Derrick Phelps: with Smith at Columbia, USF and now WSU

THE WAY NEW Washington State men’s basketball coach Kyle Smith talks about his right-hand man at USF — associate head coach Derrick Phelps — you have to think Phelps’ decision to join Smith in Cougarville gives WSU something of a secret weapon going into next season.

“He’s my rock, man. He’s been with me five years,” Smith told WSU play-by-play man Matt Chazanow in an 11-minute video interview you can check out below.

“He’s all about culture, he’s all about team,” Smith said of Phelps, who was a star point guard at North Carolina in the early 1990s under legendary coach Dean Smith.

Phelps has been an outlet for Smith to see and understand “the Carolina way,” Smith says. “We use a lot of it … they are a tight brotherhood. And they are about the right stuff. It’s always about winning.”

Phelps spent the last three seasons with Smith at San Francisco and two years before that with Smith at Columbia.

“He’s the backbone of our program,” Smith said of Phelps, who at USF had a lead role in scouting, international recruiting and working with backcourt players.

Phelps appears already to be fast at work on the recruiting trail for WSU. When prep forward Ronnie DeGray III tweeted the other day that he received an offer from WSU he tagged Phelps’ twitter handle in the message.

Smith told Chazanow this past Thursday that he expects to round out the rest of his staff in seven to 10 days.

Phelps’ playing career at North Carolina was impressive:

Starting point guard and team MVP on the Heels' 1993 national championship team.

All-ACC first-team and honorable mention AP All-America in 1993.

Set team records for most steals in a game (9) and a career (247) and ranks fifth all-time in school history in assists.

Only player in ACC history to amass 600 assists, 400 rebounds and 200 steals.

Named Tar Heels defensive player of the year three times.

Prior to joining Smith at Columbia, Phelps — who is a Queens native — spent three seasons (2011-14) as an assistant at Monmouth University in New Jersey and one (2010-11) as the video coordinator at Fordham in the Bronx.

He played professionally in the NBA, the Continental Basketball Association, and in Europe. He was selected MVP of the Euroleague in 2001 while playing for Alba Berlin. He retired in 2010.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS FROM SMITH’S CONVERSATION WITH CHAZANOW:

Born in El Paso, Smith is a big football fan and started playing full pads tackle ball at age 6. He idolized Earl Campbell, the Texas Longhorns and Houston Oilers legend, and “tried to name each of my sons Earl Campbell Smith.” He was vetoed by wife Katie but did manage to name his youngest son Luke Earl.

Smith is a big analytics guy and says one of his favorite stats is the virtual assist, which accounts for a player making a good pass that puts a teammate in position to score. Whether the shot goes in or not isn’t the measure — the point that a good pass was made, thus facilitating the look. “It’s a process of trying to be the best you can be — you don’t always get the result.” He starts talking about it at roughly the 5:30 mark.

He said he’s always intrigued by someone who thinks outside the box and told Mike Leach he wants him to come by and whip up a new out-of-bounds package. “I'm sure he could do it,” Smith said.

RELATED STORIES: