Kyle Smith’s history of exceeding expectations

Jack Ellis/CougCenter Washington State head coach Kyle Smith is already something of a cult figure on the Palouse and in basketball analytics circles. From the outside, his resume does not include a single NCAA tournament or NIT appearance in 12 years as a head coach. Still, he is revered by many and almost universally recognized as being good at his job.

The lack of NCAA tournament appearances is easily explainable—Smith has taken on some of the most difficult head coaching positions, where postseason play is more a dream than an expectation. At Columbia, he turned a cellar-dweller into a winner. He did the same at San Francisco. At both those stops, finishing in the top half of the…