Cal Basketball: Charmin Smith Named Among 100 Most Influential in Her Sport
Cal’s Charmin Smith is included among the 100 Most Influential People in Women’s College Basketball, according to the website Silver Waves Media.
And while we applaud the praise given Smith, we think the Silver Waves has missed a powerful piece of her big-picture resume.
Joining Smith on the list among Pac-12 coaches are Stanford's Tara VanDerveer, Oregon's Kelly Graves and Arizona State's Charli Turner Thorne.
Here’s what Silver Waves had to say about the Bears’ second-year head coach while introducing its list (presented in alphabetical order):
For almost 20 years Charmin Smith has been impacting west coast basketball as a coach. Starting in 2003, Smith was an assistant under the late Cathy Inglese at Boston College where she helped the Eagles win their first Big-East Tournament Championship and make an NCAA Tournament run. Following this, she joined her former coach Tara VanderVeer at Stanford. Here she helped the Cardinal to two Elite Eight appearances. In 2007 Smith joined Cal as an assistant and would soon become the associate head coach, a role she would have until 2019. After taking a year off to coach in the WNBA, Smith is back at Cal and now as the head coach.
All that is true about Smith, who played her college ball across the Bay at Stanford.
Smith certainly didn’t bowl anyone over with her team’s performance in her debut season. The Bears were 12-19 overall last season, just 3-15 in the Pac-12 Conference.
But Smith was dealt a rough hand following the departure of coach Lindsey Gottlieb (to the Cleveland Cavaliers) and the exit of most of the team’s most experienced players. That included center Kristine Anigwe, who finished her career in 2018-19 as the program’s greatest player, No. 1 in points and rebounds.
Smith has reloaded quite well according to the recruiting experts. ESPN ranks the Bears’ six-player 2020 class as seventh-best in the nation and Prospects Nation says the Bears are welcoming four players given four stars or better.
*** Smith on her "Chillin' with Charmin" event on Instagram on Saturday:
.
Smith has more to offer than her on-court and recruiting skills.
As a leader of young women at a campus such as Berkeley, Smith is a good fit who stands on the correct side of critical social and political issues.
She participated in Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of the George Floyd being killed by police in Minneapolis.
She has spoken out on voting rights issues.
And on the lack of hiring of African American coaches.
She understands history and shares its messages.
And she gets it that we all should be wearing facemarks until the coronavirus pandemic is quelled.
She is a coach that parents might want to mentor their daughters, most of whom will never earn a dime playing professional basketball but will be citizens in the world for a long time.
Here are some examples of the positions she has taken on social issues via her Twitter account: @21Chamin
.
.
.
.
.
.
And then there's this (please, folks, pay attention)
.
*** A look at the start of the WNBA season this weekend:
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
Click the "follow" button in the top right corner to join the conversation on Cal Sports Report on SI. Access and comment on featured stories and start your own conversations and post external links on our community page.
