Boston College hires Florida State assistant Steve Smith as assistant basketball coach

The Boston College Eagles men’s basketball team has hired Florida State Seminoles assistant coach Steve Smith to be an assistant for the Eagles, per Pete Thamel.

Smith spent five seasons at Florida State. He also served seven years as a coach with the Clemson Tigers, giving him extensive experience in the ACC. Prior to that, he also worked as an assistant at Georgia Southern and USC Upstate.

While at Clemson, Steve Smith worked alongside current Boston College head coach Earl Grant.

The 2024-25 season will be Grant’s fourth as the head coach at Boston College and he’s looking to take a step forward with the Eagles. To this point, he has a 49-53 record with Boston College, and last season was his first winning season with the program, with the Eagles making the second round of the NIT.

Smith, who has that connection going back to Clemson with Grant, is known for his strategic ability that should help the Eagles moving forward. Florida State even wrote that Grant has “proven to be one of the top in-game tacticians and recruiters in college basketball” in his online biography.

On top of all of that, Steve Smith is also recognized as an excellent recruiter as an assistant coach. That’s going to be key for the team moving forward.

While at Florida State, he served as the team’s lead recruiter. That included bringing in the 14th-ranked recruiting class in the country in the 2021 cycle while at Florida State, according to the On3 Industry Ranking. Smith has also been a key factor in developing players like K.J. McDaniels and Jaron Blossomgame.

This move comes following a 17-16 season where Florida State went 10-10 in the ACC. That was the 22nd season for the program under head coach Leonard Hamilton.

Among the best seasons for teams that Steve Smith coached were the 2014 Clemson Tigers that finished in the NIT semifinals, the 2018 Clemson team that went to the Sweet Sixteen, the 2020 Florida State team that was a favorite to win the national championship before the NCAA Tournament was canceled, and the 2021 Seminoles team that made it to the Sweet Sixteen.

As a player, Smith played at Morgan State from 1991 to 1994. He later joined the United States Army where he was a member of the All-Army basketball team and traveled the country playing games. He would later enter coaching as an assistant women’s basketball coach at Allen University.