LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- One of the first University of Louisville basketball players that Kenny Payne met when he arrived on campus in the summer of 1985 was Cardinal legend Derek Smith.
They shared Southern roots: Smith from Georgia and Payne from Mississippi. They played the same position: forward. And they were committed to success.
Payne and Smith played against each other at the offseason league that once raged every summer at Atherton High School. Payne, the new head basketball coach at Louisville, will tell you that nobody prepared him for the challenges of college basketball more than Derek Smith.
“Derek was like my big brother,” Payne once told me. “He was family.”
Nobody who knows the history of the Payne and Smith friendship is surprised by the news that Smith’s son, Nolan, has told Duke University that he will not return to the Blue Devils' coaching staff next season. A source close to the U of L program said Smith is considering an offer to become associate head coach on Payne's staff at Louisville, but a decision has not been finalized. Smith has been given time to think through the move.
Smith, 33, just completed his first season as a full-time assistant coach at Duke after serving five seasons as a special assistant and director of operations. Smith was an essential contributor to the top-ranked, six-player class that Duke has signed for next season, a class that features four five-star prospects as well as a pair of four-stars.
Duke, of course, just saw its NCAA Tournament run end Saturday night when the Blue Devils were defeated by North Carolina at the national semifinals in New Orleans.
Duke returned to Durham, North Carolina, on Sunday as the program began the transition from the end of Mike Krzyzewski’s four-decade Hall of Fame reign as the Blue Devils coach to the start of the program being led by Jon Scheyer, Coach K’s choice as his successor.
Smith and Scheyer were four-year teammates at Duke. During their senior year, they formed the starting backcourt and led the Blue Devils to the 2010 NCAA title in Indianapolis
Smith, who attended Kentucky Country Day school during the years his family lived in Louisville, averaged better than 13 points per game while starting 98 games over his Duke career.
He was a first-round NBA pick of the Portland Trailblazers in 2010. Smith played two seasons in the NBA before finishing his professional career in the G-League and overseas.
Derek Smith started at forward on Louisville’s 1980 NCAA title team as well as on the U of L team that advanced to the 1982 Final Four. He remains the No. 7 scorer in Louisville history with 1,826 points. He played nine seasons in the NBA before multiple knee injuries forced his retirement.
He coached two seasons with the Washington Bullets before his tragic death in August 1996. Smith suffered a heart attack while on a team cruise with his family. He was buried in Cave Hill Cemetery. Nolan Smith’s mother, Monica, is a Louisville native and U of L graduate, and his sister, Sydney, is also a U of L alum.
One of Derek Smith’s career goals was to return to Louisville as a basketball coach. Now his son, Nolan, is in line to fulfill that dream.
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