The Stanford basketball program moved on from Jerod Haase as head coach and hired Washington State's Kyle Smith in a big move. Smith is fresh off a trip to the NCAA Tournament and a Round of 64 victory, so there is a lot to love about Stanford pegging Smith as the guy with them moving to the ACC in 2024.

Smith had his introductory press conference on Wednesday and talked in great depth about the decision to leave Pullman for Palo Alto. During it, he got extremely emotional regarding his 13-year-old son, Bo. Smith mentioned how Stanford's autism center will make a big difference for his son, per Greg Woods of The Spokesman Review.

“It's hard not to cry. To have that opportunity for our family, my son may have more resources. I'm just honored and thankful. You'll all get to know Bo soon enough…You guys know. It's a joyous cry, I promise you.”

Smith also talked about how he got in touch with Antonio Cardan, who works with Stanford's autism center, and how the resources would help his family immensely. While moving from Washington State to Stanford is a better basketball job to begin with, this seems to have a lot to do with his family situation as well.

Kyle Smith's move to Stanford is more than just basketball 

Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports

Kyle Smith did a magnificent job this season at Washington State, bringing the Cougars to their first NCAA Tournament trip since 2008 while earning some Coach of the Year buzz. They defeated 10-seed Drake in the Round of 62 before losing to 2-seed Iowa State.

But, having a chance to have the Stanford autism center help his son, Bo, is a huge deal. In 2020, Smith talked about the difficulties and challenges he and his family face during an exclusive with Jayson Jenks of The Athletic. While Smith likes to help everyone he can, he admitted there isn't much he can do for Bo.

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“I really enjoy helping people fulfill their dreams. But I can’t do that for my own son.”

It's certainly a difficult thing to deal with, but having a program as well-known as the Stanford autism center will work wonders for Smith and his family, which makes the transition from Washington State to Stanford even more welcome.

From a basketball perspective, Smith enters Stanford with an overall coaching record of 258-193 during stints at Columbia, San Francisco, and Washington State. With Stanford headed to the ACC in 2024 in some massive realignment changes, and Washington State being one of only two Pac-12 programs remaining (Oregon State is the other), this will be a big change for Smith, but certainly one he will be able to work with given his recent success as head coach.