I recently stumbled across the Fact that Shaka Smart graduated magna cum laude with a degree in History from Kenyon College, an elite liberal arts college. He then went on to get his masters in social sciences from California University of Pennsylvania. Not your typical jock athlete with an undergrad degree in PE and a grad degree in sports management.
Shaka's wife holds degrees from Harvard and Northwestern. Shaka seems like one smart dude and he seems to hang around with other smart people if his wife is any example of the people he associates with.
Bill you are correct. Part of the smarts came from his stint as an assistant coach at the University of Dayton. Read up on how Shaka credits his time at the the largest private research university in Ohio in shaping his world/basketball viewpoint.
Also read how Shaka credits Anthony Grant (former University of Dayton player, current Alabama coach and also former the former VCU head coach that hired Shaka), his head coach at VCU.