Grahm Smith enters his fourth season at Lenoir-Rhyne as he was named the 13th Women's Basketball Head Coach in program history on April 6, 2020. Smith led the program to just the third SAC Tournament Title in program history during the 2022-23 season, the first SAC Tournament won by the Bears since 2008-09.
Smith led the Bears to a 2023 NCAA Tournament appearance, just the program's seventh NCAA bid and first since 2014. The Bears warned the No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament, tied for the third-best seed in LR's NCAA Tournament history. Smith led the Bears to a 24-8 mark, the most wins by LR since winning 27 in 2008-09. Emily Harman became just the 24th player in program history to reach 1,000 career points and Harman was named to the All-Conference Second Team. Blaikley Crooks would go on to earn First Team All-Conference accolades as Smith has coached four players to All-SAC accolades.Â
In addition to being an All-SAC performer and a 1,000 point scorer, Harman was named the league's Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Smith also coached Harman to the SAC Freshman of the Year award in the duo's first season in 2020-21. Harman garnered SAC Tournament MVP honors in the 2023 championship run.
The Bears were one of the most improved teams in the nation, going from 11 wins in 2021-22 to the aforementioned 24 in 2022-23. Smith led the Bears to a season sweep of Anderson, beating the Trojans three times including in the SAC Tournament Championship game. LR opened the 2022-23 campaign with a win at Division I UNC Wilmington 57-46. LR also beat No. 10 Lander in the second game of the season and No. 21 Wingate as LR raced out to a 14-0 start. LR also knocked off Catawba twice while they were nationally ranked for four wins over nationally ranked teams in the season.Â
Prior to coming to LR, Smith built two programs he has coached to historic levels and owns a 69-9 all-time conference record. In just two seasons at William Peace, Smith led the Pacers to a 39-16 mark and was named the 2020 USA South Coach of the Year after guiding his team to a 15-1 record in USA South action and a 23-5 overall mark. Smith's Pacers became the first program in any sport at William Peace to earn a bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament and they won the USA South regular season title in the East Division for the first time in program history.
In his first year at WPU, Smith inherited a team that had won four games the prior year and was returning only three players. After adding 18 student-athletes in his first recruiting class, the Pacers went on to win 12 more games in his first season, finishing with a 16-11 mark. Not only did the program increase its win total, they also finished with the third-best record in program history, the second-best record in the last 12 years and had a winning record for just the second time in 12 seasons.
In total, Smith recruited and developed five all-conference players in his time with the Pacers.
Before taking over at William Peace, Smith served as the head women's coach at Dean College from 2013-18. During his tenure with the Bulldogs, Dean went 96-37 overall and 43-3 in conference play, while making three consecutive national tournament appearances. His 24-win season during the 2015-16 campaign was a single-season record for wins at Dean and he left as the winningest coach in program history.
He led Dean College to three consecutive NJCAA Division 2 Region XXI Championships, one Northeast District Championship, one New England Collegiate Conference Regular Season Championship and registered three consecutive National Tournament appearances, all firsts for the Dean College women's basketball program. Following the 2015-16 season, Smith was named the NJCAA Division 2 District N Coach of The Year.
During his tenure, Smith recruited and developed 11 First Team All-Conference selections, eight All-Americans and three Academic All-Americans.
In addition to his on-court success, Dean helped transition the Bulldogs from NJCAA to NCAA Division III. During both tenures, Smith has also held additional titles of Director of Student-Athlete Academic Success and Assistant Athletic Recruiting Coordinator to name a few.
Smith held assistant coaching positions at Rockford University (2008-13) and Palm Beach Atlantic University (2007-08). He was a two-year member of the men's basketball team at Palm Beach Atlantic and spent one year at Maryville College where he helped his team to a Sweet 16 appearance in the NCAA Division III Tournament.
Smith earned his bachelor's in physical education at Palm Beach Atlantic and his master's in education from Rockford University.
