Baylor Bear Insider
Although she came from the WNBA, first-year Baylor head coach Nicki Collen makes no bones about it. She wasn't brought here to make NaLyssa Smith the No. 1 pick in next month's draft.
"My goal has been to put her in a situation where she can show why she can be that," Collen said, "but within team basketball and doing it because it's best for the team. There are not five people out there all with the goal of making Lys the No. 1 pick. The goal is to win basketball games."
What Collen is proving, though, is maybe you can do both. While the 6-4 Smith (22.5 ppg, 11.5 rebounds) is once again a strong national player of the year candidate and projected to go in the first two picks of the WNBA Draft, the seventh-ranked Bears (27-6) won their 12th-consecutive Big 12 regular-season title and are the No. 2 seed in the Wichita Region.
Baylor is hosting the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament at the Ferrell Center, facing 15th-seeded Hawaii (20-9) at 3 p.m. Friday. Seventh-seeded Ole Miss (23-8) plays 10th-seeded South Dakota (27-5) at 12:30 p.m., with the winners playing Sunday for a trip to the regional in Wichita, Kan.
"I feel like we're finally playing together," said Smith, who has averaged 28.2 and 13.2 rebounds over her last six games and recorded a school-record 24 double-doubles, "and I feel like everybody's finally starting to believe us and starting to see it, too.
"I want to make a run for the national championship, of course. It's my last year, so I'm going to leave it all on the court, go hard every game and just enjoy my moments that are left here."
As a freshman in 2019, Smith came up big in the 82-81 win over Notre Dame in the national championship game after All-American Lauren Cox left with a knee injury. She scored eight of her 14 points in the last 11 minutes and added six rebounds and a block to help the Bears (37-1) claim their third national championship.
"A lot of people come into college thinking, 'I'm ready to play. Put me in now,''' said Smith, a repeat first-team All-American on the Associated Press team that was released Wednesday. "When I got here, it was more of, 'I need to learn from Lauren Cox. I need to watch Kalani Brown, see how she's posting up, see where she's getting the ball.' I feel like that's the difference in my game is I just want to learn. I just wanted to see where I could fit in."
A sub on that 2019 team, Smith stepped in as a starter the next year and earned first-team All-Big 12 honors as a sophomore, averaging 14.3 points and 8.0 rebounds during the COVID-shortened 2019-20 season.
But, she hit her stride last year, averaging 18.0 points and 8.9 rebounds and winning the Wade Trophy and Katrina McClain Award as the power forward of the year. Playing back in her hometown of San Antonio, Smith also led the Bears to NCAA Tournament wins over Jackson State, Virginia Tech and Michigan before a 69-67 loss to top-seeded UConn a step away from the Final Four.
Even with all the changes on and off the court – Collen replaced Hall of Fame coach Kim Mulkey after the 2021 season – Smith said the the Bears' goals never changed.
"At the end of the day, we're all here to win a national championship," she said.
After three years of the Mulkey system, where "everything is through the paint, touch the paint every single time down the floor," Smith has flourished in more of a wide-open, spread-the-floor offense under Collen.
"A lot more pick-and-rolls, a lot of step-ups, a lot more 3's this year," Smith said. "I'm out on the perimeter a lot more, whether that's guarding the perimeter or scoring from outside. As you can see, I'm scoring a lot more shooting outside rather than just the paint touches."
On top of shooting more 3-pointers this season (36) than her previous three years combined (27), Smith has been pretty much automatic on the baseline from 15 to 18 feet.
"I think if you looked back at film and looked at her shot chart over the course of her career, (the baseline jumper) is a shot she has made," Collen said. "Maybe not as consistently as she's making it now. I'm not giving anything away, we've run some misdirection action to get her into that space. It's a good spot for her, both because she can take that shot, and then we've opened up the middle for her to attack with her right hand."
It's part of the evolution of her game that has made Smith pro-ready. Much like two-time All-American Sophia Young-Malcolm did to make the jump to the next level 16 years ago, Smith has stretched her game and become a player that can score on all three levels.
"I'm so proud of NaLyssa and the way that she has worked, the late nights that she's put in at the gym, working with her personal coach and getting shots up all the time," said Young-Malcolm, who returned to Baylor this year on Collen's staff as Assistant AD for Player Development. "Even if she's the No. 1 pick in the draft, she still has to go into a training camp and outplay people who have been there and who are just as good or better than her."
Collen compares the ultra-skilled Smith to Chennedy Carter, a guard from Texas A&M that she took with the fourth overall pick in the 2019 WNBA Draft in her first year as head coach of the Atlanta Dream.
"I would put (Smith) and Chennedy Carter in the category of kids that can do things that you can't teach, that you just enjoy and shake your head sometimes at things they can do with the basketball in their hands," Collen said.
More than anything Smith's done on the offensive end, though, Collen thinks she's made her biggest strides on defense. She's taken top players like Iowa State's Ashley Joens and Texas Tech's Vivian Gray completely out of their games.
"I really feel like the biggest thing she's done this season, when I look at film from the past, is she's defending at a much higher level than she ever has in her career," Collen said. "I just see a different energy and focus, even from the beginning of the season to now in terms of locking people down."
From a time when she could barely dribble a basketball, Smith has dreamed of playing in the WNBA one day. A student of the game who watches both the NBA and WNBA, she models her game after the likes of Kevin Durant, Dirk Nowitzki, Jalen Green and Breanna Stewart.
"Now that I know I'm going to be in the WNBA, I've kind of taken bits and pieces from everybody's game to see where I can improve," she said. "I've watched the (Durant) documentary two or three times. I just love the way he plays."
With family living in the Washington D.C. area, Smith has not been shy about how much she wants the Washington Mystics to take her with the No. 1 overall pick.
"As the most athletic player in the draft, (Smith) has an extremely high ceiling and is pro-ready in so many ways," one draft expert wrote. "Smith has touch around the rim, is a killer in transition, and can create looks for herself and others from anywhere. . . . She has a superstar ceiling."
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