Finalist - 2009 Coaches of the Year powered by Critical Reload

Associate head coach Jackie Smith Carson, who joined the Dukes’ staff in 2005, coordinates JMU’s recruiting and scheduling.  She is also in charge of the Dukes’ post play.  During her four seasons with JMU, the Dukes have averaged nearly 25 wins per season while compiling a 99-33 overall record.  Further, JMU has advanced to postseason play in each of the four seasons.

A 2000 graduate of Furman, Smith came to JMU from Bucknell, where she was an assistant coach from 2003-05.

Smith was twice named Southern Conference Player of the Year at Furman (1998, 1999).  A three-time (1998, 1999, 2000) first-team All-Southern Conference honoree, she also won Furman’s Edna Hartness Female Athlete of the Year award in 1999.  She served as team captain as a junior and senior and was voted the team’s most valuable player three years (1998, 1999, 2000).

She was named to the Southern Conference all-tournament team in 1997 and 2000 and was a 12-time conference Player of the Week selection, the most by a Furman athlete in any sport in school history.
She was inducted into Furman’s Hall of Fame in September 2005.

In 2007 she was among a select number of coaches chosen to participate in the Black Coaches Association’s “Achieving Coaching Excellence” program.  The program, for ethnic minority male and female basketball coaches, is a collaborative effort of the BCA, the NCAA Office of Diversity and Inclusion, the NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee and the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics.