PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas – Former University of Houston basketball star Byron Smith was named the new head coach of the Prairie View A&M men's basketball team.
The former UH and Texas A&M assistant coach had served as the Panthers' interim head coach for the last 11 games of the 2015-16 regular season. Prairie View went 6-5 in those games, despite have five walk-on players on the team, two of whom started. One of those wins came against Texas Southern, the Southwestern Athletic Conference regular season champion Texas.
Smith agreed to a three-year contract.
His coaching career includes stints as an assistant at UH under Clyde Drexler and at Texas A&M under Billy Gillispie and Mark Turgeon. He helped recruit DeAndre Jordan to Texas A&M while with the Aggies, a player who was later drafted in the second round by the Los Angeles Clippers after one year with the team.
As a player, Smith helped lead the Cougars to an NCAA tournament berth his junior year and an NIT berth as a senior. After a career overseas, he worked in Houston and internationally as a personal trainer and individual basketball instructor.
