FORT MYERS — We used this in a story last week, but it bears repeating.
“It is amazing some of the bigger schools are not smart enough hire him. He has the smarts to win a national championship.”
That’s from Vonn Read, the associate head coach of Syracuse, who has coached in the NBA and WNBA and has written six books, all about basketball plays.
And, oh, yeah, Syracuse was the national runnerup this past season.
The story was about Read trying, but mostly failing, to get in a long conversation with FGCU coach Karl Smesko in order to learn how he uses his unique five-out motion offense to get all those open 3-pointers his gals sink.
FGCU made 372 last season.
That conversation could still happen. Smesko welcomes it.
He also welcomes staying at FGCU, where he is 378-73 in 13 seasons, including 246-52 in Division I play. He’s 145-14 in the Atlantic Sun.
Smesko has led FGCU to the Division II national championship game, an NCAA tournament win (and two NCAA OT losses against heavier foes), recent wins against teams from every Power Five conference and this past season to the WNIT final.
In 1998, he led Walsh University to the 1998 NAIA Division II national title before becoming an assistant at Maryland.
He’s led FGCU to six straight A-Sun regular-season titles and won the Kay Yow National Coach of the year award in 2012.
Smesko holds a master’s degree in education from Walsh and graduated summa cum laude from Kent State.
FGCU athletic director Ken Kavanagh loves him. So does former FGCU — and current Florida SouthWestern State — athletic director Carl McAloose.
Yet he’s scored only a handful of interviews. Maybe not even that. Some years ago, he had a shot at Oregon State. He didn’t get the job, but he did get point guard Brittany Kennedy out of the deal.
Two years ago, he was a finalist for the Indiana and Illinois jobs.
This year the ADs of Arizona and Wisconsin chatted with him before picking someone else.
Look, Smesko is in no hurry to leave. He loves it here and his current salary is $232,875. Not too shabby by the standards of us working stiffs, but small compared to high-major coaches.
As Read said, “It is amazing some of the bigger schools are not smart enough hire him.”
It’s blown our minds for quite some time.
Selfishly, we’re glad of it.
But honestly, he deserves much more.
And soon.
Stay tuned.
Dana Caldwell is the NDN beat writer for Florida Gulf Coast University athletics and can be followed on Twitter at @NDN_DCaldwell