Mike Krzyzewski pupil Nolan Smith is working wonders at TSU | Estes

A celebrating Tennessee State men’s basketball team hadn’t yet left the arena, and Tigers coach Nolan Smith was already on his phone, discussing what was next.

The guy on the other line? Goes by Coach K.

“He watched the whole game. Loved what he saw,” Smith said of retired coaching legend Mike Krzyzewski. “Now he's excited to see it turn into the next thing.”

TSU has a new fan this season in Krzyzewski, who coached Smith as a standout player at Duke and has continued to support his former pupil’s accelerating ascent through the profession.

Few coaches, if any, are enjoying a more impressive season than Smith.

TSU’s first-year coach, hired in July 2025, has stepped in and directed the Tigers to their best season in decades, including 21 victories (their most-ever as a Division I program) and a regular-season Ohio Valley Conference championship.

TSU earned the No. 1 seed for this week’s OVC Tournament in Evansville, Indiana, with a 67-42 road drubbing of UT Martin on Feb. 28 — the game Coach K watched and loved.

That made seven wins in TSU’s last eight games, and those wins were by an average of more than 15 points. With a bye until the OVC semifinals March 6, it’ll take just two more victories for the red-hot Tigers to secure the program's first NCAA Tournament berth since 1994.

And that’s what Krzyzewski focused on with Smith: Turning the page.

“Keeping the chip on our shoulder, having an edge,” Smith said. “They understand that they've done something that is historic, that hasn't been done in 30-plus years here. All that is fine and dandy, but the main thing is the next thing. These guys, they have a hunger about themselves that I’m excited to see what's next for them.”

It’s fast becoming clear that TSU hired a rising star when it lured Smith, 37, away from Penny Hardaway’s Memphis Tigers staff. This was only after Penny Collins left TSU after seven seasons to become an assistant coach with the Memphis Grizzlies, and the timing was far from ideal.

Smith didn’t go purchase a bunch of transfers to revamp TSU’s roster, because he couldn’t have done that even if he wanted. “Rosters are pretty much set at the end of July,” he said. “So we knew we were going to have the roster we had.”

There was some hesitancy on his part to take the TSU job, he said, given the timing. But he watched tape of the returning players, and he liked what he saw, enough to give it a shot. Smith added only a couple of transfers to a dozen returning Tigers.

“Obviously, I knew there would be challenges of coming in late — relationships, culture, all the things that you'd like to do in June or July and building all those things,” Smith said. “But we trusted who we are (as a staff) . . . A lot of times, that's a year or two-year process to really build a championship environment, a championship family. We've been able to do it very quickly just off of being genuine, loving, coaching and getting these guys better every single day.”

Very quickly, indeed.

Take the game at UT Martin, for instance. ESPNU welcomed a special visitor to the broadcast in Leonard Hamilton, the recently retired college (and NBA) coach.

Hamilton was there because he once played for UT Martin. Except he couldn’t stop talking about TSU.

“Man, this team is ready,” Hamilton said on air, drawing out that last word into two syllables after a steal and alley-oop put the Tigers up 28-12 on UT Martin’s senior day. “They are playing with some intensity that’s unbelievable.”

That intensity didn’t ease up, either. While formidable all season offensively, TSU’s recent form is primarily because of its improvement defensively. What Smith has now resembles a complete team.

Accordingly, TSU will be the favorite in Evansville. It is the top-rated team in the OVC, according to Ken Pomeroy’s metrics, and among the field, the Tigers are playing the best right now.

“When we get clicking and certain nights when we're going, we're dangerous,” Smith said. “We're in a spot right now where we feel really good about ourselves on both ends of the court . . .

“No better time to be clicking on the defensive end than heading into March.”

Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and hang out with him on Bluesky @gentryestes.bsky.social

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Mike Krzyzewski pupil Nolan Smith working wonders for TSU basketball