About a week removed from the twenty eighteen draft, are previewing the pick series continues here on the podcast. Brian Seltzer welcoming you into this edition in which we will hear from as Zaire Smith a brief one on one with him, conducted after one of his workouts with the seventy six ers Billier this month, and we'll go in depth on Zaire's background, his game and what he did and his very impressive alone season at Texas Tech with the Red Raiders head coach, the co Big twelve Coach
of the Year, Chris Beer. Those conversations in just a moment. A reminder that to subscribe to our feed, you can add to iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, type in Sixers Podcast Network. Also we should mentioned Google Play as well, and just type in that phrase Sixers Podcast Network and you will arrive at our feed. Please do subscribe if you have not yet already. Zire Smith emerged as the top pick
that the seventy Sixers acquired in last Thursday's draft. Of course, the six are sending the number ten pick mckhell bridges to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for not only Zaire Smith, who the team is very high on as a prospect three and D guard forward, wingman, but also a precious coveted twenty twenty one unprotected first round pick from the Miami Heats. But you can't do a full podcast, maybe you could on an unprotected future pick. So why don't
we go full fledged into Zaire Smith mode. At a press conference after the Sixers made the deal to a pick up Smith, Brett Brown spoke about one of the newest members of the team. If he is anything, he is an eight plus athlete, and then you take that defensive toughness in the city of Philadelphia, and so you say, wow, if that also can translate into you know, a reliable to good to very good three point shooter and can play off a live ball, that's a modern day NBA player.
Smith averaged round eleven and a half points, five rebounds, two assists, in a block in a steal per game pretend xas Tech. Last season a historic season for the Red Raiders. More on that in just a bit, but let's been a few minutes hearing from Zaire Smith himself. This was after his first workout that he attended with the seventy sixers back on June. The twelfth even through about a half dozen of these what distinguishers the seventy sixers from what you were able to tell during the
three on three sets? Usually you just downscreen, but we ran sets that they run, so that was pretty good. I like how they ran assists, We ran their offense on three on three. Probably have a long ways to go, But what sense do you have of where your game is now and how it might be able to translate to the next level. Right now, my game is just play a hard He's very introvesting. But I can go on one through three, but I can see him again
being a combo lars last point guard. When you look at this past season when you got moved into the starting lineup, what click at that point in January midway for this season for you guys? That help things get rolling for you? Despite the Zach smith asery, we just had to play together. Though we lost a big piso, everybody had to step their game up. Really, do you feel like that forced you to grow up mentally as well? Man?
We have to grow a big time. Yeah, because not too many freshman's doing that, especially a three started coming out high school. They inspect that. But yeah, we have to grow fast. Did you surprise yourself at all with what you were able to do? I did. I really did surprise myself. Was there a moment or a game that reinforced that too where you felt like, Okay, my confidence is at a different level. Probably the first game, I guess exposisting game I did pretty good. I was like, oh,
not that bad. You put up really efficient numbers on both ends of the court. Can you give me a summary of where you think your skill set is at right now offensively and then flip it over to the defensive side of the floor. Offensively, I can be really aggressive about passive a little bit, so I gotta continue to be more aggressive and defensively, I can go out one through three and kick them rows and everything, and pretty good on defense though, I think that's my strength.
You told the media group that you view yourself as someone who prided themselves on defensive You always in a defense first guy. When did you gain some confidence and start to really refine your defensive game. Yeah? I always been a really good defensive guy. When I first shot planning basketball in fifth grade, that's all idea. It was just black shots. Couldn't do nothing else on offensive black size. But I guess the black sots leading now is just
staying in front of your defender. As far as your overall package. What's been the major things you've wanted to showcase in these workouts? And my ability needs a handle the ball, come off screenings and make the right player all right, Sire, thanks so much for one. Thank you. Zire Smith type of guy that you think, in this day and age of position list basketball, especially the emphasis of the seventy six ers put on that concept, someone who could be very valuable on both ends of the courts.
To get more on the value that Zire Smith brought to Texas Tech during the historic season in which the Red Raiders finished with their second highest win total of all time, made their first appearance to the Elite Eight ever, we'll bring on Chris Beard. He is the head coach of Texas Tech. Chris gotta think there is a lot of excitement right now surrounding the Red Raiders community in Lubbock, Texas given Zaire Smith the second ever first round pick
out of the program. That's pretty awesome. It is a great time in love it right now with basketball, you know, in our just our second season building the team. We made a nice tournament run to the Elite eight. You know, Ze got drafted in the first round, and we feel like Keenan Evans is a definite NBA player as well, and put Zack Smith in that same category. So a lot of excitement here. I think the biggest thing going on right now is just a raised level of expectations.
And that was kind of our plan from day one when we came here. We wanted to compete not only at the Big twelve level, but the national level, And in just two short years, I think the expectations have been Rose Zaire arguably the highest rated prospect to come out of Texas, Texas Tony Batti just the second first round or ever As a coach, how much does that helps spread the words, spread the message, reinforce things when you can use an example based on something like that
so fresh, Yeah, it means everything to us. I kind of compare it to winning. Like in other words, when we get here, we have a process, we have things we believe in the way we play, where we work in a vision we're selling, and then when you start winning games, it kind of validates what you're doing the process. It's one thing for recruits to kind of buy into what you're saying in a vision, it's a whole other thing to see it with their own eyes. And it's
very similar with Zaire's situation. You know, getting a guy in the in the first round of the NBA Draft, almost a lottery pick, kind of validates everything we do in our program from a day to day basis. Ultimately, to win the Big Twelve you have to have several NBA players on your roster. So Zaire, I think, is going to pave the way for a lot of future success here and love it when we look back at Draft night, just the entire chain of events leading up
to that. On the outside, and to me, it seemed like Zaire was one of the fastest risers in this year's draft class. Did you see it that same way too? I know you're obviously certainly plugged into the sport, but did you get that feel as well? Absolutely. I think z you know, represents a lot of people out there, not just in the world of basketball, but just kind of in life where you know, there's no substitute for
hard work. You know, our country, America was kind of formed on a dream, right, and kind of the the same thing with z In today's world with all the rankings and the Internet and the mock drafts and the you know, top one hundred when you're coming out of high school and all this. All that stuff's good for sport because I think it brings attention, But none of that stuff
means anything unless you can back it up. And was Zaire's story, which has been well documented and I'm sure over the next months to years will even be more known by everyone. You know, coming from a non top one hundred recruit, a guy that really didn't have any BCS offers in the signing period in the fall, stay true to what he wanted and what he believed he could do, signed in the spring, and then you know, in one short year, you know they're calling his name
on the NBA green room stage. So I think he's just an example for a lot of people just what hard work can do. Zee always had a lot of confidence in himself, and I don't want to speak for him, but I think one of the main reasons he chose to play for US at Texas Tech because we shared that confidence with him that we believed he was an NBA player from day one, and he just outworked everybody. You know. I was giving Ze a hard time the
other day when I showed up to the draft. I got to the green room probably thirty minutes before it started, and I said, hey, Zee, you've been in the gym the day and he kind of smiled say like no, And I was like, oh, you're already cheating the process. Man, Don't be sitting around and getting off fat, living and all this. You need to get back in the gym. He And really, I think it's probably the only day since I met Zaire Smith that he wasn't in the
gym was probably the night of the draft. And even that night he was joking about, you know, trying to find a twenty four our fitness there in Manhattan where you could go get some shots up after all the party and stuff. But again, I think he just represents a lot of people not on even basketball, with just life, people that just work hard, know what they want and
go get it. It's a great story. But we've been trying to connect with the head coaches in college of all the draft picks that the seventy sixers had, and we spoke with Tim Jankovic earlier in the week and he said, obviously being based out of the Dallas area that Sayer was on their radar, but not even they could say they expected something like this, this type of outcome from him, the player he became. What did you see Inzyre Smith when you were recruiting him? And when
did you first see it? You know, I think the whole world sees the athleticism and the obvious talent. What I saw early on was the character, the background, the story, how he was raised. His dad was an elite athlete. Billy played basketball and football at KSE Stay for two Hall of Fame coaches Lin Krueger and Coach Snyder. His mother was a great track and field athlete growing up, a very disciplined person, so you knew the background was there. Z knew how to work and work hard long before
he met me. Then equally impressive, just just the love of the game. You know, again, today there's a lot of talented players, and the game can give you a lot, but it's the guys I think that truly love the game and respect the game that maximize their potential. And with Z, he's just getting started. I mean, I hope people will put me on the record that the story is just getting started going from being kind of unknown
the first round. Now you're about to see him go from kind of unknown to what I believe could even be an NBA All Star one day. And I understand how hard that is and how difficult it is, But you know, I never bet against the guy that number one has the talent, number two has the character, and then three just the love of the game. Nobody will
outwork Zire. Ever, was there a moment after a practice, a game, anything like that when you and your fellow coaches looked at each other and we're like, Wow, we've we've got something here. Was there ever a time where you were like, even this is exceeding our own expectations. I don't know our own expectations, because they were pretty high from the start. I mean, me and z we're talking about the NBA the first time I talked to
him on the phone. But I would say this when he got to Texas Tech last summer about this time last year, he walks into summer workouts and we have a good team. We have five seniors. Again, I think Keenan Evans is an NBA player. In my opinion, he was the best player in a Big twelve this year best college player. So Z walks in as a young guy and just immediately not only kind of fits in,
but starts excelling. And so I think as early as last summer, just in the summer workouts and pickup games, we knew that he had a chance to be special. Third thing about Z, and this is kind of where the story kind of goes, is just the consistency, you know, is where I think he's an NBA player so quickly. There's a lot of guys that have big games or have talent, but Ze was just consistent, I mean, simply stayed in a thirty five thirty six game season. He
had no bad nights. He shows up, you know, he brings his defense every night, he brings his work ethic every night. He's coachable, he's a great teammate. These things just never never take a day off. And then you know what the world's about to see really really quick because he's a very skilled player too. I kind of laugh.
I don't watch a lot of TV, but obviously wassire being in the situation, we are trying to get our hands on everything we can here at Tech to use and recruiting, and the thing out there about you know, his shooting is almost comical. I mean, the guy's got a great stroke. He works on it tirelessly every day. It's just a matter of time until people know him as a shooter, not as a guy that you know, can't shoot him. He's gonna be on the other end of the spectrum very soon. I think he'll be a
shooter in that league at some point. I was going to ask you bat then, since you brought it up, what the seventy sixers feel like and they had him obviously in for two workouts. Is they were even able to use some motion technology that they have here at the training complex to study a shot, and they feel like the trajectory, as you just said, is really really promising and it checked out. Can you get into some of the stuff that you were seeing with that, How
you see that aspect of his game developing. Yeah, I appreciate you saying that. I'm really proud of that. I mean, obviously the story is z and all the work that he put in, he deserves one hundred percent of the credit. But I would point to our program. You know, we're proud that Zaire came in in one short year. You know, his dreams come true. We have a lot of people on our staff, a lot of hours you know that we worked on our assistant coaches and gas and player
development team and everything we did. You know, we're proud of the product. You know, Z's always had a soft touch on his shot. He gets the ball up, he very rarely misses short. Again, we just had a special team at Texas Tech with five seniors. Ze got on the floor early in his career through his defense and through just again being consistent, and as a year went on, you know, I was begging him to shoot more. But at the at the core of what Z is, he's
a winner. You know, you tell him exactly what he needs to do to win. He's not a stat guy. You know. I've seen Z doing backflips and happy locker rooms after games after an eight point game, and I've seen him really really down after a twenty point game when we came up short. So at the core who he is, he's a winner. He's a team player. He really doesn't care about the individual stuff. He just wants
to win. When we got beat by Villanova in the Elite eight, where a lot of people in the Texas Tech program, you know, deep, deep, inside, even though they might not admit it, we're probably just happy with the run. I looked in these eyes, and this was a guy that was not content. I mean, he was just like me, just distraught and was visioning us playing in the Final four. And I say that just to make the point again.
I mean, this guy wants to win above all, and I think at the NBA level, when he gets around those resources and people simply stay and tell him exactly what he has to do, he'll find a way to get it done. How much is his defense as we break down that part of this game is based on the type of mindset, the DNA, the intangibles that you've been referencing for the last ten minutes. Now, how much is it skill and ability? How would you break down that part of his game. It's a big part of it.
I think again, it starts with you know who raised him, Billy Smith's and no nonsense competitive guy, and it's mom Andreas Special. At a young age, you know, Z didn't have any distractions in his life. He just worked on his game, learned how to play at the highest level, learned how to compete, learn how to win. And a big part of that is on the defensive end. That's why I know our staff is so excited that he went to Philly. We're all NBA guys on the staff
at the core were basketball junkies. We watch every game he possibly can, and the seventy six ers to me, not knowing anyone there except for the string coach. I know it's a team. I know it's a defensive mindset, and I know it's a player development where young guys get better quickly. So I thought Ze was the perfect pick. But he is a defensive mindset like and you could see. You could tell that early on. Also think he gott
to give his high school coach from credit. JT. Lockler, one of the best younger coaches in the Dallas Fort Worth area, put Z in a lot of great situations in high school. Let him guard multiple people. They pressed, they trapped, they switched a lot on defense. I think this played a big part of these development as well. How many different ways were you guys able to use him on the defense? Van You know in college he could really guard one through four and sometimes even the five.
I think in the NBA today, I really believe he could play in an NBA game the night guard one through three. I might be a little bit biased because it's pretty obvious how much I love the kid, but I say that from my mind too, and he can really guard. It starts obviously with the athleticism, the length, the quickness within you got to go to the next level, which is toughness, and then thirdly the IQ. He is a very very very smart basketball player. And coaching him.
You know, I said I told him something one time. He always picked it up. He spent a lot of time in the film room on his own. He's just he's special offensively, as we flip it over that side. He spoke about the shot off ball. How comfortable do you see him being in those two spots. You know, he's just a work in progress, but it'll happen very quickly.
You're talking about a guy that just, you know, less than two years ago, I was playing on a high school court, kind of playing a forward spot because that's what his team needed. In AAU, he played a little bit more in the Primmeter, not so much with us. He played all over the floor. You know, we kind of try to play the game just like they do in the NBA, where positional liston means anything I don't
really know what a one, two, three, four is. I just know Lebron's the best player in the league and this other guy's right behind him. And I would put Z in the same category like some of the NBA scouts that would come in. You know, the question I always got is can't he play the two? Can he play the three? And I was like, Hey, that's up to you guys that decide. I just know in college he's one of the best players in the country. He comes back to college another year, I think he'll be
the number one pick. I believe that. But offensively, I mean, he can do a lot of things that I don't think people understand yet. Obviously the seventy six years due because they invested a high pick in him. But he's an undervalued shooter. He's worked, can progress with the ball. He can create his own shot, not only with his vertical and his athleticism, but also with quickness. He's really good in the triple threat. And above all, I would
say cutting. He's one of the best players I've ever played coached without the ball in his hands, which normally comes later on in a college career. You know, as a freshman that's normally the thing they kind of lack. But Z brought that mentality to play without the ball in his hands from day one, and I think that'll be special. Just knowing some of the players that Philly has on their team, I think Z's gonna get a lot of, you know, cheap, easy baskets by moving without
the ball. When did you start to hear from NBA personnel types about their interest in desire or was there a stage of the season when that happened. You know, I'm a kind of I'm kind of a simple, isolated guy. I don't even really talk on my cell phone much during the season besides my three daughters and girlfriend. But you know, I think around Christmas time, some of the big games on national TV, some of our guys were telling me that he's starting to show up on mock
drafts and stuff like that. I didn't even know what a mock draft was, but certainly in a Big twelve. Another thing to me kind of on my radar was just the other coaches. You know, when a coach Huggins or coach self or coach career, some of the friendships we had within this league. When people started kind of talking about Z in that world. That's kind of where it became real to me, and then you know, just
kind of watching it materialize. I really felt like when we made the turn in the Big twelve for the second half of the season that he was going to have an opportunity to be in the mix. And then certainly making a great run in March, playing meaningful games all the way to the lead eighth. That always helps the process. So again, I'm so proud aszire, but I'm also equally proud of our program, all the people that worked with Z on a daily basis. This was a
win for all of us. It really was an amazing season for you guys. Just want to ask you a couple more things. I mean, when we were able to speak with him a few times, he seems very straight to the point, business like. Is he the guy around teammates, his coaches in the locker room? Absolutely? Uh, you know, Z is what he is. He is. Not an ounce of faith in him. It'll be interesting to watch how he matures and handles the NBA lifestyle. But I have
one hundred percent confidence he's a no distraction guy. Never had a problem with any kind of vices. You know, he's got his faith and his family and then basketball. I think academics might have been somewhere down the line. But you know, he's a talented, talented guy that's very, very disciplined. He's got a great personality the people in Philly. It'll come out eventually and you guys will see it. But really, really funny, got great humor the other night,
sitting there in the green room at that table. You know, with each pick it starts getting a little nervous more and more. But Ze kept his sense of humor all night. And he's just a great guy. He's you know, I told people this openly, like when everybody came in the spring to talk about Ze, it's almost like, you know, everybody wants to know advice, everybody wants to know a negative, everybody wants to know a concern, and character wise, there's
not any. And I didn't want anybody kind of thinking we're overselling our guys, because we're true tellers at our core. But I mean, there's just literally nothing I can tell you about Z that's on the wrong end of things. He's special, he's got a great personality and above all, he's a big, big time teammate. Why don't we leave it at that, excellently put by Chris Beard, head coach of Texas Tech men's basketball, Chris, thanks so much. You're welcome.
Thank you. Just a phenomenal season for Chris Beard at Texas Tech. Collectively, the Red Raiders their first ever Elite eight, second most wins ever, and a record setting number six ranking in the national poll, and of course, their second first round draft pick in addition to Tony Batilla, former seventy six Erzire Smith, one of the newest seventy sixers. Thanks to Chris Beard for taking the time to chat.
Thanks to you for listening. We will hear from Greg Marshall, the head coach of a Wichita State, talking about Landry Shammon before the week is out. To stay tuned for that coming up next time on the broadcast. I see it