Former Stanford women’s basketball star forward Alanna Smith has been named to the Australian women’s Olympic basketball team, giving her a chance to compete at this year’s Olympic games in Paris, France. This will be Smith’s second Olympic games as she also played for Australia in the 2020 Olympic games in Tokyo, Japan.
For Smith, this is obviously a big honor given how big of an international event the Olympics is coupled with the fact that she’s getting a chance to represent her country. The last time she was in the Olympics, Smith didn’t see the floor much for Australia as she averaged just 6.5 minutes and 0.5 points per game. Smith has grown up a lot in these last four years as she now has become a key player for the Minnesota Lynx in the WNBA, averaging 11.5 points, 5.4 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.5 steals, and 1.8 blocks per game in 28.0 minutes per game. She should see a lot more action and play a much more prominent role for Australia in these upcoming Olympic games.
Smith had a stellar career for Stanford, playing from the 2015-16 season through the 2018-19 season. She averaged 11.9 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 1.6 blocks per game for her career. As a senior in the 2018-19 season, Smith was sensational, averaging 19.4 points, 8.6 rebounds, and 2.2 blocks per game. Stanford made the NCAA tournament all four years Smith was on The Farm. Her freshman year, Stanford reached the Elite Eight; her sophomore year, Stanford reached the Final Four; her junior year Stanford reached the Sweet Sixteen; her senior year, Stanford reached the Elite Eight.
On top of being great on the court, Smith brought a positive attitude to the program and was a great teammate. She was the kind of player that others liked to be around and worked extremely hard on her game. She was the kind of player that Tara VanDerveer loved to have.
Switching back to the Olympics, now that she’s been on this stage before and become a legit WNBA player, a lot more is going to be expected of Alanna Smith this go around. I look forward to seeing how she performs and whether or not the Australian team will be able to make some noise.
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