At that point in his career, Smart had a long history with Dayton. He joined Oliver Purnell's staff at Dayton in June 2001 as a 24-year-old administrative assistant, taking the place of Josh Postorino, who became Purnell's third assistant coach after Bill Comar left for a job at Xavier.
Bucky Albers wrote about Smart then in the Dayton Daily News:
"A 1999 Kenyon graduate, Smart was a four-year starter and three-year captain for the Lords," Albers wrote. "He is the school's single-season and career assists leader. Smart did extensive research on race consciousness and social issues at Kenyon and received a $5,000 NCAA post-graduate scholarship. He also was selected for the USA Today All-USA Academic team. He earned a masters in social science while coaching at California, Pa. Smart has worked at the Oliver Purnell Flyer Basketball Camp the last two years."
Smart spent two seasons at Dayton and was part of the staff that helped lead Dayton to its first (and so far only) A-10 tournament championship in 2003. That was also the last season Marquette played at Dayton.
When Purnell left for a job at Clemson after that season, Smart moved to Akron for three years. He then rejoined Purnell at Clemson in 2006. Then in 2009, he landed his first head coaching job at VCU, succeeding current Dayton coach Anthony Grant. Smart returned to UD Arena in 2011 for a First Four matchup against Southern California.
"This is an unbelievable place, a place I talk about quite a bit," Smart said in 2011 before a NCAA tournament practice. "When we came in here, different games crossed my mind walking down the tunnel with Oliver and (assistants) Ron Jirsa and Josh Postorino and Frank Smith. Every game we would say what we needed to in the dressing room and then we'd walk down the tunnel.
"When I first got here, I didn't know much about Division I basketball outside of what I watched on TV. I'd played Division III and had a good career and had coached two years at a very competitive Division II school (California University in Pennsylvania), but coming to Dayton, let's face it, it was big time. I remember the first time I walked out onto the floor for a game and I looked up. I think it was just an exhibition, but there still were 10,000-plus people here. I remember thinking, 'THIS is a different deal here.'"
VCU started a run to the Final Four at UD Arena that season. Smart, now in his fourth season at Marquette, has a team that could get him back there this season.
The Dayton vs. Marquette game at 7 p.m. Saturday restarts an old rivalry with a deep history. Here's a look back at the series:
Who has the edge: Marquette leads the series 21-14. Dayton is 11-6 in the series at home, 2-15 on the road and 1-0 on a neutral court.
Last meeting: On Nov. 29, 2008, Dayton beat No. 15 Marquette 89-75 in the Chicago Invitational Challenge in Hoffman Estates, Ill. It was the fourth victory for Dayton in the last five games in the series.
Rob Lowery led the Flyers with 21 points. Chris Wright had 13 points and 13 rebounds.
"This is just one championship we want to win, we want to win some more," Wright said. "We just have to stay humble and keep getting better."
Dayton beat Auburn 60-59 in overtime a day earlier in the first round of the event despite missing all 24 of their 3-point attempts. The Flyers made 4 of 11 against Marquette.
Dayton started 8-0 that season and finished 27-8, beating West Virginia in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Marquette also won a first-round NCAA tournament game that season and finished 25-10.
Last game at UD Arena: On Jan. 4, 2003, Dayton beat No. 13 Marquette 92-85 in overtime.
D.J. Stelly scored eight of his 18 points in overtime. Ramad Marshall made 5 of 7 3-pointers and scored 23 points. Keith Waleskowski had 15 points and eight rebounds. Brooks Hall had 13 points and 12 rebounds.
"It was one of those games where you had to have a contribution from seven or eight guys, and we had that," Dayton coach Oliver Purnell said.
Future NBA star Dwayne Wade, who led Marquette to the Final Four that season, scored 17 points.
First game: On Dec. 28, 1966, Dayton beat Marquette 95-76 at the UD Fieldhouse. Don May and Rudy Waterman each scored 20 for the Flyers. Dan Obrovac had 19 points.
UD's Bobby Joe Hooper and Marquette's Jim Burke were ejected for fighting in the final minutes.
This was the second season for Marquette coach Al McGuire, who would lead the program to the national championship 11 years later. McGuire coached Marquette in four NCAA tournament games at UD Arena in the 1970s.
Series resumes: After playing in Dayton in 1966 and in Milwaukee in 1968, Dayton and Marquette didn't play again until Feb. 16, 1980. Then they played regularly throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
For a stretch in the 1980s, Dayton, Marquette, DePaul and Notre Dame each played twice every year in what was called the Great Independents Series.
Conference colleagues: For four seasons, Dayton and Marquette were members of the same conference. Dayton joined the Midwestern Collegiate Conference in the 1988-89 season. Marquette joined a year later.
In the 1991-92 season, Marquette headed to the Great Midwest Conference. Dayton joined that league in the 1993-94 season and spent two seasons there before moving to the Atlantic 10 Conference in the 1995-96 season. Marquette moved to Conference USA that same season.
Biggest streak: Dayton has never won more than two games in a row in the series. Marquette beat Dayton seven times in a row from 1993-97.
Biggest shots: Entering a Feb. 9, 1990, game at Marquette, Dayton had lost four games in a row in the series and seven of the last nine. The Flyers also had lost their last three games that season to Notre Dame, Xavier and Loyola -- all on the road -- and Jim O'Brien's first team needed a confidence boost late in the season.
Marquette beat Dayton 95-84 at UD Arena the previous month, but this time, Negele Knight rescued Dayton by making a game-winning shot with three seconds left. The Flyers won 79-77. Knight scored 33 points on 10-of-21 shooting. He made 10 of 12 free throws.
The victory started an 11-game winning streak that included three victories in the MCC tournament and a NCAA tournament victory against Illinois.
"We haven't won a close game all year," O'Brien said. "All we talked about when they had the ball with one minute left was we were going to win the game."
* In a Feb. 21, 1987, game at UD Arena, Dayton beat Marquette 59-57 on a shot by freshman Anthony Corbitt -- off an assist from senior Anthony Grant -- with four seconds to play.
"I was going to take the shot myself," Grant said then, "but (Corbitt's) man sagged off me and I saw in his eyes that he wanted it."