TORONTO — When GLOBL JAM 2025 starts on Wednesday, it won’t just represent a homecoming for some of the athletes stepping onto the court.
Among those embracing the opportunity to compete on home soil will also be Dave Smart, who’ll serve as the Canadian men’s under-23 head coach for the showcase tournament from Aug. 13-17.
For the 59-year-old Smart — widely regarded as one of the most decorated Canadian college basketball coaches ever, having amassed over 650 victories while leading Carleton University to 13 U Sports national championships through 18 seasons — it’ll be his first time coaching for the red-and-white since moving to the NCAA ranks, where he now helms the University of the Pacific men’s program.
All of which has been part of a winding journey that’s led the Kingston, Ont. native back to Canada, where he’ll look to lead the men’s side to a first-ever GLOBL JAM gold medal in the event’s third iteration at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Mattamy Athletic Centre.
Sportsnet caught up with Smart to discuss his return to the Canadian sidelines, his goals moving forward with the national program, impressions heading into GLOBL JAM 2025 and much more.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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GLOBL JAM on Sportsnet
Top Canadian under-23 players are set to square off against international counterparts at GLOBL JAM this week in Toronto. Catch all of Canada’s games, along with the men’s and women’s final on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.
Sportsnet: How does it feel to be back coaching with the Canadian program for the first time in a while, and why was now the right time for your return?
Dave Smart: I’m excited to be back. I enjoyed my time with the program, my last stint with Jay (Triano, former senior men’s head coach) was awesome.
Being away from it, I missed it a bit. And now, with Gordie (Herbert, current senior men’s head coach) coming on, he’s been a friend for quite a long time, someone I talk basketball with quite a bit and have a whole lot of respect for … I think he’s a perfect fit. What he’s done for Germany, what he understands about the FIBA game, and how to coach NBA guys at that national-team level, make him the perfect fit.
So, the combination of time away and him coming on was big for me. You always want to represent your country.
SN: Now that you are back coaching with Canada Basketball, what do you have in mind for personal goals with the program moving forward?
DS: I’ll roll with the punches and see what happens, but I mean, if I get the opportunity to coach various teams and it doesn’t affect my schedule with Pacific too much, I’ll be all in.
SN: And if it did work for your schedule, given how big of a goal the 2028 L.A. Olympics are for Canada Basketball, how much interest would you have in being part of that process?
DS: I’d love to be part of that coaching staff. Being part of the Olympics would be great, but for me, and I know it sounds weird, the Olympics isn’t that big a deal … it’s more working with Gordie that would be great.
When you do this long enough, there are very few people who you pinpoint as guys that you would want to work with, and he would be one of them.
The fact that it’s in L.A. adds to it, but the biggest factor for me really is the two-fold of representing your country and working with Gordie. I was going to go to Germany to work with him there before I joined Texas Tech (in 2023), so working with Gordie might even trump the other side of it. Both together are a perfect combination for me.
SN: Focusing on GLOBL JAM now, 2025 marks a return for the event as well after Canada Basketball took 2024 off to focus on the Olympics. What are some of the program’s goals for this iteration of the event?
DS: I think it’s still about giving these players a platform between their (under-19) experience … and then the time they’ll be ready to play on the senior team.
College players can’t play during the international competition windows because most of them take place in the midst of their NCAA seasons, so this is a great opportunity for them to stay involved, advance and be connected to the national program while in their university years.
SN: Piggybacking off that, Canada Basketball CEO Michael Bartlett recently spoke about how one of the ambitions behind GLOBL JAM was not only bridging that gap, as you mentioned, but also providing more opportunities on home soil. Why is that part of it so important for the development of the national program?
DS: I think it’s more important for the people who are watching than those who are playing. It’s a great bonus for the athletes to play on home soil in front of family, but what it does is get more people, younger people, understanding the national program and seeing it live. That’s a big deal.
SN: Looking back at your coaching journey heading into GLOBL JAM, you spent a lot of time in the OUA and CIS ranks before moving to the NCAA. What from that transition has stood out to you the most?
DS: I moved over to the NCAA in the NIL world. It’s totally different than what it was six years ago, or what it was at Carleton. You have a different team every single year.
Coaching a brand-new team every single year is a different challenge. I tell (other coaches), you can either complain about it, quit and get out of it like a lot of guys have, or you can embrace it. And for me, I’m not going to complain, I’m just going to embrace it.
You just have to coach players differently. At Carleton, it was a process. You would develop their skills, develop them as individual players, but you don’t do that in the NCAA. Instead, you’re developing a team, a new team every year. I think at our school, we try to develop players individually as much as anyone in the country, but not like at Carleton. Because you’re trying to develop the team, since everybody on your team is going to be gone next year anyway.
At Carleton, we would do stuff that had nothing to do with how it could help the team. It was just totally about getting them better individually, not even worrying about how it affected their play with the team. Now you start doing that and you’re going ‘what am I doing?’ We only have nine months. Why are we not spending every minute that we’re developing them as players, also developing them to fit what we do on our team?
SN: Flipping that, what do you plan on taking from your NCAA experience and translating it forward as you coach this GLOBL JAM team on this international stage?
DS: I think coaching in the NCAA has helped me prepare for the national-team experience because it’s the same kind of short window. The NCAA is way more like the national team than Carleton was.
When you come to the national program, you sometimes have two weeks, in this case, three days. The NCAA is more like that now. You have a short period of time and you’ve got to figure it out.
SN: You recently spoke about coaching young athletes as both competitors and people, and how that’s where “at home.” What specifically is it about guiding ascending athletes that resonates with you?
DS: It’s about getting the message across that makes them understand the work ethic and commitment level that is necessary to have within you to be a great player. I like to show them what a template to being great looks like, but they take that template and make it work for them.
The thing I’m most proud of is when players have left me and they don’t need me anymore. I feel like there are some coaches who do a great job when then their players leave them and flounder a bit, but I feel when guys leave me they no longer need me … The fact that when they leave, I feel like I can learn more from them than they can learn from me, is me doing my job. Showing them how to train when you’re not there and get better without you being there. That, to me, is coaching.
SN: Focusing back on GLOBL JAM, what have you made of your roster through training camp thus far, and who should fans keep an eye on?
DS: The guys have tried to buy in, learn and be coachable. It’s been pretty easy to coach them.
I’m a big Elijah (Mahi) fan. I think he’s a really good basketball player. I think Aden (Holloway) can change a game, and I think Vasean (Allette’s) competitiveness is always comforting to have. Obviously I like my guy Elias (Ralph), this is the first time he’s been on a stage for Canada, so hopefully that goes well.
Xaivian (Lee), Elijah, Aden and Vasean, those four are the guys who can impact the game the most, but I do think Elias might surprise some people.
SN: What’s your message to fans before GLOBL JAM gets underway on Wednesday?
DS: I think it’s going to be a fun event. They’ll compete and it’ll be good for fans to see guys who may not be (NBA) draft picks but are going to be high-level international pros or marginal free-agent types. It’s nice to see them live.
There are so many great role models, talking about Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander) and RJ (Barrett), but for these guys and fans, if they could follow someone like Andrew Nembhard, that would be the smartest thing they could possibly do. I watched him every day and none of what he’s done surprises me. I think (GLOBL JAM) is where these guys and the fans have an opportunity to see guys like that.
