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Ogden

All of the 11,500 seats in the Dee Events Center were unoccupied Tuesday as the Weber State Wildcats practiced in advance of their NCAA Tournament appearance.

One chair appeared more empty than the others. As they stood in a corner of the court during interviews, Wildcats coach Randy Rahe and his players kept pointing to a spot a few rows behind the visitors' bench. That's where Jeff Smith spent part of most winter afternoons, watching the basketball team practice.

He's the story behind the "Smitty" patches the Wildcat men's and women's teams have worn on their jerseys since mid-February, when he died at age 61 after dealing with an illness he disclosed to few people. Smith was Weber State's longtime director of golf, personally coaching the women's team. He was devoted to his golf program, but his attachment to the Wildcat athletic department went far beyond that job description.

Nobody ever cared more about the 'Cats than Smith, an Ogden native and WSU graduate. He loved people, especially if they wore purple, and supported all of the coaches and athletes in the program. He may not have signed off on the tribute patches, but he would have loved what the Wildcats did last weekend, winning three tough games in the Big Sky Conference tournament in Reno, Nev.

The day Smith died, Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard posted a photo of the two of them and wrote, "When I talk about those people I crossed paths with at Weber State that impacted my life, it's people like this guy that I'm talking about."

Here's the thing: You didn't have to be Damian Lillard for Smith to show interest. You could have been freshman center Zach Braxton, who said this week, "He's such a great guy; he cares about people he hardly knew."

Braxton caught himself, recognizing he was switching tenses within that sentence. That's common in Ogden these days, amid the disbelief that Smith could be gone. "We loved him to death," said forward Richaud Gittens.

Rahe misses him, after 10 years of constant reinforcement. "I've never met a better human being — pure-hearted, caring, selfless … so supportive of me, the staff, the kids," Rahe said. "He was special. They just don't make 'em like that."

In Reno, the Wildcats trailed Portland State by one point going into the final minute. They needed Jeremy Senglin's 3-pointer with 12 seconds left to force overtime against North Dakota. And after Montana cut the lead to one point with 2:33 remaining, WSU held the Grizzlies scoreless the rest of the way in a 62-59 victory.

After the title game, Rahe told his staff members, "You know what? This one's for Smitty. He helped us win this one."

A few days later, Rahe reflected, "I really believe that. I'm not into all this crazy stuff, but I'm telling you, he was up there, making sure he pushed the right buttons to help us."

Some hazards accompany this story line, of course. The theory of Smitty's influence glosses over how the Weber State women's team lost a nine-point lead in the last 2:25 of regulation against Idaho in the quarterfinals, and how the Vandals won with a long 3-pointer at the buzzer in overtime.

Yet there's no doubt the overachieving Wildcat women and the tough-minded men have honored Smith in the past month. He enjoyed witnessing women's coach Bethann Ord's climb from an 0-29 record three years ago to 20 wins this season. And after agonizing with Lillard's teams that never made the NCAA Tournament, he undoubtedly appreciated what happened last weekend to punctuate the program's history-making season.

Smith died three days after Rahe earned his 200th victory overall and became the Big Sky's all-time leader in conference wins, and a couple of weeks before Weber State posted its 1,000th win as a Division I program.

Such numbers distinguish Rahe's work for a decade and the sustained success of Weber State basketball over 54 years. Jeff Smith's impact is less easily measured, but he'll be remembered Friday in St. Louis — and forever, in Ogden.

Twitter: @tribkurt