Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Longwood men’s basketball coach Griff Aldrich announced the addition two new members to the men’s basketball staff. Aaron Smith joins the staff as an assistant coach, and Myo Baxter-Bell will be the team’s new director of player development.

Smith comes to Farmville with nearly a decade of experience in the collegiate coaching ranks, where he has served as both a head coach and an assistant. Most recently, he served as an assistant at Louisiana Tech for the past two seasons.

Meanwhile, Baxter Bell joins Longwood following time on staff at Gannon and Liberty University.

“We are thrilled to welcome Aaron Smith and Myo Baxter-Bell to our staff,” Aldrich said. “We have been fortunate over the years to have outstanding coaches and men on our staff—and these two continue that pattern.”

Detailing Smith’s background

Last season at Louisiana Tech, Smith helped guide the Bulldogs to a 22-10 season, including a 12-4 record in Conference USA. Louisiana Tech posted a winning record on the road and was the top-rated CUSA team in the NCAA Net rankings and KenPom. The Bulldogs ranked seventh in the nation in field goal percentage defense (.391 percent) and were 16th in the nation in scoring defense (64.5 points per game). Twenty times, they held their opponents under 40 percent shooting.

“My family and I are very excited to be here at Longwood,” Smith said. “I have known Coach Griff for a long time, and it is truly my honor to have the opportunity to join his staff and be a part of this program.”

“I have known Coach Smith for many years and have always had great respect for him both as a coach and his reasons for being in coaching,” Aldrich said. “His values and purpose strongly align with ours at Longwood, and I am thrilled to welcome Aaron, his wife Keri and daughter Nicole into our basketball family.”

He helped Isaiah Crawfod, the CUSA Player of the Year and CUSA Defensive Player of the Year, along with Daniel Batcho, the CUSA Newcomer of the Year, and Tahlik Chavez and Sean Newman, who were All-CUSA honorees.

A two-time TexasJucoBasketball.com Coach of the Year, he spent seven seasons as a head coach, with four coming at Jacksonville College followed by three at Panola College.

At Panola, he helped the Ponies post a 22-win season in his final year, and his team advanced to the Region XIV Semifinals.

In his second season there, he led a squad with 13 freshman to a 14-7 record that also included eight weeks in the NJCAA Top 25, climbing as high as No. 14. In his debut season, he helped guide the Ponies to a 19-win campaign that also included three wins over ranked teams and a No. 11 national ranking.

During his tenure at Jacksonville College, he posted three 20-win campaigns in four years, and he racked up 78 wins in his four seasons. In each of his final two years, his team’s season ended with Region XIV Championships, the program’s first since 1989. In his first year at Jacksonville, he guided an offense that was second in the nation in scoring at 102.6 points per game.

A Prairie View A&M graduate, Smith was a standout scorer for the Panthers. Following graduation in 2008, he was the fourth overall pick in the Continental Basketball Association draft by the Lawton-Fort Sill Cavalry. He also played overseas in France and Bulgaria.

He jumped into coaching by starting an AAU program in Dallas, Texas, and the program grew over five years to become one of the premier programs in the Texas grassroots circuit. Eventually, the success led to the team earning the right to be sponsored by Adidas.

Smith holds his Master of Theological Studies, which he obtained from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2017, and he and his wife, Keri, have two children.

Myo Baxter-Bell responsible for turnaround

For Baxter-Bell, he helped guide Gannon to the biggest turnaround in NCAA Division II history in 2023-24. The program went 32-3, with a 29-win improvement over the year prior, and the team advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight.

“I am excited for the opportunity to get to work with elite people at Longwood,” Baxter Bell, a Liberty graduate, said. “I played two years in the Big South Conference, so I am excited to be back in the conference I started in. I’m also grateful for the staff giving me the chance.”

“Similarly, we are excited to add Myo to our staff,” Aldrich said. “An excellent player at Liberty who has been on some outstanding staffs at Liberty and Gannon University, Myo really stood out for his passion for relationship-building with players. We have already seen strong evidence of that in the short time he has been with us and cannot wait to see the positive impact he will have on our players and program!”

In the process of the run, Baxter-Bell helped Gannon win 21 straight games prior to the Elite Eight loss, and the team garnered the No. 3 seed in the NCAA Division II National Tournament. The team won its first conference title in nearly a decade and advanced to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2009.

Prior to Gannon, Baxter-Bell served on the staff at his alma mater, Liberty, for two seasons. He was a part of a Liberty staff that helped the team win 49 games during these two seasons, including a 27-9 record in 2022-23. The Flames advanced to the ASUN Championship Game that year before appearing in the NIT.

During his playing days, he scored 900 career points over 141 games and was in the top 40 in points, rebounds and assists in program history when he graduated in 2020. He was a part of two ASUN championship teams (2019 and 2020).

In 2019, he helped the Flames win 29 games, including a first-round upset of Mississippi State in the NCAA Tournament. His senior year included a 30-win campaign in 2020.

Following his collegiate career, he played professionally in Argentina.

Myo Baxter-Bell holds his undergraduate degree in Sport Management from Liberty, and he obtained his master’s in 2023 from Liberty as well.