Shaka Smart is a cool, meaningful and alliterative name, and that coolness and its bearer have Knox County history.
Named in honor of a Zulu warrior king, the former Kenyon College star guard and current Marquette University men’s college basketball coach made it a household name nationally in 2011, but it was a local one a dozen years before that.
Nationally, Smart guided Virginia Commonwealth University to an improbable and inspired run to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament that year. Although Butler ended the Rams’ dream of cutting down the nets (Butler defeated VCU 70-62) in the semifinals, Smart’s squad notched upset victories over Southern California, Georgetown, Purdue, Florida State and Kansas in earlier rounds.
Smart coached VCU four more seasons, posting 109 wins and four NCAA tournament berths along the way. In 2015, Smart replaced Rick Barnes at Texas. During his 6-year stint in Austin, the Longhorns went 109-86 with three NCAA tourney appearances. Last season, Smart led Marquette to a 19-13 campaign in his debut with the Golden Eagles.
His overall record as a head coach is 291-55 over 13 seasons. However, well before Smart became known as a respected coach in big-time college hoops, he laid the foundation for his success at Kenyon College.
The Madison, Wis., native was no passing fancy for the Owls, graduating as the school’s all-time assists leader with 542 dimes as a four-year point guard. During his senior year in 1999, Smart was an All-North Coast Athletic Conference selection and the NCAA Scholar Athlete of the Year.
He also earned national recognition that year as a USA Today All-USA Academic team member (only 20 athletes were chosen in the country). Smart graduated magna cum laude with a degree in history.
Turning down opportunities to attend Harvard and Yale as a student-athlete, Smart made an appropriately smart decision for him.
“It wasn’t so much about my career, it was just more about shaping me,” Smart said in an interview with the Kenyon Collegian in a 2017 article. “And, you know, Kenyon is a place where you learn to love learning. So for me in my career and in my life, I have just been fortunate that I really enjoy learning new things and having new experiences. I would definitely trace that back to Kenyon.”
Smart credits Bill Brown, in particular, who recruited and coached him during his freshman year at Kenyon College, as a major influence in his life.
“Well, before I even got to Kenyon, [Kenyon College professor] Peter Rutkoff called me,” Smart said in the aforementioned Kenyon Collegian article. “And, you know, the basketball coach at the time, Bill Brown, asked him to call me, and so he called me and he was supposed to talk to me about Kenyon and why it would be a good spot for me.
“But we ended up talking on the phone for like 30 or 40 minutes about the Civil War and the civil rights movement, and all kinds of history stuff, so I could tell from the beginning he was going to be a good friend.”
Brown hired Smart as an assistant at California University of Pennsylvania to begin the latter’s coaching career. Assistant coaching jobs followed at Akron, Clemson and Florida.
At 45, life is good off the court for Smart as well. In 2006, he married his wife, Maya, an author and early literacy advocate who holds degrees from Northwestern and Harvard. Their daughter, Zora, was born in 2011.
Now coaching back in his home state, Smart’s focus is ensuring that tradition-rich Marquette has sustained success. A few deep tourney runs reminiscent of VCU’s magical season in 2011 wouldn’t hurt either.
Regardless of results, the Kenyon College community watches one of its own, buoyed by the knowledge that Smart credits the Owls for shaping him and his future.
