Hungry Smith Plays Hero For State
March 09, 2023 | Men's Basketball, Joel Coleman
Tolu Smith had a career day at the SEC Tournament.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A couple of weeks ago, Tolu Smith was sitting at a table in the media room at Humphrey Coliseum addressing reporters. Mississippi State had just recorded one of its biggest wins of the season, defeating a Top-25 Texas A&M team to put a major feather in the Bulldogs' NCAA Tournament-hopes hat.
Smith was asked about MSU's chances of being right in the middle of the madness of March. He didn't hide how he felt.
"I talk about [getting to the NCAA Tournament] all the time," Smith said. "It's my last year. I'm trying to go out with a bang. I think about it a lot. I try to not talk about it…but it's hard not to."
Smith is longing to put his dancing shoes on. After his showing on Thursday in the Southeastern Conference Tournament, he and his teammates are one step closer to busting a March move.
Smith was a man on a mission in State's 69-68 overtime victory over Florida. He scored a career-high 28 points. He also brought down 12 rebounds to notch his 11th double-double this season and 24th of his career.
In what felt like a must-have game, Smith wasn't going to let the Dawgs go down.
"We needed him," D.J. Jeffries said of Smith. "He stepped up big. That's what he does. That's why he's a First-Team All-SEC player. He did his thing."
Added Shakeel Moore: ""Big-time performance from a big-time guy and big-time player. You can't ask for a better performance. Down the stretch we needed him big, and he came through for us."
Indeed, Smith was outstanding in crunch time. He scored 19 of his 28 points over the course of the second half and overtime. The final two points proved to be the difference in the contest.
With under 10 seconds to play in overtime, MSU trailed 68-67. The Dawgs advanced the ball down the floor needing a basket. Who better to turn to than Smith?
Dashawn Davis looked as though he might go to the basket himself. Then, his plans changed.
"Really, I was just trying to drive and play on instinct," Davis said. "Then I saw a [Florida defender] step up and try to take a charge and I saw Tolu was wide open."
Davis dished to Smith, who finished with a layup off the glass that turned out to be the game-winning shot with five seconds remaining.
It seemed only fitting for Smith to produce what is arguably MSU's biggest make of the year. Here's a guy who's meant so much to the Bulldogs since he put on the Maroon and White ahead of the 2019 season. Now here he is, leading the Dawgs to the doorstep of an NCAA Tourney berth.
"It's a luxury to have him," MSU head coach Chris Jans said of Smith. "In the fall I said [before the season] that if we wanted to have the year that we all want to have, [Smith] had to be an SEC First-Team player, and he was. He delivered.
"Every night he knows he's going to get double-teams and people are going to come at him….I think everybody in the gym knows when we walk out, we're going to play inside-out through Tolu. He's handled it wonderfully all year long."
Smith's play now has he and his teammates right on the cusp of where they want to be. While the Bulldogs await Selection Sunday, they'll have the chance to keep adding to their resume.
State takes on Alabama on Friday at noon with a trip to the SEC Tournament semifinals on the line. Once the game tips, the Crimson Tide will no doubt have to deal with a hungry, but nowhere near satisfied, Smith.
"We didn't come [to the SEC Tournament] to just win one game," Smith said. 'We came to take it all."
