Marquette's Shaka Smart is 45 years old and just completed his 13th season as head coach of a college basketball team.

It's hard to remember a time that Smart wasn't running his own program, but there were several crucial stops on his journey to get there. One of them often gets overlooked because it was so brief, though Smart's stint as an assistant coach under Billy Donovan at the University of Florida in the 2008-09 season was a formative experience. Smart and Donovan have remained close even with Donovan moving on to the NBA, where he is leading the Chicago Bulls against the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the playoffs.

“He’s the best," Smart said. "So I learned a ton from him. One of the things I so much enjoyed about working for him was the conversations we would have about trying to help players. I really look at the game from the standpoint of the mental and the psychological approach in a similar way. Where I would try to emulate, I would say, the way he approaches it. He’s constantly thinking about how he can help positively affect the minds of his players. And help guys be in a good place to be their best."

Smart first entered the orbit of Donovan in the summer of 2000 when Donovan was one of the hottest young coaching stars after leading Florida to the national championship game. Smart was just getting his career started after graduating from Kenyon College in 1999 and got a gig working at Donovan's summer camp.

Eight years later, Donovan was looking for an assistant coach. Rob Lanier, then on the Gators' staff and now the head coach at Southern Methodist, had become friends with Smart and connected Donovan with the then-Clemson assistant.

“I had always really looked up to Coach Donovan because of the way he coached and the way his team played," Smart said. "Then just having been on campus and worked their camp, watching their players play pickup after camp, I just looked up to them and thought they had a great program.”

Florida won back-to-back NCAA titles under Donovan in 2005-06 and 2006-07, but the Gators were going through a transition season in 2008-09 and lost in the quarterfinals of the National Invitation Tournament. Crucially for his career, though, Smart became friendly with Doc Rivers while recruiting the influential Marquette alumnus' son Austin and also closely watching how Donovan ran his program. Smart had developed a reputation as an up-and-comer and was hired by Virginia Commonwealth in March 2009.

“I really went down there to be there a long time," Smart said. "And then the AD from VCU called me less than a year later and it was a tough decision because I went down there to work for Billy for five, eight years. But it was just a great opportunity that I couldn’t pass up. And Coach Donovan was extremely supportive in me trying to get that job.”

Donovan and Smart worked together again with the USA Basketball U18 and U19 teams in 2012 and 2013.

"He’s been great," Donovan said. "I love him. He and I are very, very close. We talk a lot. He’ll do a great job here (at MU). Our time together was not very long. Obviously, he did a great job at VCU.

“I know his family is from Wisconsin. So being back in the state means a lot to him. But he’s a terrific coach and an even better person. I really, really enjoy our relationship.”

Smart still leans on his old boss for guidance. Donovan jumped to the NBA with the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2015. He was hired by the Bulls in 2020.

“I try not to bother him too much," Smart said. "I mean, he’s the head coach of an NBA playoff team. But he’s been awesome. I remember calling him when I first got here to Marquette. In fact, I was staying in a little dorm-apartment on campus for a few days. I remember just sitting there and talking with him about early interactions with players and some of the challenges. At that point, not a lot of guys were on campus. Trying to kind of work through helping guys figure out whether they were in or out. He’s always given me great advice.”

The connections continue. One of Smart's former players at VCU, Bradford Burgess, works for Donovan as player development coordinator. Before MU's season, Smart took the Golden Eagles to Chicago, where they toured the Bulls' facility and heard from Donovan.

"I think those guys gained a sense of the fact that I got a lot of my approach from him," Smart said. "Because he talked a lot about relationships. He talked a lot about playing for each other. He talked a lot about the love and the bond that great teams have."

Smart isn't surprised that Donovan has found success in the NBA.

"I think Billy Donovan could coach on Mars," Smart said. "He could coach in the MBA, the Mars Basketball Association. Those of us that have worked around him and with him, he’s the type of the guy that if you don’t like him, there’s something wrong with you. Because he’s universally adored by people that know him and work for him."

Contact Ben Steele at (414) 224-2676 or bmsteele@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BenSteeleMJS or Instagram at @bensteele_mjs

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Marquette's Shaka Smart worked for Bulls' Billy Donovan at Florida