Smith isn’t talking about renovating or replacing 80-year-old Williams Arena, but a new practice facility is his No. 1 priority.

“I think there’s a lot of room for improvement in areas and we’ve come across some that we’re discussing with people on campus and that’s where it ought to stay,” Smith told the Minneapolis Star Tribune this week. “I’d like to see something done to help basketball. We’ve done our part. We need to get that done because there really hasn’t been anything done for basketball since I’ve been here in a major way.

“(It’s) kind of like the NASCAR. You want to win? You better put some money in there. You got to (have) the right engine, you got the right people running it, you’ve got to have the right pit crew. You’d better be changing and looking to evaluate every day. You’ve got to have that because you’re competing. You’re competing against everybody else.”

There are plans in place for a $15 million practice facility, but there is no funding in place. There could be money available, Smith noted. The basketball program, according to Forbes magazine, turned a $9 million profit in the 2009-10 season.

“It’s proven that there’s dollars and a commitment to a program (that’s) certainly proven to help when you talk about facilities and getting the right coaches and the right staff and those things,” Minnesota athletics director Joel Maturi told the Star Tribune last week. “But I think you also can point to several programs that have all of those things and haven’t won. So there are no guarantees.”

“I think you’d better be careful with that statement of more money is going to result in more success. I don’t necessarily feel that that’s the answer, and yet there does need to be the commitment for the right things to be successful, including us having a basketball practice facility.”