‘He does things people don’t see.’ Gonzaga’s Ryan Nembhard has devoted fans in Pacific coach Dave Smart, youngest son

STOCKTON, Calif. – Dave Smart and his family members were likely supplied with a closet’s worth of Pacific apparel when the 59-year-old was hired to coach the Tigers last March.

Even with all the black and orange clothing items at their disposal, Smart expected his youngest son, Gabriel, to go in a different direction for Saturday’s home West Coast Conference matchup with Gonzaga – the only meeting between the schools during the regular season.

“When Gonzaga comes here, my youngest son will not be wearing Pacific, he’ll be wearing Gonzaga gear,” Smart said in a phone interview last summer, probably before realizing Gabriel wouldn’t catch the majority of Saturday’s game due to his AAU basketball obligations. “His favorite basketball player is Andrew Nembhard and no one’s convincing him otherwise. Because of that, he’ll be pulling for Gonzaga and Ryan. Hopefully, when Ryan graduates, I can convince him – he’ll pull for Pacific in every other game, but when we play Gonzaga, he’s a Gonzaga fan.”

Smart can’t fault his son for the Nembhard affinity, namely because Pacific’s first-year coach has one of his own. He may not have readily admitting that to players as the Tigers scouted Gonzaga’s point guard on film leading up to Saturday’s game at the Spanos Center – a 78-61 win for the visiting Zags that saw Ryan Nembhard break his school single-season assists record.

“You want to win, but you still respect and enjoy watching the talents of someone,” Smart said. “(Nembhard) just does so many things that people don’t see on both sides of the ball.”

Before spending one season as an assistant for Grant McCasland at Texas Tech, Smart enjoyed unprecedented success at Canadian college powerhouse Carleton University, based in Ottawa, Ontario. During the early stages of his historic run at the school, Smart was introduced to father Claude Nembhard through an AAU connection, establishing a friendship that’s grown the past two decades.

When Smart was assigned to coach Canada’s U-18 team at the 2018 FIBA Americas Championship, he relied on sure-handed Andrew Nembhard to run the show from the point guard position.

“We stay extremely close and my kids love him,” Smart said. “If you go into my kid’s room, it’s all Andrew Nembhard.”

Gabriel Smart, who plays youth basketball for Lakeshow, a Bay Area-based AAU club, arrived in time to catch the end of Saturday’s game. Afterward, he snagged a few minutes and photographs with Ryan Nembhard after Gonzaga’s point guard broke the school’s assists record for the second time in as many seasons.

“He’s so good to us and the whole family is,” Pacific’s coach said of Ryan. “He came out after the game to see the boys, which was really nice of him.”

Smart attended an Eastern Conference semifinal game between Andrew’s Indiana Pacers and the New York Knicks with members of the Nembhard family last season. At WCC Media Day, Pacific’s coach was disappointed Ryan wasn’t one of the three GU players chosen to join the team in Las Vegas.

“Claude and I talk almost every other day,” Smart said.

The mutual respect goes both ways.

Ryan Nembhard, who had seven points, eight assists and four rebounds on Saturday, was complimentary of Smart earlier in the week. Smart, the winner of 656 games at Carleton, also claimed 13 collegiate championships during an 18-year run with the school.

“They scheduled NCAA teams, they played them well. They beat some of them, so he’s a legend in Canada and he’s a great guy,” Nembhard said. “My family’s super connected to him.”

After one year on the staff at Texas Tech, Smart moved on to one of the most difficult jobs in the WCC, if not the country, when he agreed to replace Leonard Perry just one month after the Tigers hit rock bottom with a winless conference record. The early phases of Smart’s rebuild have yielded better results and it took Pacific just 24 games to eclipse last year’s win total, with three WCC wins entering Saturday’s contest.

“I think he’s doing a great job as a first-year coach over there and they’ve got more wins than last year,” said Nembhard, who also has relationships with other members of Smart’s staff. “So he’s doing a pretty good job up there.”

Smart’s experience following the WCC predates the extended Nembhard era at Gonzaga.

During one of his first coaching stints with Canada Basketball, Smart served as an assistant for the Developmental Men’s National Team at the 2013 Four Nations’ Invitational Tournament. There, he was tabbed to help a roster that included three former GU players: Kyle Wiltjer, Kevin Pangos and Mangisto Arop, who spent two seasons in Spokane before transferring to Indiana State.

In 2015, Smart was an assistant at the FIBA World Cup, where Canada’s roster featured former Zags Kelly Olynyk and Robert Sacre, along with Melvin Ejim, an older brother of current GU women’s standout Yvonne Ejim.

“Because of (the Nembhard connection) and my relationship with Kelly and his father, my family and I followed this conference pretty closely,” Smart said.

Just for good measure, throw in one more Gonzaga connection.

Jay Triano, the former Canadian national team coach who employed Smart as an assistant, is the father of former Gonzaga walk-on Dustin Triano.

Jay resides just 50 miles away from Smart, serving as an associate head coach for the Sacramento Kings, where his days are spent coaching Domantas Sabonis and working alongside ex-GU director of analytics/Kings assistant Riccardo Fois.

“I got here and the first day I was here, I was at the Kings game,” Smart said. “Then my family came for the press conference and we went to the Kings game. Then they had their play-in game at home and Jay’s texting me at 2 in the afternoon going, ‘Are you guys not coming up for the game?’ I’m going, ‘I’ve got to find some players.’ ”