Ish Living Up to His Promise
Three years ago I made a prediction that I have since come to regret.
Not any longer.
When Ish Smith burst onto the scene as a freshman to lead the ACC in assists, I made mention to people around the program that if he continued to improve and develop and get physically stronger the he might actually be an all-conference caliber player by his senior year. Sure he made his share (and often more) of mistakes, but I’d never seen anybody quicker with the basketball. And like everybody else, I fully expected him to be around for four years.
But point guard is an exceedingly hard position to play well and Smith’s growing pains as a player were evident for all to see. He continued to make questionable decisions and he never developed a consistent outside shot. By his junior year, he had been replaced in the starting lineup by Jeff Teague and his minutes dropped from 32 per game to 22. His free-throw shooting did improve dramatically last year, up from 29 percent to 79 percent, but anyone selecting All-ACC players would have to go through at least a couple of dozen candidates before they got to Smith.
I have no idea how the voting will go in March, but if I had to pick a five-man team right now Ish Smith would be on it. He has been that good, but more than that he has been that invaluable to a Wake Forest team that at 14-4 overall and 4-2 in the league is right in the thick of the conference race. Opposing coaches go on and on about his ability to keep pressure on their transition defense. Coach Paul Hewitt of Georgia Tech said that’s his No. 1 concern going into Thursday’s game against the Deacons.
We’ll have a story in tomorrow’s Journal about the minutes that Smith is logging and the steps that Coach Dino Gaudio and his staff are taking to keep him from wearing down. I know that’s been a concern for many of you in the Peanut Gallery.
But what wasn’t included in the story was the really impressive improvement Smith has made at taking care of the ball. When he led the ACC with 186 assists in 2006-07, he also tied N.C. State’s Brandon Costner for third in the league with 112 turnovers. Only Gavin Grant of the Wolfpack (151) and Javaris Crittenton of Georgia Tech (124) made more.
Through 18 games this season, Smith has 106 assists and 50 turnovers, which puts him on a 31-game pace for 183 assists and 86 turnovers.
Since committing 6 turnovers in a loss at Purdue on Dec. 1, Smith has averaged 2.9 turnovers a game.
“He plays at a 100 (mph) speed,’’ Gaudio said. “When he doesn’t have the break he has done a tremendous job of late of maintaining his dribble, pulling the basketball back out and running offense for us, and really getting us in good half-court offense.
“We watched a lot of film with the young man after our Purdue game, where he had some turnovers and didn’t do a good job of getting us in the offense. And we go out to Gonzaga and we really executed well in the half-court. I thought at (Duke) Sunday night we regressed a little bit. Duke deserves so much of the credit, where we didn’t run good half-court offense. We ran the break and Ish may have forced stuff a little bit. Then I think on Wednesday night at (North Carolina) we ran the ball very well and when we didn’t have it, we ran offense. I think on Saturday against a very good defensive team (Virginia) he did the same thing. We came out and really did a good job of executing in the half-court on offense.
“I just have tremendous trust in him. I want the ball in his hands. He’s really, really playing at a high level, I think as good as anybody at the point guard spot in the country.’‘