Bianca Smith was hired in July of 2020 to become an assistant coach under second-year head coach Aqua Franklin.
Returning back to the Southland Conference for the 2022-23 season, Lamar posted a 20-12 overall record and also went 12-6 in the conference, which was the third best record. The Cardinals would reach the conference championship game winning against McNeese and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi before falling to Southeastern Louisiana in the title game. Akasha Davis would be named first team all-conference and earn four SLC players of the week honors while she and Portia Adams (also an SLC player of the week) were named to the conference's all tournament team.
In the 2021-22 season, Lamar joined the Western Athletic Conference and would finish the year with a 14-15 record overall and an 8-10 conference record. Lamar won their conference tournament opener against New Mexico State before falling in the second round. For the second year in a row, Franklin coached a conference Freshman of the Year as Akasha Davis took home the honors and was second team All-WAC averaging 12.8 points, which included four games of 20 or more points and five WAC Freshman of the Week honors.
The 2020-21 campaign saw the Cardinals match their win total from the previous year at 10-14, but improved in the Southland Conference with a 9-6 record, which was enough to qualify for the conference tournament. Some of the players she coached that year included SLC Freshman of the Year Sabria Dean, Defensive Player of the Year and two-time All-Defensive Team member Jadyn Pimental, and All-SLC First Team and All-Academic member Micaela Wilson.
She has spent the previous four seasons on staff with the Loyola University Chicago Ramblers. During her time in Chicago, she helped guide the Ramblers to their first winning season since 2011-12 as an assistant coach. A program that won only two games during her first season on campus, the Ramblers proceeded to increase their win total in each of the next three seasons.
Prior to her stint in Chicago, Smith served as the director of basketball operations at the University of Pittsburgh. Before her stint in the Steel City, she spent three years at Rice. The Missouri City, Texas native, served as the team's video coordinator in 2011-12 before she was promoted to an assistant coach role.
Before Smith began her collegiate coaching career with Texas Southern as a graduate assistant in 2011-12, she was a four-year letter winner at the University of Colorado. The 5-foot-9 guard completed her time at Colorado as the all-time leader in both three-pointers made and attempted. She earned Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year honors for her efforts during her senior season. She finished her career 18th on Colorado's all-time scoring list with 1,138 points.
After her time at Colorado, she went on to play one season of professional basketball in Lithuania.
Smith is a 2010 graduate of Colorado where she earned her degree in sociology.Â
