Her right knee bore a 3 ½ inch scar from a surgery 34 months ago — following the final game of her freshman season at Indiana State — for what some feared was an injury that would end her career or, at the least, diminish it.
“It was a big injury,” she said. “I tore my ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) , MCL, LCL and both meniscus (menisci).”
After her surgery she entered the transfer portal, but several schools that had shown interest in her before the injury backed away.
Dayton — more specifically new UD coach Tamika Williams-Jeter — did not.
Smith was determined to play for the Flyers in the coming season and to make that goal as indelible as possible, she had an intricate dream catcher tattoo inked right over her still-healing scar and upper shin.
“I wanted it right over where my stitches were for my surgery,” she said. “It was really important to me because I believed my dream still was going to come true.
“My dream has always been to be the best I could be — especially by capitalizing on the basketball aspect — and though it got stopped a little bit, I was determined to push through it. I was going to play again and play well.
“Nothing was going to stop me.
“I dreamed big.”
She missed the first 10 games of that 2022-2023 season, but has been a force for the Flyers ever since.
In her 63 games at UD, the 6-foot-2 forward has averaged 10.4 points and 9.8 rebounds a game.
The way she’s done that is the way she ended Sunday’s game as her understudy and heir apparent, Molly O’Riordan, watched intently from the bench.
It became a tutorial in dream catching.
For the second season in a row, Richmond is the best team in the Atlantic 10. The Spiders won the regular season and the conference tournament last year and went to the NCAA Tournament. Their coach, Aaron Roussell, was the A-10 Coach of the Year.
They came into the Arena on Sunday with a 16-5 record and a roster that has 12 players who are 6-feet or taller.
Although the Spiders led by as many as 14 points early in the fourth quarter, Smith refused to wilt.
With 3:25 left she dove on the floor to recover another loose ball. Soon after that, she scored inside.
She kept battling on the boards, twice was fouled and made three of four free throws.
Then came a lunge into the UD bench to grab another loose ball. Williams-Jeter caught her and patted her on the butt before sending her back into the fray.
In the final seconds Smith wrestled away two more rebounds, the final tussle sending the Spiders’ Katie Hill to the floor in a heap. Smith fed the ball to Ivy Wolf for a final three pointer in her team-high 19-point effort.
UD lost 83-72, but in the fourth quarter alone, Smith had 10 points and eight rebounds.
She ended the game with 18 points and 16 rebounds, her seventh double-double in UD’s 12-8 season.
‘You can’t stop playing’
“You can’t stop playing,” Smith said. “Even though we were down 10, you don’t know what’s going to happen.
“When the buzzer goes off, that’s when I stop.”
Actually, she was stopped with 6.4 seconds left, when Williams-Jeter sent O’Riordan into the game again, this time so Smith could hear the cheers of the nearly 2,000 fans as she came to the bench.
But no one in the Arena appreciated Smith more than the 6-foot-2 O’Riordan, who a year ago was playing high school basketball in Barrington, Illinois, a northwest suburb of Chicago:
“Nany’s been a real inspiration for me ever since I got here in the summer. She’s really helped me transition through the ups and downs that come with your freshman year of college.
“I’ve always struggled with my confidence and she took me under her wing. She pushes me every day in practice. She tells me if I’m doing something wrong and shows me the right way to play.
“She’s shows me that no matter what she’s going through — injuries, her just not feeling great, whatever — she’s going to put 110 percent into it on the floor. And that’s really helped me develop.”
When UD played at Richmond on Dec. 29, O’Riordan played just 2 minutes and 48 seconds in the 55-37 loss, and she did not score or get a rebound.
Sunday — after Smith picked up her second foul early in the second quarter — O’Riordan came in and in just under four minutes, scored seven points and grabbed two of her four rebounds on the day,
Just as O’Riordan is awed by Smith, her mentor is impressed with her.
“This is my last year in college, and I want to make a mark — to leave a legacy — for the person to come after me,” Smith said.
“When Molly came in here, I saw she was eager. She was doing her little (Nikola) Jokic fade away and getting rebounds. I said, ‘This is what we need.’
“She just needed a little more confidence and I wanted to help her. That’s creating a legacy, too.”
Credit: Erik Schelkun
Credit: Erik Schelkun
Practice battles
The two go against each other every day in practice.
“She kicked Molly’s butt every day at first,” Williams-Jeter said with a laugh. “Today, Molly really gave us some production and a lot of that is because of Nany and how she’s shown her to play.”
Smith said O’Riordan has embraced the advice and lessons she’s offered:
“She asks a lot of good questions,” Smith said. “She’s going to be a teacher, and you know how teachers are. They have a lot of questions.
“And before the end of last semester, Molly and I went to lunch and had a conversation. I told her, ‘This is my last year. I’m trying to pass the throne to you.’
“I asked her, ‘Is there’s anything more I can do to help you? If there’s anything I need to give you, let me know.’”
Off the court, O’Riordan said she and Smith are “completely different.”
“I like country music,” O’Riordan said.
Smith has several tattoos, but said she recently got rid of her tongue stud: “It’s about getting grown and going out in the real world and looking more professional.”
O’Riordan said: “I don’t have any tattoos and don’t plan on getting any. If I did, I’d have to hide it from my mother.”
She said while they have “different styles,” they are similarly competitive on the court. Best of all, they share a mutual respect of each other.
After this season — after she wraps up a college career that now includes 857 points and 742 rebounds — Smith hopes to play professionally in Europe. But she said she plans on returning to Dayton when she can and will keep an eye on the program and especially O’Riordan:
“The first couple of years here were really tough, but this year we’re finally seeing some of the growth Coach Meek has been wanting. I think it’s just going to get better and Molly will be a big part of it.
“Her trajectory is going in the right direction. To know I played a part in that, that’s part of the legacy I wanted to leave. I’m glad I could pass something on.”
Sunday she did it by diving on the floor, battling under the boards and lunging across the sideline.
That got her a torn legging and a young teammate’s admiration and respect.
The dream catcher is working.
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