Georgia Tech’s Adam Smith draws highest praise after NIT win
There are scarcely few compliments that Houston coach Kelvin Sampson could have paid Georgia Tech guard Adam Smith that would have been better than his words of praise following Tech’s 81-62 first-round NIT win Wednesday night at McCamish Pavilion. Sampson was evidently quite impressed by Smith’s shooting, including 3-for-6 from 3-point range.
“He took shots that, the only other guy I’ve seen make shots like that is Steph Curry,” Sampson said.
Smith was well defended much of the night by Houston guard Leron Barnes, who had four inches on the 6-foot-1 Smith. Barnes made Smith work to get catches coming off screens and defended him tightly on the perimeter. It was obvious how the Cougars entered the game ranking fifth in the country in defensive 3-point field-goal percentage at 29.8 percent. But Smith was on target, shooting 3-for-6 from 3-point range, including a first-half four-point play in which he was fouled and then made the shot.
“I don’t think he had an open shot the whole night, did he?” Sampson asked. “He made hard shots. … We haven’t played anybody that takes shots like that, much less makes them.”
Smith scored a game-high 20 points, his ninth 20-point game of the season and third in the past four games.
“Did he really?” Smith asked, when told of Sampson’s Curry reference, his eyebrows raised. “That’s high praise. Thanks to him for saying that.”
He scored 13 of his 20 points in the first half, when the Jackets pushed out to a 41-32 halftime lead that was never threatened after halftime.
Smith didn’t think of the shots, often taken after sprinting through screens for catch-and-shoot 3-pointers, as so difficult.
“A lot of people say that: they say they’re tough shots, I take and make tough shots,” he said. “But they’re all rhythm shots, a lot of shots that I practice.”
Tech was 8-for-16 from 3-point range, its best rate in the past 11 games.
“He’s done a great job for us all year long,” coach Brian Gregory said. “Just being honest, where would we be without him?”
About the Author
Ken Sugiura is a sports columnist at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Formerly the Georgia Tech beat reporter, Sugiura started at the AJC in 1998 and has covered a variety of beats, mostly within sports.
