Karl Smesko, who is in his tenth year on the bench at FGCU, has enjoyed a tremendous run as the head women’s basketball coach at Florida Gulf Coast University. He was selected as the university’s first women’s basketball coach in 2001. Smesko’s career coaching record, which includes one year at Walsh, two seasons at IPFW and his 10 seasons at FGCU, stands at 322-75 and he owns an amazing 11-2 record (.846) in national tournament games. His record at FGCU is an astounding 261-48 and his five-season record in Atlantic Sun Conference matchups (including A-Sun Tournament games) is 85-12. The offensive guru, who was ranked fourth on a list honoring the top Mid-Major head coaches in NCAA Division I by the National Women’s Basketball Insider website in August on 2010, led the Blue and Green to a 28-4 overall record (17-3 A-Sun), en route to being named A-Sun Coach of the Year and securing the program’s eighth 21-plus win season in the nine-year program history, along with a second Atlantic Sun Conference regular season crown and a fourth consecutive automatic bid to the WNIT. During the 2010-11 campaign, the Eagles led the nation in three point field goals made per game, as Shannon Murphy picked up first team all-conference honors and Sarah Hansen earned second team all-conference and was named to the A-Sun All-Freshmen squad. FGCU also extended their home winning streak to 42 games in 2010-11, which at the time was the third longest in the nation behind UConn and Stanford, before dropping a highly competitive game to SEC foe Florida, 74-69, in front of a Alico Arena record crowd of 4,543 in the second round of the WNIT. Smesko saw Chelsea Lyles earn first team all-conference honors, while Adrianne McNally and Shannon Murphy were named to the second team, as the Eagles posted 24 wins in 2009-10, to secure the program’s seventh 21-plus win season in the eight-year program history, along with a second place finish in the Atlantic Sun Conference. FGCU received the program’s first invitation to play in the preseason WNIT, where they advanced to the second round with a win over UTEP before falling to New Mexico and Georgia Tech, and also secured their third consecutive postseason WNIT automatic bid. By participating in the 2010 postseason WNIT, FGCU became the first A-Sun school to make three consecutive WNIT appearances. During the 2009-10 season, the Blue and Green also extended its home winning streak to 24 games, which ranks as the fourth longest home winning streak in Division I women’s basketball heading into the 2010-11 campaign. In 2008-09, Smesko, who was voted A-Sun Coach of the Year, led the Eagles to a Regular Season Atlantic Sun Championship with a 17-3 record. FGCU led the A-Sun in scoring, scoring margin, field goal percentage, three-point field goal percentage, assists, assist-to-turnover ratio, and three-point field goals made during the 2008-09 season. The Eagles also cemented a place in the All-Time A-Sun record books by winning 17 conference games. The Eagles lost to eventual champion USF in the second round of the WNIT and finished the 2008-09 season with an overall record of 26-5, with first team all-conference selections Adrianne McNally and Chelsea Lyles and A-Sun Freshman of the Year Kelsey Jacobson leading the way. In the Eagles first Division I season, Smesko led the women’s basketball team to a second place finish in the A-Sun with a 13-3 record. They were the fifth best offensive team in the A-Sun as well as the second best defense. They were second in free throw percentage and third in field goal percentage. The Eagles, who saw Delia De La Torre and Chelsea Dermyer earn second team All-Atlantic Sun honors, lost to UF in the second round of the WNIT and finished the 2007-08 season with an overall record of 22-8. He guided the Eagles to the Division II NCAA tournament twice. The 2006-07 team finished the regular season undefeated and ranked number one in the nation. The team won the South Region championship and advanced to the NCAA Division II National Championship game. The Eagles were National Runner up and finished with a 34-1 record. Smesko was named South Region Coach of the Year. Coach Smesko is one of an elite group of coaches who has taken a team at two different universities to the national championship game (Smesko guided Walsh University to an NAIA National Championship in 1998). The 2006-07 squad ranked in the top 20 nationally in a remarkable 12 categories: #1 in win-loss percentage, #1 in scoring margin, #2 three-point field goals per game, #2 scoring defense, #3 three-point field goal percentage, #5 scoring offense, #6 assists per game, #8 field-goal percentage, #8 field-goal percentage defense, #11 steals per game, #18 turnovers per game, and #20 in rebound margin. In his first season at FGCU, Smesko guided the 2002-03 Eagles squad to a 30-1 record. The Eagles followed with an 18-8 mark in 2003-04 and a 21-9 mark in 2004-05. Smesko led the Eagles to the NCAA tournament and a 29-2 record in 2005-06. FGCU advanced to the regional semifinals with a win against Rollins. Prior to taking the helm at FGCU, Smesko spent two seasons turning around the program at Indiana-Purdue/Fort Wayne from 1999 to 2001. Inheriting a team that had posted a 2-24 the previous season and an 8-44 record the previous two seasons prior to his arrival, Smesko sparked an 11-win improvement and a 13-14 record in 1999-2000. In his second season Smesko’s team posted the third-most wins in school history with a 19-8 mark. Smesko started his college coaching career at Walsh University in North Canton, Ohio in 1997-98. He led the Cavaliers to the 1998 NAIA Division II National Championship with a 29-5 mark, a 12-win improvement over the previous year. Smesko, whose team had been predicted to finish sixth in the nine-team Mid-Ohio Conference, was named the Mid-Ohio Conference and NAIA National Coach of the Year. It was the first national championship in school history. He spent the 1998-99 season as an assistant coach for the University of Maryland in the prestigious Atlantic Coast Conference. Smesko, a native of Bath, Ohio who now resides in Fort Myers, was a 1993 Summa Cum Laude graduate of Kent State and earned his master’s degree from Walsh University in 1998.
Walsh University
IPFW
- 1997-98 - Head Coach - 1998 NAIA DII Nat’l Champion
- 1999-2001 - Head Coach
1995
2012 Maryland - 1998-99 - Assistant Coach
Florida Gulf Coast - 2001-Present - Head Coach - 2007 DII Nat’l Runner-Up - 2008-09 A-Sun Reg. Season Champs - 2008-09 A-Sun Coach of the Year - 2010-11 A-Sun Reg. Season Champs - 2010-11 A-Sun Coach of the Year - 2011-12 A-Sun Reg. Season/Tournament Champs - 2011-12 A-Sun Coach of the Year - 2011-12 CollegeSportsMadness.com Mid-Major & A-Sun Coach of the Year
2011-12 A-Sun Regular Season Champions
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