Nate Smith is in his third season as member of the men's basketball staff and was promoting to associate head coach prior to the start of the 2024-25 season.
Working closing with Oberlin post players, Smith helped guide senior Dorde Otasevic to All-NCAC second-team honors after he set career-highs in points (379), points per game (14.6), rebounds (260), rebounds per game (10.0), blocks (38), steals (34), assists (39), 3-pointers (51) and 3-point field goal percentage (.370).
Smith has been vitale to the team's success on the floor and on the recruiting trail over the previous two seasons, helping add a plethora of impact players that included 2024 NCAC Newcomer of the Year JJ Gray.
Smith came to Oberlin after a long stint at NCAA Division I Sacramento State University, working his way up from video coordinator (2011-13), to director of basketball operations (2013-17), to assistant coach (2017-22).Â
Smith was a part of the two most successful seasons in program history at Sacramento State, which included a 16-win season in 2019-20. Since transitioning into an assistant coach role, he recruited and developed eight All-Big Sky selections. In 2020, he instructed the nation's fifth-ranked scoring defense and the conference's second-ranked unit in rebounding margin.Â
Smith was also part of a staff that saw the 2014-15 squad post a 21-12 overall record and a 13-5 mark in the Big Sky Conference while securing the program's first postseason appearance in the Division I era (1991-pres.), and the team's first postseason victory in 53 years.
He graduated from Sacramento State in 2014 with a degree in Kinesiology. He and his wife, Anna, have a daughter, Vivienne.
