Saginaw Valley State鈥檚 Delano Smith off to hot start
UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. —聽Saginaw Valley State University senior guard Delano Smith is lighting up the scoreboard for his team this fall. The 6-foot-4 sharpshooter is now averaging 20 points per game and shooting over 54% from the field.
The fifth-year transfer from Novi, Michigan builds on a solid effort last season. Yet looking back this shouldn鈥檛 be much of a surprise. He showed some serious scoring potential even as a first-year player.
Smith started his college basketball career at Davenport University in 2017. He made a sudden splash there, posting 13.5 points a game and hitting 53% of his shots from the field.
Plus he ranked among the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) top 10 in field goal percentage his freshman year, which is quite a feat.
His sophomore season saw a slight drop off in comparison. A notable exception was his 3-point shooting average. Smith shot 46% from beyond the arc, a truly exceptional number. To be fair, he only appeared in ten games, less than half of the 2018-19 schedule.
And behind the scenes Smith was getting ready to make a major move. The mid-Michigan marksman left Davenport for Saginaw Valley in January 2019. He subsequently sat out until the start of 2019-2020.
From that point on he played in 16 games and cracked the Cardinals鈥� starting lineup several times. Additionally, his role in the offense continued to increase.
He picked up more and more playing time each game through the season鈥檚 end in March. His scoring skills soon resurfaced. In the meantime, Smith contributed to the Cardinals in different ways, most notably in the rebounding category. He displayed his defensive ability as well, averaging nearly one steal per game.
That final stretch signaled Smith was on the verge of a leading role. Two weeks into the 2020-2021 Cardinals season, he took a star turn. Smith was added to Saginaw Valley鈥檚 starting five and has stayed there ever since.
The sharp shooter scored 16 points and pulled down six rebounds a game last fall overall. As a result, Smith was selected for GLIAC All-Conference honors. But he was just warming up. This year he鈥檚 taken his game to another level.
He鈥檚 topped the 20-point mark in three of Saginaw Valley鈥檚 six games so far. And he paced the Cardinals with 23 points in a huge upset win over Division I Western Michigan earlier this month.
After a long journey with numerous bumps in the road, Delano Smith has found a place to call home.
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