It was reported by Jon Rothstein in the morning on Wednesday and then made official in the afternoon: Marquette men’s basketball assistant coach Nevada Smith will be leaving Milwaukee and heading to upstate New York as the new head coach for Siena.
“My family and I could not be more excited to arrive in the Capital Region and become a part of the Siena community,” said Smith. “I am honored and humbled to be able to lead this program, and build upon the momentum created by
Gerry McNamara, his staff, and the great players who have proudly worn the Siena jersey throughout the years. I would like to thank President Seifert, John D’Argenio, and the search committee for having the trust in me to lead this storied program. I can’t wait to get to work. GO SAINTS!” The 45-year-old Smith arrives in Loudonville with 22 years of coaching experience spanning both the collegiate and professional ranks. The West Leechburg, Pennsylvania native has previously served eight seasons as a head coach in both the NBA G League and at the NCAA Division III level. Smith spent the past six transformative seasons at the power-conference level, working on staff for Shaka Smart at both Marquette (2021-26) and Texas (2020-21). Smith served the past three seasons as an assistant coach for the Golden Eagles (2023-26), after first arriving in Milwaukee as the Special Assistant to the Head Coach from 2021-23. He was the Director of Player Development in his lone season with the Longhorns, helping Texas secure the Big 12 Tournament Championship and a peak ranking of top-five nationally.
I love it when these press releases include obvious phrases that are clearly regularly said things in the local area but definitely not well known outside the area. “Capital Region” is definitely one of those, never in a million years would I, a noted life long Wisconsinite, have come up with saying that about the Albany area.
ANYWAY
As you can see from the press release information, Nevada Smith was hired by Shaka Smart when he was still the head coach at Texas. When Smart made the move to Milwaukee, Smith came with to engineer the Golden Eagles’ offense. Smith’s “Dunks, Layups, and Threes Only” style made MU incredibly efficient, as MU posted top 70 offenses in that regard in each of Smart’s first four years with Marquette, and top 40 in 2023, 2024, and 2025. The peak was in 2023 when the Marquette squad that won a Big East regular season title and a Big East tournament title finished the season ranked #7 in the country in offensive efficiency.
Even when the shot making failed Marquette, the shot decision making by the players was still tremendous. Look no further than this past year when Shot Quality rated MU #12 in the country in Shot Selection but #287 in Shot Making. Smith’s system was working to get the players the best shots that you could want to take from an analytics perspective, the shots just were not going in.
I think it’s easy to say that losing Nevada Smith to his first head coaching job since he was in the G League in 2019 is kind of a big deal. If Smith was integral to Marquette’s offensive approach, then the question becomes who will be making those decisions going forwards during Shaka Smart’s tenure as head coach. There’s nothing stopping Smart from continuing on in that general efficiency direction of course, it’s just that someone else will be holding the reins and directing things, and that change can lead to a change in results.
With that said, there’s clearly an upside to a change on the Marquette coaching staff at this point in time. The Golden Eagles are coming off a season with the fewest wins since 1991 and one short of tying the 60+ year old program record for losses in a season. New voices are needed in the men’s basketball office at 770 North 12th Street, and if a new voice can be inserted into the room by way of one of the assistants moving on to a head coaching job, that’s the best possible version of a change.
And so, as Nevada Smith starts to put together his first team at Siena and pick up where Gerry McNamara left off after the program’s first NCAA tournament appearance since 2010, we look forward to see how Shaka Smart impacts his program by filling the vacancy that Smith leaves behind…..
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