Smith's Unique Style Paying Off On The Court
1/21/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 20, 2002
By Amy Fiscus
MU Media Relations Office
Wannette Smith's personality reflects her first name more than her last name - unique and interesting but not too showy. Her game is also beginning to imitate her first name after a slow start to the season that threatened to leave her lumped with all the rest of the basketball-playing Smiths.
Smith, a junior forward, started the Tigers' first game of the season but came in off of the bench in the next five contests. Her numbers dipped, and she did not score at all while playing just eight minutes against South Carolina. Smith came back with a vengeance - a career-high nine rebounds in her next start, against Southeast Missouri in the Unilever Lady Tiger Classic, followed by a 10-point performance against another in-state rival, Saint Louis, tying her career mark.
Smith's hard work has paid off as of late, too. A native of Overland Park, Kan., Smith had previously spent her winter breaks doing modeling work out of Kansas City, something she started when a model search discovered her as a 14-year-old in sweats walking around the Overland Park Mall with her AAU team. She did not participate in the search that day, but has been working ever since - until now.
"I usually do work over break," she said. "But this year I decided to get away from that and just concentrate on basketball. I'm not with my old agency anymore, I'm going to start looking for one again once I'm done with basketball."
The results of her focused break have paid off for the Tigers, as Smith has topped her season average in three of the team's four Big 12 Conference games. Along with an assist and two blocks, she also grabbed nine rebounds against Nebraska, which tied her earlier career high.
"One of my basketball strengths is my quickness," Smith said. "I can beat most post players down the floor. I also work hard at rebounding, and one of the main things I focus on every game is defense. If you're not defending, you're probably not playing."
Though she is one of the fewbasketball-playing models in the Big 12, Smith does not consider her life that much different from her peers. "I just like to hang out with 'Pep' (former Tiger standout Marlena Williams), go to movies, go shopping," she said. "We've been to the mall about every other day over break."
The blond hair was just something she wanted to try, a different look. No, it is not because many of her teammates are blond, an assumption many curious onlookers have made. Her name, Wannette, is a combination of her mother's name, Wanda, and Lynnette, as in Lynnette Woodard, the former basketball great from Kansas.
"My dad's name is Carl and my next oldest sister is Carla and my mom's name is Wanda and they wanted to name me after her so they named me Wannette," she said.
She does, however, hope to help the Tigers repeat last year's exceptional season that commenced with a run to the NCAA Sweet 16.
"When we made it to the Sweet 16, that was so awesome," Smith reflected. "It was weird walking through the mall and have people recognize you."
This season should prove to be no different, according to Smith. Though the media picked the Tigers to finish 10th in the league, Smith and her teammates have different ideas.
"I think all of us going in every game expecting a win," she said with about as much certainty as if she had been asked whether the sky was still blue. "We expect to win all the rest of our games, especially our home games and basically, we expect to win the Big 12 Conference."
Now that in itself is a unique, Wannette-like projection.
