- NIT Championships: 0
- NIT Appearances: 0
- SWAC Regular Season Champion: 3 (2019, 2020, 2021)
- SWAC Tournament Champion: 1 (2019)
Awards:
- Hugh Durham Award: 1 (2021)
- SWAC Coach of the Year: 3 (2019, 2020, 2021)
Coaching Career (head coach, unless noted):
| 2016-present | Prairie View A&M |
| 2013-2016 | Prairie View A&M (asst) |
| 2009-2010 | Texas Southern (asst) |
| 2007-2009 | Texas A&M (asst) |
| 2002-2003 | Harlem Globetrotters |
| 2001-2002 | McClennan CC (TX) (asst) |
| 2000-2001 | Texas Southern (asst) |
| 1998-2000 | Houston (DBO) |
Byron Smith Facts
- Byron Smith
- Born September 26, 1969
- Hometown: Bossier City, Louisiana
- Alma Mater: University of Houston (BA, 1991)
- Started his career playing for Don Beasley at Northwestern State and, after a year at Tyler JC (TX), finished at Houston
- Two-time All-Southwest selection with the Cougars, playing under head coach Pat Foster
- Played professionally for several years in Australia, Turkey and Greece
- Began his coaching career in 1998 at his alma mater, spending two seasons as DBO under head coach Clyde Drexler
- Spent one year each assisting at Texas Southern (under Robert Moreland) and McClennan CC in Waco, TX before becoming the head coach of the world-famous Harlem Globetrotters in 2002
- After several years running camps and coaching AAU in Houston, Smith got back into the college game and spent two years on Mark Turgeon‘s staff at Texas A&M
- Returned for another stint as an assistant at Texas Southern in 2009, working on Tony Harvey’s staff for one season
- In between coaching gigs, Smith ran a business in Houston that coached performance skills and hosted fundamentals programs
- Joined the coach staff of Byron Rimm II at PVAMU in 2013, spending nearly three years as an assistant with the Panthers
- Took over as interim head coach in January 2016 after Rimm resigned, going 6-6 over the season’s remaining 12 games
- Named the permanent head coach during the off-season, winning 13 and 16 games in his first two seasons
- Smith’s 2018-19 team claimed the SWAC regular season title and won the SWAC Tournament for the first time in program history, earning the team an NCAA berth and Smith SWAC COY honors
- The Panthers repeated as SWAC champions in both 2020 and 2021, while Smith was SWAC COY again each year (three-straight)
- Has one son and one daughter
Byron Smith Coaching Tree
- Landon Bussie (Alcorn State)
^ overall record includes head coaching positions at the NCAA Division I level only
