Sunday, April 28, 2024

Charlotte Smith Achieves Milestone 200th Win as Head Coach of Elon Phoenix

charlotte smith basketball

She remembers crossing the dates off of her calendar with a black Sharpie, counting the days until she could come home. After claiming the ACC tournament title, UNC was tabbed as the No. 3 seed in the East regional, behind Vanderbilt and No. 1 Connecticut. After dispatching Georgia Southern and Old Dominion to make the round of 16, the Tar Heels eliminated the region’s top two seeds to claim the program’s first Women’s Final Four appearance in Richmond.

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A respect for her elders and a strong faith in God were at the heart of Smith's upbringing in Shelby, where she and her three brothers were raised in the embrace of a large extended family. She helped her grandmother Ida learn to read, and she sang in the choir and played keyboards by ear in the New Life Christian Center, where her father, Ulysses, preached on Sundays. "If her parents are supposed to be in the stands for a game and are late, Charlotte isn't worth a darn until they get there."

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"It is amazing to see so many things have come to fruition with our program," Smith said. "A lot of that starts with the way we talk and think about the program. My thing is, you win in your mind before you win in real life. Then she took over at Elon, and had winning records her first five years. But everything came together last season, when the Phoenix went 27-7. As the North Carolina Sports Hall of Famer tells her players, "You win in your mind before you win in real life." [applause] Her incredible performance of 23 rebounds and 20 points and her buzzer-beating three-point shot led UNC to victory in the 1994 NCAA Women's Basketball Championship.

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Smith was positioned near inbounds passer Stephanie Lawrence to the left of the lane. Three Louisiana Tech players converged on Sampson, and Smith dashed to the right wing and was wide open. With one legendary shot, Charlotte Smith cemented her spot in Carolina women’s basketball history, but not without some anxious moments and confusion coming out of the huddle. After her collegiate eligibility ended in 1995, Smith joined a professional basketball club in Italy. She was named Most Valuable Player of the Italian league's All-Star game for the 1995–1996 season.

However, she is better known for her lengthy and successful career at North Carolina State. Charlotte Smith (born August 23, 1973) is a forward for the Charlotte Sting. In the fall of 1996, the American Basketball League (ABL) was formed as the first independent professional basketball league for women in the U.S. "Women's basketball was not highly televised, so it was hard to see role models," Smith said in a phone interview this week after a workout at Elon, where she coaches now. "I didn't have any female role models to look up to with regard to having an opportunity to play professionally. So, as a little girl, I always thought that I would play in the NBA and never imagined there being a chance for a WNBA. She graduated from Shelby High, and grew up watching her uncle, David Thompson, become one of the best players in the country in his time at NC State.

"When I'm in a silly mood," says junior guard Tonya Cooper, "I can always count on Charlotte to be silly with me." "After we tied up the ball, I remember so vividly looking up at the clock, and my heart sank," Smith said. "I was thinking, 'What can you do in seven-tenths of a second?' I felt like we had lost the game. I felt this deep sense of grief overcome me." And Smith remains close with her mentor, North Carolina's Sylvia Hatchell, who is approaching her 1,000th career win.

charlotte smith basketball

More Title IX pioneers from North Carolina

So well that she was the second woman to dunk in a women's basketball game. Smith, who was selected to the ACC’s 50th Anniversary Team, also became the first woman to dunk a basketball in competition during her senior year. So, when the talented 6-footer enrolled at North Carolina, of course she had to wear No. 23, too.

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Charlotte Smith (born August 23, 1973)[1] is a retired American professional women's basketball player for the Charlotte Sting, Washington Mystics and Indiana Fever in the WNBA, and for the Colorado Xplosion and San Jose Lasers in the ABL. She is currently the women's basketball head coach at Elon University. Thompson also told her that repeating as NCAA champion will be twice as hard as winning the first time. "Everyone will be gunning for you," said Thompson, whose Wolfpack failed to make the tournament as defending champions his senior year.

years later, UNC women's basketball great Charlotte Smith's iconic shot lives on

The Phoenix lost three starters from that team but returned leading scorer Shay Burnett, a guard who's one of three seniors for Elon. Those seniors are kept busy mentoring six freshmen and three sophomores; there are no juniors. Burnett is the team's second-leading scorer (13.4 PPG) behind 6-foot-4 sophomore center Ra'Shika White (14.3 PPG). She was actually the first full-time women’s college coach in the state of North Carolina, when Yow was hired to be the volleyball, women’s basketball and slow-pitch softball coach at State. Smith also represented the U.S. internationally, most notably winning a gold medal and MVP honors in the 1996 Jones Cup. She also played in the 1995 World University Games and was a member of the South Team in the 1993 U.S.

"A lot of people don't recall this, but I couldn't throw the ball in the ocean in the first half of that game. I had zero points, and I took quite a few shots. "I've gone back and watched that game quite a few times," Smith said. "You get down to the last 4½ minutes of the game, and we're right there. Then we let a player get loose in transition twice for 3-pointers. After being the star of her Shelby High school team, she headed to the University of North Carolina. Yow, a native of Gibsonville and a graduate of East Carolina, has a kinship with Smith in terms of career, as Yow was also the head coach at Elon from 1971 to ‘75.

charlotte smith basketball

Smith was selected fifth overall in the 1991 NBA draft by the Miami Heat, a young expansion team which featured other young players such as Glen Rice, Rony Seikaly and Brian Shaw. Smith played in 61 games in his rookie season, starting in 59 with averages of 12 points a game and 4.6 assists. The young team made the playoffs to face the top seeded defending champion Chicago Bulls, who swept the Heat in 3 games in the first round. Injuries limited Smith to 48 games in the 1992–93 season, but he increased his scoring average to 16 points a game. The following 2002–03 season would mark Smith's final year in San Antonio, while second-year point guard Tony Parker blossomed into the team's second leading scorer. The same was the case for guard Stephen Jackson who consequently came to serve as the team's main starting shooting guard, with Smith starting in just 18 games for the season as a result of injuries limiting him to just 58 total games.

One of them was Cynthia Cooper, who would become a four-time WNBA Finals MVP. Smith is well known for his charitable pursuits, including a US$2.5 million gift in 1997 to his alma mater, Michigan State University, where he was a star guard under coach Jud Heathcote. Smith's donation helped to fund the Clara Bell Smith Student Athlete Academic Center, which is named for his mother. This was the largest single donation by a professional athlete to his former school in history.[10]Smith also has a close philanthropic relationship with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta where he has hosted fundraising events for the pediatric hospital. Does that mean that this year she will finally move up and join that great fraternity above the rim? "Maybe even on the last play of the championship game. After all, I've got to have something to top last year's finish."

"I didn't know a lot of the greats because we were not on television," Smith said of the lack of women's coverage. But, she added, with increased exposure there's a bigger fan base and more support, which leads to growth of the game. The win completed a huge turnaround for the UNC program, which finished 12–16 and last in the ACC the season before Smith arrived. Tech players defensively, and I was able to just backpedal out scot-free,” Smith said. She was briefly affiliated with the Indiana Fever at the start of the 2006 season. If you are having difficulty accessing any content on this website, please visit our Accessibility page.

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