FGCU women’s basketball improving under coach Karl Smesko
FORT MYERS, Fla. — The culture of a team is dependent on the ethos of the coach and the reciprocation from the players. If the players don’t collectively buy in, the whole system will collapse. Which is why it’s important to have an established coach who has fortified foundations and a pedigree that will be respected by the collective. At Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU), they have been with the same coach, Karl Smesko, for exactly 20 seasons. And the results speak for themselves.
Smesko’s FGCU Eagles are off to a flyer in the regular season by winning all the games they’ve played apart from a recent narrow loss against the Princeton Tigers. But in those victories, they’re trouncing the opposition, winning by double-digits. Four of those first seven wins came on neutral ground so the Eagles didn’t even rely too heavily on the home field advantage.
While the team is getting wins, there seems to be a drop off and a slight concern when it comes to their shooting. The team field goal percentage is at 29.8% per game, which is relatively low considering they’re winning by a double-digit margin.
Coach Smesko remarked on their shooting.
“You just keep shooting, because you’re a great shooter,” he said. “You understand that if you flip a coin 10 times, eight of them could be tails. You just understand that it’s a game of percentages. If you get your release right and you shoot it the way you want to shoot it, and they’re good shots, you know overall you’ll end up shooting a good percentage.”
The rationale inspires confidence and that’s what the coach is implying. If players begin to lose confidence in their shots, then there’s guaranteed to be a drop off in performance and game losses will be a regular occurrence. Coach Karl Smesko happens to agree with that sentiment.
“You can’t be overly concerned over any one day shooting, or any couple of shots in a row, because when you start worrying about stuff like that, that’s when things can drag on for you,” he said.
Smesko has spent 20 of his 23 years of coaching with the FGCU Eagles and has the respect of the players for his longevity but also his success at this level. The Eagles women’s basketball team are nationally ranked in the top 25.
Under the leadership of Smesko, the Eagles have reached the NCAA Tournament nine times in total, four of which were in the last five years.
This season, there’s cause for optimism as the team looks to not only reach the tournament but to return to the title game like they did back in 2007 where they finished as runner’s up.
When asked about the secret to the team’s recent run of success, Smesko remarked with insight.
“It’s just been consistently wanting to get better, continuing to learn and get better at coaching, and still achieving the desire to get better today,” he concluded.
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