NaLyssa Smith

17,941 Views | 66 Replies | Last: 3 yr ago by slimecap
RSBear
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I was so proud of NaLyssa's play during the UCONN game. Wow! Her athleticism is unmatched. I see her being a big time player for the Lady Bears. For a freshman to perform at such a high level in a big time game, it was impressive. She is not shy with the ball!

Thank you NaLyssa for joining the Lady Bears.
longtimebear
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I certainly second that emotion.
HarryJohnson
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She may be the best player we have ever had when it is all done with. I know, big statement, but wow she has it all.
mimi25408
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I feel like Nalyssa might be the one to help us out in the post season. She is only getting better. I really hope the other freshman players start producing in conference play.
4th and Inches
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Reminds me of a young candace parket... she is a baller!
“Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans. It is lovely to be silly at the right moment.”

–Horace


“Insomnia sharpens your math skills because you spend all night calculating how much sleep you’ll get if you’re able to ‘fall asleep right now.’ “
Iron Claw
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Her athleticism reminds me of Sophia Young, but SY had a lot to learn about the game. Smith is as easily as athletic, but comes with much for skill so early. She is special.
FKA tri it
bunation
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UConn really doesn't want to see her or our bigs again this year!
setshot
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It has been interesting to listen to broadcasters other than our own "discover" NaLyssa. Without exception they have raved about the quality of her play and the maturity of it. It is not often that you see a player who is that young and that inexperienced at playing to the highest level of collegiate basketball who does it with such ease and so much efficiency. I venture to say that long before she has finished her collegiate career, NaLyssa will establish herself as the standard by which frontline players in the women's game will be judged.
Chibears2
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Her athleticism makes her so versatile.
Bone Squad
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She has the grit of Nina Davis combined with the skill of Sophia Young.
slimecap
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Feb 16, 2019
slimecap
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Feb 2, 2019


slimecap
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Feb 25, 2019
CavalryRoadie
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NaLyssa plays with so much energy! I imagine the opposing players groan when Brown or Cox comes off, only to see NaLyssa coming in. And, when she comes in to play alongside Brown and Cox.......
slimecap
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slimecap
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March 4, 2019
slimecap
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CavalryRoadie
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slimecap said:



That is a great photo!
mimi25408
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Yea NaLyssa has the picture as background and Twitter and the backdrop on her phone.. it's pretty dope.
CavalryRoadie
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mimi25408 said:

Yea NaLyssa has the picture as background and Twitter and the backdrop on her phone.. it's pretty dope.
She seems to be a good kid. I like her aggressive/assertive style of play.
slimecap
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March 23, 2019
slimecap
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April 2, 2019
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Baylor team statistic
slimecap
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slimecap
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slimecap
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"[In the National Champonship game, Lauren Cox's] injury was bad enough that she had to leave the floor via wheelchair. When Kim Mulkey turned to the bench for a substitute, she called on perhaps the one player who wasn't nervous or scared.

"My head just went blank," Nalyssa Smith said. "At that point, everything was for Lauren You just go out there with a clear head, so when you go out there, you're just playing basketball."

Although the Lady Bears had to rely on Smith a freshman to fill-in for the post player that means so much to them, they didn't miss a beat. Playing in place of Cox, Smith racked up eight points, four rebounds and a block over the next 11 minutes of play. She made her presence felt on the offensive and defensive ends, and helped Baylor beat Notre Dame 82-81 for the national championship.

"It feels amazing," Smith said. "That's what I came here to do, to win a national championship. To do it my freshman year is just amazing."

In all, Smith tallied 14 points and six rebounds in the win. She only missed two shots and she never turned the ball over. Her stats made her Baylor's third-leading scorer and rebounder on the night."

Link for entire article
"Off the bench, Baylor's Nalyssa Smith plays big in national championship game"
https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-women/article/2019-04-07/bench-baylors-nalyssa-smith-plays-big-national
fredbear
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She has to get off the bench and into the game.
Baylor Dad in Va.
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Does anyone know why Melissa always wears a covering over the entire length of her left leg? Is it her "signature look", or is it for medical reasons, or to cover a bad scar of some type? I don't mean this question in a derogatory way, I was just curious as to why and thought that someone on here might be able to answer.
Tafari211
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Tafari211
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The sleeves on the players arms & legs are mostly to cover up their tattoos. Coach Kim Mulkey frowns on tattoos being displayed in games. Another reason is to help blood flow or just a fashion statement
CarmelBear
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Really glad to hear Smith will be back on the floor tonight (with Queen!). She was outstanding last year and I expect her to be a dominate force and garner all-Big 12 honors. It's rare to see a strong power forward with such touch from mid-range. She might not be as acrobatic as Nina Davis, but she is as strong on the boards as any Lady Bear in recent memory.
uglytobone
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https://www.texasbasketball.com/article/2019/11/12/iso-spotlight-we-should-talk-more-about-nalyssa-smith

ISO Spotlight: We should talk more about NaLyssa Smith

Photo by John Hamilton
Baylor Lady Bears forward NaLyssa Smith is off to a strong start to her second collegiate season.

The Baylor Lady Bears are 2-0 on the season, winning their first two games in runaway fashion, 97-29 over New Hampshire and120-46 over Grambling State. They've done so by being just utterly dominant inside the arc and getting contributions from all across their roster.

When you think of this 2019-2020 Baylor squad, the first name that's going to pop into your head is Lauren Cox. That's fine, because Cox definitely is the leader of this team and the player with the brightest post-college future, as she's virutally a lock to go in the top two or three picks of the 2020 WNBA Draft. But if you kept listing names of key players on this team, how soon would you name sophomore forward NaLyssa Smith?

The answer is probably not soon enough.

But Smith last year's Waco Tribune-Herald Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year has stepped into a starting role this year for the Lady Bears and it's going very, very well.

Smith appeared in all 38 Baylor games last year as a freshman. She averaged 8.4 points and 5.1 rebounds, solid numbers, especially for a player who had to contend with Cox and Kalani Brown for minutes. She hit the national stage in Baylor's national championship game victory over Notre Dame. In the third quarter, Cox went down with a knee injury and was unable to return, which meant Smith was asked to take on an important role down the stretch in the most important game of the year for the Lady Bears. She responded well, finishing that game with 14 points and six boards as the Bears held off a late charge from the Fighting Irish.
Now, before we talk about what Smith has done this season, let's get the elephant in the room out of the way: Baylor has not been challenged yet. Not even a little challenged.

It won't be until November 19th when they face South Florida that they'll play a game that could be close, as the Bulls just upset No. 15 Texas on Friday night. What this all means is that Baylor's not scoring 120 points with eight players in double figures every time they step on a basketball court. The numbers are going to come down. Smith's numbers will come down.

But even though that's true, it doesn't negate the following two truths: 1) NaLyssa Smith is very clearly a very good basketball player and 2) because she has a starting role, her numbers won't be as negatively impacted by the tougher schedule the Lady Bears will face when they get to conference play. And even then, isn't "tougher schedule" a bit of a misnomer when we're talking about a team as good as Baylor? In Big 12 play, they should be the overwhelming favorites in every game they play, especially after what we just saw from Texas.The toughest games Baylor will play are non-conference matches against Indiana, South Carolina, and UConn. Yes, Baylor at Connecticut. January 9th. Mark your calendars now.

Anyway, on to some analysis of Smith's game and what she's done this season.

NaLyssa Smith's succeeding in expanded role

Smith was named the Big 12 Co-Player of the Week for the first week of the season, sharing that title with Kansas freshman guard Holly Kersgieter. (Big week for underclassmen in the Big 12!) She did it on the strength of two strong performances:
- vs New Hampshire: 21 points (6-for-9 shooting), 14 rebounds
- vs Grambling State: 21 points (9-for-11 shooting), 13 rebounds

Smith's been able to score in a variety of ways this year, logging at least 10 percent of her possessions in each of the following playtypes: transition, put backs, post-up, pick-and-roll, and cut. She's done the majority of her damage in transition, logging nine transition possessions.

On the play above, we get a sense of what Smith can do on both ends of the floor. It all starts with her leaping into the passing lane and creating the turnover, and then it's off to the races for her as she glides down the court to get the layup on the other end. Baylor having a power forward who can move like this is unfair to rest of college basketball. If you look back at her high school scouting reports, everyone seemed to agree that Smith's athleticism was going to be huge for her at this level, with words like "explosive" and "elite" making a ton of appearances.

"Explosive" is definitely near the top of the list of words I think when I watch Smith play. As great as the Lauren Cox and Kalani Brown frontcourt was last year, there's still plenty of upside with Smith because of that explosiveness and because of how versatile she is. In the 2018-2019 season, Brown and Cox both had post ups as their most used playtypes, with Brown using the post up on over 40 percent of her offensive possessions. Having two dominant post players got Baylor to the pinnacle of the sport last year, so obviously being that post heavy worked out perfectly fine for the Lady Bears, but Smith brings a totally new dimension to the team.

Baylor currently ranks 40th in D1 in the percentage of time spent in transition. Last year, they were 113th. This is a team that's going to be getting out and running significantly more this year based on their current roster construction, something that makes this year's Baylor team tough to gauge since we've gotten so used to the post-heavy, half-court offense of years past. Yes, they still have Lauren Cox, but surrounding her with Smith and adding South Carolina transfer Te'a Cooper -- another player who excels in transition -- to the mix definitely shakes up the composition of this team.

The other thing that Smith's been doing this year is rebounding the basketball.

I really hate citing early season statistics because the sample size is so small, but Smith's 13.5 boards per game have her tied for 16th in D1 as of the time I'm writing this sentence. Kansas State's Peyton Williams is the only Big 12 player ahead of Smith. Smith's only third on the Lady Bears in offensive rebounding, but that mostly seems to be a matter of positioning, as Lauren Cox is in the right spot to grab the majority of Baylor's offensive boards. But when Smith has gotten offensive boards, she's been lethal in the putback game, scoring 1.857 points per possession on her seven possessions. Again, very small sample here,
I don't really have any comments on this next play. I just think we need to appreciate this assist from Smith:

(Also, should probably appreciate that the score was 51-3 after the bucket here. Baylor can just run opponents off the floor. I'm not really sure how I'm expected to believe that they could lose a game this year. Please give us a Baylor/Oregon game in the NCAA Tournament. Please, please, please.)

In this week's edition of her class-by-class player rankings, Aneela Khan ranked Smith as college basketball's best Sophomore. And while the UConn duo of Christyn Williams and Olivia Nelson-Ododa do have some valid claims to that title, Smith's play so far this year has me convinced that Khan's ranking is right. NaLyssa Smith is the best Sophomore player in the country. She might be the next breakout star in college basketball. Keep your eyes on the Baylor forward.


Jacques Strap
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Smith is really so good. I'm no expert but aanyone that watches a game will be like "she's really really good!".
blueeyedbear
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uglytobone said:

https://www.texasbasketball.com/article/2019/11/12/iso-spotlight-we-should-talk-more-about-nalyssa-smith

ISO Spotlight: We should talk more about NaLyssa Smith

Photo by John Hamilton
Baylor Lady Bears forward NaLyssa Smith is off to a strong start to her second collegiate season.

The Baylor Lady Bears are 2-0 on the season, winning their first two games in runaway fashion, 97-29 over New Hampshire and120-46 over Grambling State. They've done so by being just utterly dominant inside the arc and getting contributions from all across their roster.

When you think of this 2019-2020 Baylor squad, the first name that's going to pop into your head is Lauren Cox. That's fine, because Cox definitely is the leader of this team and the player with the brightest post-college future, as she's virutally a lock to go in the top two or three picks of the 2020 WNBA Draft. But if you kept listing names of key players on this team, how soon would you name sophomore forward NaLyssa Smith?

The answer is probably not soon enough.

But Smith last year's Waco Tribune-Herald Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year has stepped into a starting role this year for the Lady Bears and it's going very, very well.

Smith appeared in all 38 Baylor games last year as a freshman. She averaged 8.4 points and 5.1 rebounds, solid numbers, especially for a player who had to contend with Cox and Kalani Brown for minutes. She hit the national stage in Baylor's national championship game victory over Notre Dame. In the third quarter, Cox went down with a knee injury and was unable to return, which meant Smith was asked to take on an important role down the stretch in the most important game of the year for the Lady Bears. She responded well, finishing that game with 14 points and six boards as the Bears held off a late charge from the Fighting Irish.
Now, before we talk about what Smith has done this season, let's get the elephant in the room out of the way: Baylor has not been challenged yet. Not even a little challenged.

It won't be until November 19th when they face South Florida that they'll play a game that could be close, as the Bulls just upset No. 15 Texas on Friday night. What this all means is that Baylor's not scoring 120 points with eight players in double figures every time they step on a basketball court. The numbers are going to come down. Smith's numbers will come down.

But even though that's true, it doesn't negate the following two truths: 1) NaLyssa Smith is very clearly a very good basketball player and 2) because she has a starting role, her numbers won't be as negatively impacted by the tougher schedule the Lady Bears will face when they get to conference play. And even then, isn't "tougher schedule" a bit of a misnomer when we're talking about a team as good as Baylor? In Big 12 play, they should be the overwhelming favorites in every game they play, especially after what we just saw from Texas.The toughest games Baylor will play are non-conference matches against Indiana, South Carolina, and UConn. Yes, Baylor at Connecticut. January 9th. Mark your calendars now.

Anyway, on to some analysis of Smith's game and what she's done this season.

NaLyssa Smith's succeeding in expanded role

Smith was named the Big 12 Co-Player of the Week for the first week of the season, sharing that title with Kansas freshman guard Holly Kersgieter. (Big week for underclassmen in the Big 12!) She did it on the strength of two strong performances:
- vs New Hampshire: 21 points (6-for-9 shooting), 14 rebounds
- vs Grambling State: 21 points (9-for-11 shooting), 13 rebounds

Smith's been able to score in a variety of ways this year, logging at least 10 percent of her possessions in each of the following playtypes: transition, put backs, post-up, pick-and-roll, and cut. She's done the majority of her damage in transition, logging nine transition possessions.

On the play above, we get a sense of what Smith can do on both ends of the floor. It all starts with her leaping into the passing lane and creating the turnover, and then it's off to the races for her as she glides down the court to get the layup on the other end. Baylor having a power forward who can move like this is unfair to rest of college basketball. If you look back at her high school scouting reports, everyone seemed to agree that Smith's athleticism was going to be huge for her at this level, with words like "explosive" and "elite" making a ton of appearances.

"Explosive" is definitely near the top of the list of words I think when I watch Smith play. As great as the Lauren Cox and Kalani Brown frontcourt was last year, there's still plenty of upside with Smith because of that explosiveness and because of how versatile she is. In the 2018-2019 season, Brown and Cox both had post ups as their most used playtypes, with Brown using the post up on over 40 percent of her offensive possessions. Having two dominant post players got Baylor to the pinnacle of the sport last year, so obviously being that post heavy worked out perfectly fine for the Lady Bears, but Smith brings a totally new dimension to the team.

Baylor currently ranks 40th in D1 in the percentage of time spent in transition. Last year, they were 113th. This is a team that's going to be getting out and running significantly more this year based on their current roster construction, something that makes this year's Baylor team tough to gauge since we've gotten so used to the post-heavy, half-court offense of years past. Yes, they still have Lauren Cox, but surrounding her with Smith and adding South Carolina transfer Te'a Cooper -- another player who excels in transition -- to the mix definitely shakes up the composition of this team.

The other thing that Smith's been doing this year is rebounding the basketball.

I really hate citing early season statistics because the sample size is so small, but Smith's 13.5 boards per game have her tied for 16th in D1 as of the time I'm writing this sentence. Kansas State's Peyton Williams is the only Big 12 player ahead of Smith. Smith's only third on the Lady Bears in offensive rebounding, but that mostly seems to be a matter of positioning, as Lauren Cox is in the right spot to grab the majority of Baylor's offensive boards. But when Smith has gotten offensive boards, she's been lethal in the putback game, scoring 1.857 points per possession on her seven possessions. Again, very small sample here,
I don't really have any comments on this next play. I just think we need to appreciate this assist from Smith:

(Also, should probably appreciate that the score was 51-3 after the bucket here. Baylor can just run opponents off the floor. I'm not really sure how I'm expected to believe that they could lose a game this year. Please give us a Baylor/Oregon game in the NCAA Tournament. Please, please, please.)

In this week's edition of her class-by-class player rankings, Aneela Khan ranked Smith as college basketball's best Sophomore. And while the UConn duo of Christyn Williams and Olivia Nelson-Ododa do have some valid claims to that title, Smith's play so far this year has me convinced that Khan's ranking is right. NaLyssa Smith is the best Sophomore player in the country. She might be the next breakout star in college basketball. Keep your eyes on the Baylor forward.



Excellent analysis - I would not fret about the small sample size - its still a good precursor of how her season could go. Yes I see her as the next big star of the women's game and with Lauren being down for a while it could happen sooner rather then later. Bottom line she was good last year and just about everyone agrees the biggest improvement comes freshman to sophomore I almost feel sorry for our opponents - almost
slimecap
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Nov 14, 2019
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