Hall of Famer Robert Smith has plenty to smile about

Robert Smith already owned a small spot in the Southern Nevada Hall of Fame as a key member of UNLV’s 1977 Final Four squad that was inducted back in 1998.

But Friday night at the Orleans Arena, Smith, who along with Greg Anthony are considered the top point guards in Runnin’ Rebel history, became just the fourth player in school history to be inducted into the prestigious Southern Nevada Hall of Fame joining Anthony (2006), Larry Johnson (2008) and Cliff Findlay (2001). Head coach Jerry Tarkanian (1998) is also a member as are the 1977 and 1990 Runnin’ Rebel men’s teams.

Smith, long distance running great Frank Plasso, local wrestling icon Jimmy May, the National Finals Rodeo and the man who built the Orleans Arena that housed Friday night’s star-studded event took place in, South Point Hotel owner Michael Gaughan, all were inducted in the Class of 2009.

“It’s a great honor to go in with all of these guys,” Smith, who currently is a coach and mentor at the Andre Agassi Boys and Girls Club of Nevada, said. “It’s something you can only dream of. Now that dream has some true. It’s a wonderful feeling.”

Just about every inductee or presenter mentioned the ever-present smile Smith displayed during the evening. If I were a local dentist, I’d hire him to be my pitchman.

Two other things that were brought up during the night about Smith: 1). What a first class person he is, and 2). the fact his No. 10 isn’t hanging up in the Thomas & Mack rafters along with his old “Hardway Eight” teammates, the late Glen “Gondo” Gondrezick and Reggie Theus.

I have a feeling that last fact will change in the near future. Both UNLV head coach Lon Kruger and athletic director Mike Hamrick attended the event and I’m sure will find a way to eliminate that oversight.

Some longtime Rebel basketball followers argue that Smith, who still holds school records for free throw percentage in a season (92.5 percent in 1976-77) and career (87.8 percent), is the greatest point guard in school history, not Rancho High product Anthony.

I am old enough to have watched both play. I’ll pull a Mike Sanford on that one and list them as 1A and 1B.

“Greg was a great one,” Smith said when asked who he thinks is greatest Rebel point guard of all-time. “I look back at all the guys who have been through here and we all had something different but we all were effective with what we were doing. I think if you put us all in a package, we were all great at some point.”

It’s too bad that the 1976-77 team didn’t get the overwhelming media exposure that college basketball teams get now. If so, it probably would have led the nation in TiVo recordings.

That squad, which fell to North Carolina, 84-83, in the Final Four in Atlanta, scored 100 points or more in 23 games that season including 12 in a row. And that was without the aid of the 3-point field goal or a 35-second shot clock.

“We had some shooters,” Smith, who had 195 assists that season, said. “You look at Tony Smith. You look at Sam Smith, Eddie Owens … Glen could shoot it when he wanted to, and I could knock a few down every now and then.”

That Theus fellow also wasn’t too shabby.

The 1975-76 squad that Smith quarterbacked a year earlier, which also cracked the 100-point barrier a remarkable 23 times that season, still holds the school record for scoring average at 110.5 points per game.

“We always wondered how many more points that we could have scored with the 3-pointer,” Smith admitted. “But I also wonder if the 3-pointer might have hurt us a little bit because we would have been all standing out there quite a bit. Percentages could have been up or down. Who knows? But we had some solid shooters.”

Not to mention one very talented and classy floor leader.

Former UNLV quarterback Steve Stallworth poses with South Point owner Michael Gaughan.