Smith talks coaching college basketball

On Jan. 20, the Marion Star & Mullins Enterprise ran a story on former Mullins basketball player Cedric Smith, who is now an assistant coach at Radford University.
This week, the Star & Enterprise gives Smith an opportunity to provide a vivid perspective to the coaching experience and his details of his ongoing journey.

S&E: How has the experience been going from player to coach?

Smith: The experience has been great and I have been fortunate enough to learn from some great coaches.

It started early for me in the backyard of Mullins High School coach Mark Gerald's house on a dirt court. My love for the game came from a disdain for losing. My discipline and determination came from the fear of losing.

Coach Gerald inspired me to be a better person, a better teammate and a better player. I still have every letter that coach has ever written me, telling me what I needed to do to become the player I wanted to be.

Then their was Fletcher Arritt my prep-school coach at Fork Union Military Academy.

He re-enforced discipline, order, unity, faith and an ideal concept that skill and heart overcomes all talent. He simplified the game by challenging his players to think and to play a complex but simple motion offense that still causes havoc for opposing teams. He made the game simple.

Michael Madagan my former assistant coach at South Florida and my former boss at Saint Leo University taught me the business side of the game. He showed me how to manage my time, multi-task and how to get more done with less.

I thank him for getting me started and on the right path.

Then my former college coach Seth Greenberg (Virginia Tech) is one of the most passionate coaches you could ever meet. He takes passion and love to a level few have reached. Not to mention he is a defensive mind.

He taught me what playing hard was. He taught us to give more than what we had and then some.

Then my current boss Brad Greenberg (brother of Seth Greenberg) is a melting pot. He has been around the block and back. He has coached at almost every level imagined. He has been at the highest level of the game. He was in the NBA as a coach and a general manager. He’s been an assistant in the ACC and has helped Radford University become one of the up and coming programs in NCAA Division I.

His knowledge for the game and his offensive genius is rivaled only by a man who has the ability to catch a bird with his mouth. Which I think is pretty impressive.

So if you asked me if the experience is everything I imagined, the answer is no. It is more than everything that I imagined. You can’t pay for the experience that I have recieved.

S&E: Do you have an personal goals you still have any goal you’re working towards accomplishing?

Smith: My goals are simple. One day I want to be a head coach and I want to feel like I have positively affected young men through the game of basketball.

S&E: What positions did you play at University of South Florida and do you still hit the court for a game?

Smith: I played shooting guard and small forward in college and I do not get to play as much as I would like.

S&E: This past season Radford University played the National Champions University of North Carolina in the first round of the NCAA tournament. what was that like?

Smith: The NCAA tourney was a good experience because I was never fortunate enough to make it as a player but have made it now twice as a coach. The first time as a strength and conditiong coach at Virginia Tech and the second as an assistant coach at Radford.

The experience has taught me to enjoy the moment because you never know when you will get that opportunity again.