Growing up in Napanee, Ontario, Smart played basketball at Ernestown Secondary School, before enrolling at Simon Fraser University of the NAIA where he played from 1997 to 1999 before transferring to Carleton. He won the CIS National Championship with the Ravens in 2003, while earning First Team All-Canadian honours. He was a member of Team Canada at the 2003 World University Games in South Korea and played professionally for BBC Bayreuth in the German 2. Bundesliga in parts of the 2003-04 season. After returning to Canada, Smart pursued a PhD degree in management at Carleton University. His doctoral thesis was on "A Longitudinal Case Study of a Public-Sector Change Team".