Introducing Big East Coast Bias’ newest writer: Kayla Smith!

Before heading to the East coast for college, Kayla grew up in Northern Colorado, with the Rocky Mountains practically in her backyard. When home from school, she is notorious for losing cell signal while hiking with her dog, and drinking too many smoothies.

Kayla grew up hearing her father’s ‘war stories’ from the Big East basketball conference from when he was a student at Villanova (‘84 grad). The infamous games that were played in the 80’s sounded like a dream - and the excitement, the community, the raw passion and desire in the players and fans - something otherworldly.

After finding herself at the same school her father went to some 30-odd years later, she was stunned by the realization that everything was just as amazing as she’d hoped. After Villanova won the National Championship the very first year she was on campus, she took it as a sign to become even more involved with college basketball

While in high school, in the midst of a string of injuries that effectively ended her own athletic endeavors, Kayla spent her time sidelined slowly getting drawn into the world of college basketball. Instead of obsessing over her mile splits and the new state cross country course, she found herself waking up with basketball on her mind, and although she transitioned from athlete to writer, she still believes that she impacts the outcomes of games as much as ever. She doesn’t like to be called superstitious - but she is a little stitious. There is a reason she hasn’t worn a certain one of her jerseys since April 4th, 2016, after all.

She's looking forward to seeing how the Big East continues to grow and change, and is patiently awaiting the day when no one mentions 'The Old Big East.' A new era of college basketball is upon us, and this is the one that will be dominated by the East Coast.