“FEARLESS”
“I like to say I’m fearless,” he said quietly of the inkwork he added some 20 months ago. “I got this tat after I injured my ankles and had surgery. I wanted to remind myself that I could overcome anything.
“I wanted to show I’m not scared of nothin’.”
That battle cry worked for him as he rebuilt himself physically and mentally from his injury-plagued first three years as a Dayton Flyer and it truly came to the fore Tuesday night in a crucible moment at UD Arena with the game on the line and the ball in his hands in the final seconds.
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The Dayton Flyers trailed UNLV, 65-63.
At stake was the Flyers’ 24-game winning streak at home, their continued attempt to build a formidable resume for NCAA Tournament consideration at season’s end and, most importantly, finding a way to pull out a victory on this night when, physically and emotionally, they were drained from another huge moment three days earlier: The come-from-behind victory over No. 6 Marquette.
During a timeout with 23 seconds left, coach Anthony Grant put Smith — who had been on the bench for just 14 seconds of chess-move manipulations of the lineup — back on the court with a final directive.
The ball would be in his hands.
The first option for a play would be 6-foot-7 forward Nate Santos, who had just drained a three-pointer from the corner 52 seconds earlier to put UD back in striking distance.
If that didn’t work, the fate of the night rested on the shoulders of Smith, the slightly built 6-1 senior guard with the bright pink shoes and the ongoing black and blue battering he gets from opposing defenders, especially the big men, as he drives — FEARLESS — into the lane.
“Nate was the first option — if he had a shot or a drive to make a play — but he threw it back to me,” Smith said. “I wanted to make the best play for my team, whether it was to get a shot for me or my teammates, so I just decided to drive. I was just trying to get a good shot and just living with the results.
“I didn’t try to overthink it.”
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He was being guarded by UNLV’s 6-foot-3 sophomore Brooklyn Hicks.
“My first thing was to get him off balance,” Smith said. “I did a little hesi (hesitation) and a little cross (dribble) and I knew once I did the cross, I saw he was leaning so I attacked the paint.
“I kept the ball out in front of me. I guess he kind of reached for it. I was able to get a good look at the basket and made it and he fouled me.”
The basket — with eight seconds left –tied the game and Smith let out a yell of delight, relief and belief before running toward the sideline crowd and roaring again with triumph to the fans.
Then he had to regroup for his final free throw.
He had missed his other two foul shot attempts earlier in the half, but cleared himself of those thoughts.
“I just took a deep breath and walked to half court, just to relax,” he said.
He made it sound like it was a quiet stroll in the woods, when instead 13,407 people were standing and still roaring about his heroics.
“My teammates told me to relax,” he said. “Nate told me and then Von (Javon Bennett) said, ‘You got this.’”
He did. His free throw put UD up, 66-65.
UNLV had one last shot at victory, but the sideline jumper by Dedan Thomas Jr. — who finished with a game-high 16 points — was contested by a long, arm-raised-high lunge by Zed Key and the ball hit the front of the rim and caromed away.
The draining victory, coupled with the glorious conquest of Marquette on Saturday night, gave the team and its fans two of the most euphoric back-to-back moments they’ve had at UD Arena in recent memory .
Even though the Flyers struggled at times against UNLV — especially with their 5- for-21 marksmanship from three-point range — there were players who stood out.
Santos hit the big three late and finished with a team-high 14 points. Key added 13, and 7-foot-1 freshman Amael L’Etang continued to impress. He came off the bench and in just 15 ½ minutes, scored 10 points and grabbed six rebounds.
But the star of this game was Smith, whose 11 points came with five assists, including the crucial one, a thread-the-baseline fastball to Santos off a drive, that set up the giant trey from the corner.
“He’s built for these moments,” Santos said of Smith. “We missed him last year. We know how hard he works. We trust him to make these plays, and he did.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Long road back
Smith long ago shed the tag of being Scoochie Smith’s little brother.
A decade ago, Scoochie led the Flyers to four straight NCAA Tournaments, scored 1,289 points in his career and earlier this season was inducted into the UD Hall of Fame.
Malachi — Mali, as he’s known to everyone around the program — became a starter in the fourth game of his freshman year and since then has had a rougher road to travel than did his brother.
Injuries plagued his first three years and before this season he’d only been healthy enough to play in just over half of the 102 games the Flyers had with him on the roster.
After a stellar first season — and All-Atlantic 10 freshman team honors — he was hurt in the first half of A-10 tournament semifinal against Richmond. The Flyers lost and were the first team left out of the NCAA Tournament.
He played on gimpy ankles the following season and had ankle-reconstructive surgery afterward.
Credit: David Jablonski
Then last season, seven minutes into the very first game, he was knocked to the floor on a drive and tore the lateral meniscus in his right knee. He was lost for the season.
As this season started, he talked about having to play on “a whole new lower body. I’ve had too many surgeries. I’m testing out my new feet, my new ankles, my new knees.”
The mental challenge was far more of a struggle than the physical he said and for a while he admitted to losing much of his confidence.
He’s steeled himself and continually lifted himself with several big moments this season.
And then came Tuesday night and what he admitted was the biggest drive of his career:
“For sure it’s the biggest. When you look at the overall big picture, that was kind of a fantastic play for everybody involved.”
The ‘playmaker’
During the postgame handshake line, UNLV assistant coach John Cooper – the former head coach of the Miami RedHawks and then an SMU assistant – stopped Smith and they talked earnestly for a few minutes.
“He was at SMU when we played them my freshman year,” Smith said. “He said he’s been following me. He knows what I have been through, and he wanted to tell me he was proud of me. He said he was proud of my resiliency and my courage.”
Afterward, Grant praised Smith, as well:
“If I had to sum up (what he does for the Flyers) I’d say it’s his playmaking. It’s his innate ability to be a playmaker. He’s a guy that makes the game easier for the other guys on the floor, That’s a special quality.”
It’s a big reason the Flyers are now 10-2 and ranked No. 22 in the nation.
Friday night they play 8-1, No. 19 ranked Cincinnati at the Heritage Bank Center.
Although the players tiptoe around it when speaking in public — and Grant is rightfully cautious about losing focus and only wants to talk about the next game on the schedule — it’s obvious something special is starting to build this season.
“I’m just proud of myself and my teammates,” Smith said when pressed about Tuesday night’s glorious finish. “We just stepped up to the moment. We found a way tonight. I don’t know how else to explain it.”
Yes, he does.
He just needs to hold up his right arm and show the prophetic ink:
“FEARLESS.”
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