North Carolina State University Athletics
PEELER: Tracy Smith Continues to Transform Himself
12/11/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. Tracy Smith admits it: He just ate too much good Southern cooking.
That’s why, following his sophomore year at Durham’s Mount Zion Academy, Smith weighed nearly 60 pounds more than when he arrived from Detroit, his hometown. It was all due to the fried, sometimes greasy food that quickly became addicting to the young player, away from home for the first time.
“Basically, I just ate whatever I wanted, and no one told me to stop,” Smith says.
But his appetite took a toll on his basketball skills, as he expanded to 6-foot-7, 285 pounds. Once listed as a Top 20 player by the basketball recruiting analysts, Smith dropped off the radar. He knew he had to do something to catch the attention of college coaches.
So, by working hard and staying away from the training table, Smith shed all of the extra weight in the summer between his junior and senior year at Mount Zion. By the time he picked NC State as his school of choice, he was again ranked among the nation’s top 35 players.
“I was just focused and dedicated, and I wanted to lose the weight,” Smith says. “When my rankings dropped, I didn’t like that. I took it upon myself to work hard, run hard and eat right.”
Smith played occasionally as a freshman last season, averaging 3.3 points in his 8.6 minutes per game. He was one of the team’s more effective players down the stretch last season, scoring 14 points against Duke and 11 against Florida State. He earned a spot in the starting lineup against the Blue Devils and Wake Forest.
But, heading into this season, Smith knew he needed to get into even better shape if he wanted to become a more productive player. With head coach Sidney Lowe going to a more up-tempo style and a more aggressive defense, Smith knew he needed to lose another 10-15 pounds to be able to keep up.
So, just as he did in high school, he became focused on losing weight with a little help from Lowe and Charles Stephenson, the strength and conditioning coordinator for men’s basketball.
Lowe was impressed with how Smith took on the challenge of losing more than a dozen pounds in the off-season. It’s clearly affected how he has played in the Wolfpack’s more up-tempo offense and in its more aggressive defense.
“He can see the results of him losing the weight,” Lowe said. “He is a different type of player. He is bouncier. He saw that when he lost all that weight in high school. I think what that did was tell you a little bit about the young man himself and how dedicated he was to get his weight down and get into basketball condition.
“He worked his tail off to get to where he is.”
Smith downplays the difficulty of losing weight, saying “basically, I just needed to watch my diet, watch what I ate and to drink a lot of water.” But everyone who has ever tried to lose a few holiday pounds knows that there is more to it than that.
Smith knew he would be asked to do certain things in the new offense, like play backup center behind Ben McCauley, even though his natural position is power forward. However, heading into Saturday’s game against Winston-Salem State at Reynolds Coliseum, Smith has more than doubled his points per minute from last year and become an effective weapon in the low post.
In five games, he has scored 39 points in 54 minutes of action, while contributing 3.2 rebounds. He matched his career high with 14 points against UNC Greensboro and had 13 against Winthrop, coming off the bench in both games.
“I am not a center, as everybody knows,” Smith says, “but if that is what the team needs me to play, that is what I am going to do. But I can still face up and drive, play with my back to the basket. Everything is working out fine right now.
“I think I just have to stay mentally focused. When we get to ACC play, I know the centers will be big and strong. I have to hold my own.”
Last year, Smith might not have had the self-confidence he needed to do that. This year, his outlook is different.
“I feel pretty confident about my shot,” Smith says. “I am not nervous anymore when I step out on the court, like I am going to do something wrong and get taken out of the game. I just go out there and play and if I mess up I try to make it up on the other end.
“I just go out and play hard and do what Coach Lowe has asked me to do.”
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
