He's the winningest coach in Southland Conference women's basketball history. He's been part of the heartbeat of Northwestern for 23 years, and there is no doubt -- he bleeds purple. James Frank Smith.
He's known to some as "James", "Jimmy," or "Doc," or to his players as "the Big Man." He's in his 17th season as head women's basketball coach, and was the assistant coach from 1980-87 alongside Pat Pierson. Since Smith arrived, NSU is 456-206, including a homecourt record of 234-49. The Lady Demons have won five conference championships, including Southland titles in 1995 and 1999. Northwestern is one of the nation's top 32 winningest programs in women's basketball over the past five years. NSU's 256-67 all-time homecourt record reflects a .793 winning percentage that ranks 18th all-time in major college women's basketball. The Lady Demons have won 20 games or more in eight of the last 12 seasons. Northwestern has finished in the nation's top 10 in scoring eight times under his leadership. Four of his former Lady Demon assistants are Division I head coaches: Wendy Schueller (Eastern Washington), Gail Striegler (Central Florida), Sandy Pugh (Southern) and Mona Martin (Louisiana-Monroe). Smith led the Lady Demons to a 1989 NCAA Tournament at-large bid, the first at-large invitation received by a Southland Conference women's basketball program. He has coached Northwestern to four postseason tournaments (1989 NCAA, WNIT in 1993, 1995 and 1999) as the head coach and he helped Lady Demons get to the 1986 WNIT finals as an assistant coach. You might not know that he was a two-sport college athlete at Centenary, pitching for the baseball team and playing basketball. He was a good enough pitcher to get picked in the major league draft. He was also a U.S. Marine. His players won't be surprised at that. Maybe that's part of the reason that his team has always stayed on the court, instead of retreating to the locker room, for the national anthem. Traits he developed growing up in Spearsville, just south of the Louisiana-Arkansas border between El Dorado and Monroe, were polished in the Marines and remain ideals for his players today. There are basic principles for the Lady Demon family: be loyal. Work as hard as you can. Support each other 24/7. Show respect. Never quit. Have faith. Be classy. Be a great teammate. Have fun. If you know Smith, you've heard him laugh. You might have heard him tell rib-busting stories, perhaps about his days playing American Legion baseball with future NFL Most Valuable Player Bert Jones, or perhaps about going to watch his good friend Stan Humphries quarterback the San Diego Chargers in the Super Bowl, or sitting in a Lake Tahoe casino with Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley, among others. But the stories he likes best don't involve famous people. Smith -- whose world comes to a screeching halt when his 4-year-old granddaughter Sara is around -- loves most of all to tell tales about his players, his coaches, his close friends and his coaching buddies like Mike McConathy, Gary Blair, Vic Schaefer and Leon Barmore. Because for all of the wins, for all of the incredible accomplishments, for all of the odds he's overcome to build Lady Demon basketball into one of the nation's most successful programs, for James Smith it all comes down to "his kids" -- his players, and the world around them. If they respect him -- and they do -- and if he's pleased with them -- and most often, he is -- that's what he's after.
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