UDC names new men's basketball coach
September 8, 2005
Washington, DC—University of the District
of Columbia President William L. Pollard, today,
announced the appointment of Julius L. Smith,
Jr. as the University’s new men’s
basketball head coach. This appointment marks
the reinstatement of the UDC Firebirds men’s
basketball program, which was suspended for
the 2004-05 season because of concerns about
reported ineligibility issues.
Coach Smith, a native Washingtonian, graduated
from Archbishop John Carroll High School in
1973. He then went on to attend Morehouse College
in Atlanta, Georgia, from which he graduated
in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology.
After graduating from college, Smith served
in various athletic related capacities, including
working as assistant coach at several colleges.
His last coaching position was at Indiana University
where he was an assistant to Head Coach Mike
Davis, during the 2000-01 season. He most recently
served as a consultant to various school athletic
departments.
Smith also served as an assistant basketball
coach at Southeastern Louisiana University
during the 1999-2000 season and as an assistant
at Tulane University from 1991 to 1999. Prior
to his tenure in Louisiana, he served as an
assistant to Charles “Lefty” Driesell
at James Madison University from 1989 to 1991.
Other capacities in which he served include
assistant basketball coach at Mississippi State
(1986-1989), administrator to athletic director
and assistant basketball coach at West Georgia
College (1982-1986), assistant basketball coach
at Georgia State University (1981-1982), and
assistant basketball coach at Georgia Technical
Institute (1980-81). Smith barely escaped hurricane
Katrina as he left Now Orleans, and was unable
to save any household goods.
Smith is confident that he will be able to
rehabilitate the UDC program by drawing on
experience from his work at Tulane University,
where the basketball program there had been
suspended for one year prior to his arrival,
because of NCAA violations. He assisted the
new head coach to rebuild that program and
plans to use the same philosophy here at UDC
to restore respectability to its basketball
program. He said, “I remember when UDC
was winning championships and had great athletes.
I don’t know if I will be able to duplicate
the successes of the past, but I want to take
the program in that direction.”
Smith also said, “I want consistency
from the team, and that I want them to do it
the right way. I expect and will demand that
my student –athletes be solid citizens
who want to go to class”. He used Tulane’s
basketball athlete graduation rates as an example,
saying that “its athletes had a higher
rate of graduation than its non-athletes.” He
has no specific expectations for this year’s
teams beyond meeting academic requirements,
because he isn’t sure of the number or
caliber of players he is inheriting.
Although he has never played competitive basketball,
he feels his exposure to excellent basketball
programs such as Archbishop John Carroll’s
has helped nurture and prepare him for the
task at hand. He cites the fact that he and
Washington Wizard Head Coach Eddie Jordan were
classmates and that he watched the Carroll
team intently and learned much about basketball
from that experience. He and Coach Jordan have
maintained their very good friendship through
the years.
Dr. Pollard says “he is confident that
Coach Smith will help stabilize and restore
the UDC Men’s basketball program to respectability
under the leadership of Interim Athletics Director
Kelly A. Higgins.” Higgins was brought
in November of 2004, to oversee the athletics
program and put it on a sound footing. Higgins
says, “Coach Smith is a great fit to
help reconstruct and move this basketball program
forward the right way.
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