High Point has fired basketball coach G.G. Smith just over a year after he replaced his father, Tubby, according to ESPN. The Panthers went 14-17 (6-12 Big South) this year and lost 72-70 to Charleston Southern in the first round of the Big South Tournament on Wednesday to end their season.
Tubby Smith, who won a national title as coach at Kentucky in 1998, returned to coach his alma mater — where he was an all-conference player before graduating in 1973 — in 2018, and G.G. joined his staff. The Panthers went 45-68 under the elder Smith’s guidance until his resignation on Feb. 16, 2022, and G.G. was named his replacement. High Point was 3-3 after he took over and 17-20 overall during his tenure.
G.G. Smith, 46, was previously head coach at Loyola Maryland. He went 56-98 in five seasons with the Greyhounds and is a combined 73-118 (.382 winning percentage) in six-plus seasons as a head coach. He joined his father’s staff at Kentucky in 2000 and spent the next 13 seasons as a college assistant before succeeding Jimmy Patsos at Loyola Maryland in 2013.
Tubby Smith, 71, coached 31 college basketball seasons, also making stops at Tulsa, Georgia, Minnesota, Texas Tech and Memphis. But his biggest success came at Kentucky, where he replaced Rick Pitino and won a national championship in his first season with his other son, Saul, as a point guard.
Despite making the tournament in 10 straight years and winning seven SEC regular season titles and five conference tournament championships, Tubby Smith resigned after two consecutive double-digit-loss seasons to take the job at Minnesota. He made the NCAA Tournament three times with the Golden Gophers and once at Texas Tech, but his teams at Memphis and High Points failed to make it in his final six seasons as coach.
