Bev Smith seems to be doing everything alone these days.
The former Oregon basketball star recently took over as the head women’s basketball coach at her alma mater, a very lonely position in itself.
Then, last week, Smith was named as the only 2001 inductee into the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame, announced by Canada Basketball and the Naismith Foundation. The honor came after Smith led the Canadian national team for three years before taking over as the Oregon coach.
“It’s a very prestigious honor,” Smith said in a release.
Smith, Oregon’s career leader in rebounds, assists and steals, also helped Canadian national basketball as a player. The Salmon Arm, British Columbia, native was called Canada’s “Larry Bird” by former Canadian national coach Don McCrae.
“She was able to do all things on the court,” McCrae said. “If there were extended statistics kept, Bev would have been in the top three in all categories.”
As a player, Smith led Canada to a fourth-place finish at the Olympics in 1984. As a coach, Smith led the team to a 10th-place showing at the Olympics in 2000, as well as a silver medal at the Pan Am Games in 1999.
Smith has also had coaching and playing stints in Italy and British Columbia. Her longest job so far has been with the Canadian national team.
“It feels like I’ve been selected to another team,” Smith said. “There are a lot of important and historic people in the Hall of Fame who have made a big difference in Canada basketball.”
Among the notable feats which led to her election, Smith is second all-time in Oregon scoring and the only Duck female athlete to be named a first-team All-American. She was the Northwest Basketball League player of the year three times and still holds eight Oregon records.

The cherry on top
After she shut the door on Canadian basketball with her induction to the Hall of Fame, Smith finished her preparations for the start of her Oregon coaching career by naming her final two assistants.
Smith appointed Allison and Mike McNeill, a husband and wife team, to her remaining coaching vacancies. The McNeills will join Dan Muscatell, an assistant under former coach Jody Runge, on the bench with Smith.
Both McNeills come from the same background as Smith. Allison, also a Salmon Arm native, was an Oregon player at the same time as Smith, and a coach at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.
The McNeills bring 36 years of coaching experience to the Oregon bench.