Area Male Athlete: Passion flies high for Cardinals' Smith

Gavin Smith

Year: Senior

School: Staples-Motley

Sport: Basketball

Position: Guard

Highlights: Scored 52 points in two Cardinal wins

Listening to Gavin Smith talk about basketball it becomes clear.

Words zoom from his mouth heavy with excitement. It's an honest passion filled with knowledge of the game and a desire to play. It's clear he loves the sport and that might be why he's developed a talent for it.

Smith's talent has evolved from a 3-point sniper to a dual threat with the ball. It's why the Staples-Motley Cardinals' guard was able to score 22 points in a 62-57 victory over Osakis Jan. 31. He followed that performance with 30 points in the Cardinals' 77-73 win over Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton.

"Other teams have tried to focus their defenses on him, but he's so elusive and he gets to the basket," said Cardinals head coach Micheal Poncelet. "That's how he's been scoring most of his points. He's only had a couple of 3-pointers in the last few games. He just gets to the basket. Teams have doubled him and tripled him and it hasn't worked.

"His first step is absolutely explosive. I don't know if there's many players around that have a faster first step. Then, the other thing is, he has amazing body control. If he's given a little bit of a gap, he can squeeze into it and he's made some shots from really strange angles."

Smith not only understands the game, he understands himself and how teams might try to defend him. He's worked on his ball handling. He's worked on being versatile to become one thing - unguardable.

"I'm going to steal an Isaiah Thomas quote here and this is how I feel, 'The minute you step on the court nobody can guard you,'" said Smith. "That's the mindset you need to have. I'm not the fastest guy on the court compared to other people. Most coaches assume I'm going to go all right-handed because that's what I did all of last year, but I can switch it up now.

"I just try and take it at everybody. Every defender has a weak spot and the quicker I can find it the better."

Smith has been quick to pick apart defenders this season. He's averaging 22.2 points per game and is shooting 50 percent from the field. But he's doing everything else required to be a complete player. He's averaging 6.1 assists per game, 5.6 steals and 8.4 rebounds.

"He's a key to our zone defense," Poncelet said. "We play a lot of zone defense this year, which we haven't done in the past. He finds himself on the weakside low man where he can jump passing lanes. He's got 96 steals on the season, which is a pretty good number. It's on the verge of breaking his record from last year. He's helping us create a lot of turnovers."

In 24 games last season, Smith averaged 17.9 points on 57 percent shooting. He added 3.8 assists and 7.2 rebounds per game and finished with 113 steals. He's was sitting at at 96 steals before the Crosby-Ironton game Feb. 7.

"I'm a big basketball fanatic," Smith said. "I used to come to the gym when I was younger and just worked on moves I picked up off of 'YouTube.' It just kind of came to me as my body matured.

"My teammates, I think they are the best group of guys I've played with so far. They really help me spread the floor and keep things open so I can do the things that I do."

The 6-foot-1 senior is one of five seniors on the squad and Poncelet has noticed Smith has developed his leadership ability over the season. Like everything else, Poncelet said Smith just worked hard at it.

"He works so hard," Poncelet said. "Every practice is the same. We never leave a gym saying, 'Gosh, Gavin could have given us some more.' It's every single night. He's trained himself to be at his best every single time he steps on the floor. When you have that in practice-heck, he's doing that during open gym when he's playing the older guys around town. He's just so used to that, when the game starts right away, he's at his best. It's hard for other teams to compete with that."

Other notable performances:

Basketball: Nick Christenson, Lake Region, finished with 35 points and 16 rebounds against St. Francis.

Wyatt Sanford, Aitkin, scored 26 points against Isle.

Hunter Moe, Aitkin, scored 25 points against Braham.

Gage Westlund, Pequot Lakes, scored 35 points against Virginia.

Nathan Sabinash, Verndale, finished with 20 points and 14 rebounds against Menahga.

Matt Tautges, Pierz, finished with 23 points, nine assists and eight rebounds against Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted.

Noah Gindorff, Crosby-Ironton, finished with 20 points and 20 rebounds against Pipestone.