SoCal style summed up Gavin Smith’s year in Hawaii

Larry Little remembers with clarity the moment of Gavin Smith’s arrival in Hawaii back in 1976. It was distinctive.

"He came off the plane and walked over to the luggage area. He had a bandana around his hair, and (the hair) was long," said the former UH coach. "Southern Cal style, SoCal I guess. That pretty much sums up his year."

Smith was a 6-foot-6 all-purpose scorer who came in from UCLA as a senior, already an NCAA champion under coach John Wooden in 1975. In his one season at UH, Smith set the bar as high as possible for a program that would soon be rocked by an NCAA investigation. His scoring average of 23.4 from the 1976-77 season still stands as the best in program history, and he also led the team with 6.5 rebounds per game.

After the season, Smith played in the Aloha Classic, a national college all-star game played locally with players selected by the late former UH coach Red Rocha.

And just like that, Smith (and his flowing blond hair and bandana) was gone from UH lore.

"We hadn’t had much contact," Little said. "He basically exited the program when we finished the season, to be very truthful about it."

Smith went on to become an executive at 20th Century Fox in California and stayed in the movie distribution department for 18 years. Then, in May of 2012, Little heard from another former player when news broke that the 57-year-old Smith went missing under suspicious circumstances in Ventura County, Calif.

THE NEXT TIME the subject arose in UH circles was Thursday, when it came to light that Smith’s remains were found by hikers on Oct. 26 in a remote area near Palmdale, Calif., in the Antelope Valley, about 70 miles away from where the father of three was last seen leaving the home of a female friend.

Results of an autopsy have not been finalized, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.

Authorities said earlier they had found Smith’s Mercedes-Benz at a Simi Valley storage facility nine months after his disappearance. Its condition along with witness statements led them to believe Smith was killed.

Sheriff’s Lt. Dave Dolson said investigators are optimistic they will solve the case.

"We believe we know what happened" and why, he said without elaboration.

Dolson said the remains were crucial to the case and were found in an area where investigators believed they would be located.

"I hope that they reach their conclusion, as we would all want it," said Little, 74, who coached from 1976 to 1985.

When Smith arrived in Hawaii, Little had just inherited the program from the fired Bruce O’Neil and interim coach Rick Pitino. It was a tumultuous time — the NCAA soon found multiple violations committed during O’Neil’s tenure and placed the program, then a Division I independent, on probation for two years.

"They were mad times. We were scrambling in recruiting," Little said. "I got a late call. … At that time, guys could play immediately (as transfers). And so, among other phone calls, I got a call from UCLA saying they have a player who wasn’t going to be returning to their program, and would we be interested in him coming to ours? We had other circumstances where we had three starters who were going to leave our program. I guess I’m not clear to this day why some of it took place. But we were of course going to be investigated. And so I knew it was going to be tenuous and we were going to have a hard time getting enough guys. So we took Gavin."

Smith was a gifted mid-range shooter who had a knack for getting in the lane and putting back shots of teammates, or his own. In the open court, he was a sturdy ballhandler for his 6-6 size who could be counted on to break pressure by opponents.

His torrential, volume scoring (at a shooting percentage of .441) came without the benefit of a 3-point line.

"He had long arms, and was a quick jumper, and I think that was a real, real positive in his makeup, and was able to get to balls," Little said. "He was pretty quick. I suppose in today’s terminology he would have been a 2-guard, but he played mostly what would have been the 3 (small forward) for us."

Former UH coach Riley Wallace, then the coach at Centenary, took his team for a two-game road trip to Hawaii on Feb. 18 and 19 of 1977. Smith excelled in a sweep of the Gents, Wallace remembers. Of course, the hair and the bandana also stood out.

"He was a heck of an offensive player," Wallace said.

Off the court, Little remembers Smith as somewhat of a dual personality.

"He could be extremely outgoing. On road trips, he would seem to make friends easily," Little said. "In public, he could be very open and very gregarious. At other times, he kind of stayed within himself."

The coach said Smith stood out visually among the Rainbows, but he had the substance to back up the style.

"Gavin fit pretty nicely into the laid-back (style) when he got there," Little said. "If (players) wanted to show their individualism they could, and that certainly wasn’t a problem with us. He didn’t use it to his advantage or to anybody else’s detriment."

UH went 9-18 in the season Smith played. The next year, it was 1-26.

Besides the scoring average of 23.4, Smith holds UH season records for field goals made (252) and attempted (571). Anthony Harris holds UH’s single-season total points record at 626 points in 1995-96. Smith scored 608 total in 1976-77.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.