Late in Duke’s ACC quarterfinal matchup, Nolan Smith hopped across the court, grimacing in pain before finally collapsing on the floor beside press row. As he fell, so did the hopes of Blue Devil fans who had pinned all of their postseason aspirations on the charismatic senior.
But Smith bounced back the next day, playing 39 minutes of flawless basketball to lead Duke to a win over Virginia Tech. That resilience has become a trademark of the senior’s four years as a Blue Devil—a career defined by the constant reinventions of his game, unheard of in the modern one-and-done era of college basketball.
The latest iteration of his game may be his most important: that of Duke’s leader and soul of the 2010-11 team.
“Lead by example and lead with my words,” Smith said. “If they see me playing hard, leaving it on the court they’re gonna do the same thing. That’s what Kyle and I have been trying to do all year.”
Smith’s progression to team captain and National Player of the Year candidate started four years ago, when the then-freshman played a minor role off the bench while head coach Mike Krzyzewski and staff tried to figure out which perimeter position he fit best. He drove Cameron Crazies wild with his ability to create highlights on the offensive end, but frustrated them with lapses in judgement that led to plays fit for ESPN’s Not Top-10.
As the eighth-ranked shooting guard in his class, and a graduate of the basketball powerhouse Oak Hill Academy, Smith was expected to contribute as soon as he stepped on campus. He spent his first two years, though, stuck behind a collection of talented perimeter players: DeMarcus Nelson at first, then Gerald Henderson, Greg Paulus and Jon Scheyer. Smith played limited and sporadic minutes, struggling to carve out a consistent role on the floor.
“Freshman year, you can lose some [confidence] as the year goes on, not knowing what’s going on, second-guessing yourself,” Smith said following his first year as a Blue Devil.
After missing much of the end of his sophomore season recovering from a concussion, and losing his mentor, former assistant Johnny Dawkins, Smith came close to transferring after his sophomore campaign. But Dawkins convinced him to stay in Durham, almost prophetically predicting Smith’s breakout junior year.
“When Coach Dawkins left, he told me to trust the coaches and everything was going to work out,” Smith said. “I knew it was just a matter of time that my abilities were going to show up.”
And show up they did. From the start of the season, Smith displayed a newfound confidence that would define the second half of his career.
With both teams tied at 31 during the annual Blue-White game, Smith was fouled on a putback attempt with less than a second remaining. Instead of shooting in front of a quieted arena, the junior implored the fans to get loud, showing a type of emotion on the court that he had previously never shown.
“I can be in that situation against another team,” Smith said after the game. “I wanted it to be loud and not quiet.”
Behind this self-belief, Smith’s per game scoring average doubled while his assist-to-turnover ratio rose. He scored in single digits only twice in the entire season while consistently playing off the ball, his most comfortable position.
As a senior, his place remained largely the same, though his scoring opportunities came off passes from Kyrie Irving instead of Scheyer. Irving’s toe injury, though, forced Smith back into the fluctuating position he had struggled to fill as an underclassman. But this time, the senior responded.
“I have to step up, run the show, lead these guys even more than I’ve been trying to do,” Smith said following a win over Bradley—the team’s first game without Irving. “I have to be more of a facilitator for these guys and get them involved and at the same time, stay effective.”
Despite experimenting with different roles on the perimeter—exclusively playing as the point guard, splitting point duties with Seth Curry or deferring the ballhandling duties to Tyler Thornton—Smith nearly became the first player in ACC history to lead the league in both points and assists. He eventually fell just short, leading the ACC in points with 21.3 per game but finishing second in assists, 0.6 per game short of Kendall Marshall’s 5.8.
While embracing his new, ever-changing position, Smith has added a variety of weapons to his rapidly-expanding arsenal. According to Krzyzewski, though, none has been more important than the senior’s recent commitment to pressure defense.
Smith, the best Blue Devil perimeter defender since Chris Duhon, according to his head coach, held Virginia Tech’s Malcolm Delaney and Marshall to just 7-of-24 shooting in the tournament’s final two rounds.
“I think we won [the ACC tournament] because of his ball pressure,” Krzyzewski said. “There’s no doubt about it.”
It’s seems fitting, then, that Irving’s potential return during the NCAA tournament would force Smith into yet another style of play, albeit one he had time to adjust to during the preseason and fall schedule. In fact, the senior has become so used to the changing X’s and O’s that he can focus on what he believes is one of his biggest, yet understated, roles: being a leader.
And while many would be overwhelmed by such a late season change, it’s just another day in the diverse career of Nolan Smith.
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