THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 2, 1995 TAG: 9502020483
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Bob Molinaro
DATELINE: COLLEGE PARK, MD. LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
Twenty-one rebounds. Somebody asked Joe Smith what it felt like to pull down 21 rebounds against Virginia Wednesday night.
``I don't know,'' said Smith. ``What are 21 rebounds supposed to feel like?''
Like victory, somebody suggested.
This drew a big smile from Big Joe, Maryland's sophomore savior. His 21 boards were a career high.
``Sometimes,'' the Maury High grad said, ``it felt like the rebounds were coming right to me.''
The rebounds were only part of Smith's splendid story. When U.Va.'s players came right at him with the ball, he appeared to block every shot. In fact, he deflected or rejected only seven. This ties his personal best as a collegian.
``I appreciate blocked shots more than anything else,'' he said following Maryland's 71-62 victory.
Smith didn't even mention his game-high 29 points (on nine of 13 from the field). It occurred to him, though, that he had served up this memorable effort for a special audience.
``It does seem like I play great every time we're on ESPN,'' he said.
For many reasons, U.Va. picked a bad night to be challenging Smith. It was poor timing on the part of the Cavaliers to be following Duke into Cole Field House after the Blue Devils shut down Smith, holding him to six points, a career low.
``That game bothered me a lot,'' Joe said. It would bother anybody.''
Before the U.Va. game, Smith promised himself that he would ``go out and play as physically as I can.''
Junior Burrough, the burly U.Va. senior who scored 25 points, couldn't do enough to keep the 6-foot-10, 221-pound Smith from dominating the paint, especially in the game's important moments.
``He's not very big of frame,'' Burrough said, ``but he makes up for it with tenacity.''
Standing outside the Maryland locker room, Terps coach Gary Williams said of Smith, ``Every once in a while, he gets in a zone where it's like he decides no one is going to get a rebound except him.''
Off the court, though, Joe rarely leaves his personal comfort zone. It's another thing that separates this All-American from some others.
``He keeps a much more level perspective on things than most people. His coach, for instance,'' Williams said.
Smith's feel for the game and the moment is evident even in the way he blocks shots. Usually, he doesn't spike the ball into the floor or the upper deck. He tries to deflect shots, then grab them out of mid-air.
``I once heard Bill Walton speak about that,'' Joe explained. ``You should try to tip the ball and keep it in play, then try to start the fast break.''
It sounds simple. And yet, Smith's style of rejecting shots is a subtlety of the game that Shaquille O'Neal, for instance, hasn't yet mastered.
``I don't think Joe knows how good he is,'' Williams said. ``I know he doesn't know how quick he is. He's incredibly quick for a 6-10 guy.''
But slow to acknowledge his own place in the game.
Because of the TV exposure, the U.Va. game is the kind of effort that wins Smith votes for national player of the year. Joe, though, seemed more concerned with coming up big against the team from Virginia.
``This gives me bragging rights back home,'' he said.
His comment presumes he would ever take the opportunity to brag.
``Boards, inside scoring, blocked shots,'' Joe Smith mused. ``It was a fair all-around game.'' by CNB