SWAC Basketball: Top 10 head coaches of the century (2000-20)

4. Byron Smith – Prairie View A&M (2016-2020)

There’s plenty to comment about Smith’s interesting coaching career before winding up at Prairie View. He spent time as an assistant under head coaches like Mark Turgeon and Clyde Drexler, briefly helping the latter at their alma mater of Houston. He briefly coached the Harlem Globetrotter and spent a number of years in AAU ball. He took over the Panthers program in early 2016 after predecessor Byron Rimm was let go.

Following two and a half seasons as an assistant, this Panthers program now belonged to Smith and he got to work. After a sixth-place finish during that interim season, he’s responded in a major way, leading the Panthers to back-to-back SWAC regular-season titles and a 2019 NCAA Tournament appearance. Smith is 59-24 in conference play since taking over and likely had another Tournament team had the SWAC Tournament not been canceled this past March.

Smith has made Prairie View A&M the team to beat in the SWAC and his work has been impressive. Perhaps he’s set himself up for a more high-profile coaching job in the future, but there’s no reason to speculate. All we can do is look at the work he’s done, turning these Panthers into conference champions and setting themselves up for the future.