{"id":2934,"date":"2016-04-29T13:43:38","date_gmt":"2016-04-29T17:43:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=2934"},"modified":"2025-10-20T09:33:38","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T13:33:38","slug":"hes-got-smarts-court-classroom","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/hes-got-smarts-court-classroom\/","title":{"rendered":"He\u2019s Got Smarts – On the Court and In the Classroom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n\n \n \n \n \n
\n\n \n
\n
\n\n

\n He\u2019s Got Smarts – On the Court and In the Classroom\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

When the architect of the Carleton Ravens\u2019 ascendancy as the top men\u2019s basketball program in Canada decided to take a well-earned sabbatical during the 2015-\u201816 season, the perfect substitute was waiting in the wings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only is longtime assistant coach Rob Smart a former all-star guard with the Ravens and the nephew of head coach Dave Smart, he\u2019s also a professor at the Sprott School of Business whose main research interests are teamwork and organizational change.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much crossover between business and basketball,\u201d says Rob Smart, who coached Carleton to its sixth straight Canadian Interuniversity Sport championship this spring, the team\u2019s 12th national title in the last 14 years. \u201cBoth worlds revolve around the same things: teamwork, motivation, competition, conflict, decision-making, culture and community.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cIn a lot of places, performance gets hidden. But in business and sports, you\u2019ve got stock prices and a win-loss record. That type of direct evaluation might make some people uncomfortable, but others gravitate towards it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smart brings lessons from the basketball court into the classroom, and his work as a researcher informs his approach as a coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI did go a bit \u2018academic\u2019 on the players a few times this season,\u201d he says about inheriting a squad that was supposed to be in rebuilding mode and not ready to challenge for another championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI talked to them about how we learn as individuals and the way we learn as a team. To me, that\u2019s more important than anything we did against a specific opponent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

[wide-image image=”2944″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smart grew up in Napanee, Ont., a hockey and baseball town west of Kingston. He played a lot of different sports as a kid, but around Grade 6 or 7, basketball took over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His parents had both played the game; one of his grandfathers, Bob Cooney, played for Tufts University in the NCAA in the 1940s; uncle Dave was a star at Queen\u2019s University; his sister Jessica played for Carleton; and his cousins, the Doornekamps, lived 10 minutes away and loved basketball as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smart and his brother Mike (who also went on to play for the Ravens) went to the same high school as three Doornekamp boys (including Aaron and Ben, both former Ravens). They had some very strong teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After high school, Smart enrolled at Vancouver\u2019s Simon Fraser University, where the men\u2019s basketball team played in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics against American schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Rob was at SFU, Dave Smart was an assistant coach at Carleton, and Rob\u2019s father became an assistant at Queen\u2019s. Rob was planning to join whoever got a head coaching position first. Dave got the job with the Ravens, and Rob came to Ottawa for three seasons, helping the Ravens win their first national title in 2002-\u201803, his final year as a player.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although SFU had a lot of talent, Rob says the players never really came together as a team. At Carleton, with not only his brother and cousins on the squad, but also a lot of guys who knew one another through Ontario\u2019s provincial basketball program, Dave Smart created an enduring family-like atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe could criticize each other and tell anybody anything,\u201d says Rob. \u201cIt pushed guys to be better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cComing from SFU, I felt a difference right away. Dave really set the culture. These days, we draw great players from a lot of different parts of Canada, but if they\u2019re not working as hard as they should be working, people point that out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

[wide-image image=”2946″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After games, Rob would regularly walk into Dave\u2019s office with a list of dozens of things that had gone wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That openness to criticism is a crucial component of a team\u2019s ability to learn and adapt, according to Harvard Business School leadership and management professor, Amy Edmondson, whose book \u201cTeaming\u201d has been a big influence on Smart.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cTeaming blends relating to people, listening to other points of view, co-ordinating actions and making shared decisions,\u201d writes Edmondson. \u201cEffective teaming requires everyone to remain vigilantly aware of others\u2019 needs, roles and perspectives.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Leaders, she writes, succeed when they empower rather than control, when they ask the right questions instead of providing the right answers, and when they \u201cfocus on flexibility, rather than insist on adherence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Smart\u2019s playing days with the Ravens and undergraduate business degree were finished, he became an assistant coach and began working toward an MBA with Sprott Prof. Linda Duxbury as his adviser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His master\u2019s thesis, she recalls, explored whether varsity athletes have a higher emotional quotient (EQ) than fellow students. He believed they did, but the data said no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think he was crushed,\u201d laughs Duxbury, who was struck by how laid-back, thoughtful and considerate Smart was as a student, noting that his players might not always see those sides of his personality. \u201cHe has a very good ability to connect with people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After finishing his MBA, Smart went to Europe with his backpack, but this was no ordinary gap year. He also brought a basketball and slept on friends\u2019 couches and the occasional gym floor while travelling from city to city, hoping to catch on with a professional team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019d be surprised,\u201d says Smart, \u201chow many gyms were unlocked.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He ended up playing for half a season in Germany, then returned to Ottawa and signed on to do a PhD with Duxbury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA Longitudinal Case Study of a Public-Sector Change Team,\u201d his doctorial thesis, probed the effectiveness of a change team used by the federal government during the first wave of its move toward shared information technology services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s interested in organizational change,\u201d says Duxbury, \u201cbut his real love is studying teams. There\u2019s a teamwork theme to just about everything he does, even when he was studying change for his PhD.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

[wide-image image=”2945″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smart was able to tap into his expertise on both teamwork and change when he took on the head coaching job this past season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2015-\u201816 Ravens had lost a lot of key players to graduation. To Smart, a rookie bench boss, this reduced the pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEverybody on the inside understood that a bunch of people had a huge opportunity to step up,\u201d he says. \u201cNobody expected us to win, so there was also a lot of motivation to prove people wrong. You could see that in our level of focus, especially after games we lost, which we looked at as great opportunities to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt can\u2019t be a fluke,\u201d Duxbury says about the incredible Ravens run over the last 14 seasons. \u201cThere have been a lot of different players over the years, but so much success, some of which has to be attributed to the coaching style and philosophy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s rare for a Canadian university head coach to also be a faculty member. While filling in for Dave, who\u2019ll be back this fall, Rob took a break from his research on work-life balance, elder care and mobile technology, but maintained his regular teaching load: BUSI 4111 (Training and Development), BUSI 2101 (Organizational Behaviour) and BUSI 3602 (Designing Organizational Systems).<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cOur business school is very privileged to have somebody who practises leadership and teamwork as a coach and brings it into the classroom,\u201d says Sprott Dean Jerry Tomberlin. \u201cHe\u2019s doing the applied version, and also teaching it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cHe has a unique ability to help individuals reach their greatest potential and, at the same time, help their organization excel and reach the top. That\u2019s not always easy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In BUSI 4111, which Smart helms with Prof. Troy Anderson, fourth-year students learn about pedagogy, about what works and doesn\u2019t work in the classroom, and go on to teach large groups of second-year students.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable how much confidence the fourth-year students have at the end,\u201d says Smart. \u201cThe biggest thing we preach: if you\u2019re in this, you\u2019re in this for the right reason \u2014 to develop other people.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Tyson Hinz, a former Ravens star now playing professional basketball in the Netherlands, was one of those BUSI 4111 students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was able to view the teaching version of Rob as well as the coaching version,\u201d he says. \u201cDespite being in two different environments, Rob\u2019s core values were apparent both on the basketball court and in the classroom. He wanted the success of his students in the same way as he wants the success for his players on the court.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the architect of the Carleton Ravens\u2019 ascendancy as the top men\u2019s basketball program in Canada decided to take a well-earned sabbatical during the 2015-\u201816 season, the perfect substitute was waiting in the wings. Not only is longtime assistant coach Rob Smart a former all-star guard with the Ravens and the nephew of head coach […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[18],"cu_story_tag":[1928,1922],"class_list":["post-2934","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","hentry","cu_story_type-athletics-recreation","cu_story_tag-athletics","cu_story_tag-sprott-school-of-business"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/2934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/2934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97717,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/2934\/revisions\/97717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=2934"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=2934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}