NaLyssa Smith (born August 8, 2000) is an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player for the

Indiana Fever The Indiana Fever are an American professional basketball team based in Indianapolis, playing in the Eastern Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team was founded before the 2000 season began. The team is owned ...

of the

Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is an American professional basketball league. It is composed of twelve teams, all based in the United States. The league was founded on April 22, 1996, as the women's counterpart to the Natio ...

(WNBA). She played college basketball for Baylor, winning the NCAA Division I Championship in 2019 and the

Wade Trophy The Wade Trophy is an award presented annually to the best upperclass women's basketball player in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I competition. It is named after three–time national champion Delta State University coac ...

in 2021. She was drafted second overall by the Fever in the 2022 WNBA draft.

Early life and high school career

Smith grew up in

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , s ...

and played at East Central High School, averaging 23.4 points, 13.7 rebounds, and 3.4 blocks per game as a senior. A five-star recruit and the no. 3 recruit by

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

, Smith committed to playing

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

at Baylor over schools such as

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

, and

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

College career

Freshman year

As a freshman, Smith came off the bench for the Lady Bears and provided steady minutes. Baylor coach

Kim Mulkey Kimberly Duane Mulkey (born May 17, 1962) is an American college basketball player and coach. She is the head coach for Louisiana State University's women's basketball team. A Pan-American gold medalist in 1983 and Olympic gold medalist in 1984, ...

praised Smith and said that she won many games for the Bears during their national championship season because opposing teams were too focused on the team's star players

Lauren Cox Lauren Elizabeth Cox (born April 20, 1998) is an American professional basketball player for Valencia Basket. She played college basketball for the Baylor Lady Bears. She was named a preseason All-American by Lindy's Sports, Athlon Sports, and S ...

and

Kalani Brown Kalani Brown (born March 21, 1997) is an American professional basketball player for the Dallas Wings of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and for Hatayspor. She has received multiple honors during her playing career, and was nam ...

. In the national championship game, she came off the bench to replace an injured Cox and put up eight points and four rebounds to help Baylor win against Notre Dame.

Sophomore year

Smith was promoted into the starting lineup in her sophomore year and improved on her production, averaging 14.3 points and 8 rebounds en route to earning first-team All-Big 12. She also led the Lady Bears in

double-doubles In basketball, a double-double is a single-game performance in which a player accumulates ten or more in two of the following five statistical categories: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocked shots. The first "double" in the term ...

with 11.

Junior year

Smith continued to improve, averaging a near double-double and winning Big 12 Player of the Year. In the NCAA tournament, Smith scored 24 points in the Lady Bears' Sweet Sixteen match against

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

and tied a tournament record for most field goals made without a miss with 11. Smith's stellar season garnered her a number of awards, such as the

, the

Katrina McClain Award The Katrina McClain Award is an award presented annually to the best women's basketball power forward in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I competition. It is named after Hall of Famer Katrina McClain-Pittman, a two-t ...

, and All-American honors from the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

Women's Basketball Coaches Association The Women's Basketball Coaches Association is an association of coaches of women's basketball teams at all levels. The organization was formed in 1981, with the goal of addressing the needs of women's basketball coaches. The mission of the WBCA ...

, and the

United States Basketball Writers Association The United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) was founded in 1956 by National Collegiate Athletic Association director Walter Byers to serve the interests of journalists who cover college basketball. Scholarships The USBWA annually awa ...

Professional career

On April 11, 2022, Smith was drafted second overall by the

in the 2022 WNBA draft.

WNBA career statistics

Regular season

, - , align="left" ,

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

, align="left" ,

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

, 32 , , 32 , , 30.7 , , .419 , , .381 , , .618 , , 7.9 , , 1.4 , , 0.5 , , 0.3 , , 2.4 , , 13.5 , - , align="left" , Career , align="left" , 1 year, 1 team , 32 , , 32 , , 30.7 , , .419 , , .381 , , .618 , , 7.9 , , 1.4 , , 0.5 , , 0.3 , , 2.4 , , 13.5

National team career

Smith was a member of the United States women's national under-18 basketball team at the 2018 FIBA Americas U18 Championship, helping them win the gold medal in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

. She was set to represent the

United States women's national under-19 basketball team The USA women's national under-19 basketball team is the women's basketball team, administered by USA Basketball, that represents the United States in international under-19 and under-18 (under age 19 and under age 18) women's basketball competiti ...

at the

2019 FIBA Under-19 Women's Basketball World Cup The 2019 FIBA Under-19 Women's Basketball World Cup (Thai: บาสเกตบอลหญิงชิงแชมป์โลกรุ่นอายุไม่เกิน 19 ปี 2019) (formerly FIBA U19 Women's World Championship) was a ...

, but withdrew due to injury concerns.

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;" , 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;" , Baylor , 38 , , 1 , , 15.3 , , .543 , , .111 , , .681 , , 5.1 , , 0.4 , , 0.4 , , 0.4 , , 0.9 , , 8.4 , - , style="text-align:left;" , 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;" , Baylor , 28 , , 27 , , 24.1 , , .586 , , .000 , , .746 , , 8.0 , , 0.6 , , 0.9 , , 0.6 , , 1.7 , , 14.3 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, style="text-align:left;" , Baylor , 31 , , 31 , , 30.5 , , .561 , , .214 , , .792 , , 8.9 , , 1.2 , , 1.2 , , 0.8 , , 2.8 , , 18.0 , - , style="text-align:left;" , 2021–22 , style="text-align:left;" , Baylor , 35 , , 35 , , 32.9 , , .550 , , .237 , , .795 , , 11.5 , , 1.1 , , 0.7 , , 1.1 , , 2.5 , , 22.1 , - , style="text-align:center;" colspan=2 , Career , 132 , , 94 , , 25.4 , , .558 , , .200 , , .768 , , 8.3 , , 0.8 , , 0.8 , , 0.7 , , 1.9 , , 15.5

Personal life

Smith is the daughter of Rodney and Nikki Smith. Rodney was a basketball player at UTSA and her brother Rodney Jr. played soccer at the

University of Saint Mary The University of Saint Mary (USM) is a private Catholic university in Leavenworth, Kansas, United States. It is sponsored by the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, who established it in 1923 as Saint Mary College. Though it was originally a sch ...

References

External links

Baylor Lady Bears profile

USA Basketball profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, NaLyssa 2000 births Living people American women's basketball players Basketball players from San Antonio LGBT basketball players LGBT people from Texas Lesbian sportswomen Power forwards (basketball) Baylor Bears women's basketball players All-American college women's basketball players Indiana Fever draft picks Indiana Fever players