EWU notes: Hoyas’ Josh Smith immovable force in spurts

PORTLAND – Since his playing days at Kentwood High, Josh Smith’s undeniable talent has been overshadowed by his gargantuan size.

No matter what he does on the court, poundage-per-game has always been his most-analyzed statistic. His search for basketball fame and fortune, and a workout routine that could keep him on pace to achieve both, took him first to Los Angeles and then across the country to our nation’s capital.

Now, Smith has returned to the Pacific Northwest, where today in Portland he will attempt to use his superlative size to power fourth-seeded Georgetown past a school from his home state: No. 13 seed Eastern Washington.

“When I found out we were being stationed in Portland, the first person to call me was my mom. It’s an honor,” said the Covington, Washington, native. “It’s a blessing to be able to be two hours away from Seattle. I’m going to have 40-plus people here tomorrow, so it’s a good thing.”

Currently listed at 6-foot-10, 350 pounds, Smith was a McDonald’s All-American in 2010, five years and 30 pounds ago. He scored 10 points and collected six rebounds in just 15 minutes of that All-Star game, the first of many semi-dominant post high school performances in which his statistics were efficient but limited due to time constraints.

As a freshman at UCLA, Smith was weighed by his coaches multiple times each day and turned in a solid freshman season, playing 21.7 minutes a night and averaging 10.9 points and 6.3 rebounds per game.

But his minutes dipped during a disastrous sophomore season in which his conditioning and production declined, until the Bruins coaches were only able to sub him in for 2 or 3 minutes at a time. Unable to keep up with quicker offensive players, Smith averaged a horrible 7.3 fouls per 40 minutes and he played just 17 total minutes in two Pac-12 tournament games.

Smith played six games at UCLA as a junior and then transferred to Georgetown, receiving his lost eligibility back prior to this season.

GU coach John Thompson III instructed Smith to stop focusing on his weight and to instead think about how he was moving on the court and for how long. Thompson acknowledged that meant just a few minutes at a time, initially.

Now a senior, Smith can still only give the Hoyas 21 minutes per game, but he is the team’s second-leading scorer and best rebounder.

“He’d been so conditioned, ‘I need to get to this number.’ From day one, what we said is I don’t care what the number is,” Thompson said. “With us the number was not important. It was the performance on the court.”

Thanks, Mr. President

Georgetown is an old and prestigious university in Washington, D.C., and as such its register of distinguished graduates is long. But the Hoyas might have to wonder where the loyalties of their school’s most presidential alumnus lie in today’s game against Eastern Washington.

Although eight former heads of state are Georgetown alumni, Bill Clinton is the only graduate of the Jesuit school ever elected U.S. president and he wore Eagles gear during his first year in office.

A Nov. 30, 1992 photograph that ran in USA Today shows the former president wearing a red-and-white cap that reads “Eastern Washington Eagles” across the front.

The story is that Lee Yerty, a former director of marketing and promotions for EWU, was traveling with the football team to a playoff game in late November when a flight attendant on their Miami Air flight informed him Clinton would be traveling on the next flight. Yerty gave the attendant a spare cap to pass along and it made its way to the president’s hands.

“We never imagined he would receive the hat, let alone wear it,” Yerty told the Santa Barbara News-Press at the time. “It’s incredible exposure for the university and out athletic program and we’re very appreciative of that.”

Harvey’s dad will watch

College basketball official Frank Harvey won’t be officiating any of today’s NCAA tournament games, but he’ll be in the stands at the second round in Portland, cheering on his kid.

Frank Harvey’s son is EWU’s Tyler Harvey, the nation’s leading scorer. Tyler Harvey had five 30-point performances this season, and was named the MVP of the Big Sky Conference tournament, while leading EWU to its second NCAA tournament appearance.

Now Frank gets a chance to watch a college basketball game as a fan, and as a dad.