Devin Smith (basketball player)

Devin Smith
Player information
Full name	Devin Michael Smith
birthday	12th April 1983 (age 37)
place of birth	New Castle (DE), USA
size	196 cm
position	Shooting Guard / Small Forward
college	Virginia
Club information
society	Maccabi Tel Aviv
league	Ligat ha'Al
Jersey number	6th
Clubs as active
2001–2002 Coffeyville CC Red Ravens (NJCAA) 2002–2005 Virginia Cavaliers ( NCAA ) 2005–2007 Bruesa GBC 2007–2008 Air Avellino 2008–2009 Fenerbahçe Ülker 2009–2010 Panellinios Athens 2010–2011 Benetton Treviso Since 2011 Maccabi Tel Aviv 0

Devin Michael Smith (born April 12, 1983 in New Castle , Delaware ) is an American basketball player . After studying in his home country, Smith turned pro in Europe and played in Spain , Italy , Turkey and Greece . Since 2011 he has been playing for the Israeli series champion Maccabi from Tel Aviv . After a national double in 2012, he won a Triple Crown from Double and ULEB Euroleague 2013/14 with Maccabi in the 2013/14 season .

Career

After finishing school, Smith first had to study for a year at Community College in Coffeyville , where his one year older brother Steve was studying. The college in Kansas is known, among other things, for having trained almost 50 American football players to become professionals in the NFL . Smith played with his brother Steve for the Red Ravens basketball team of the National Junior Collegiate Athletic Association (NJCAA). Smith was able to distinguish himself as a particularly reliable distance shooter of throws behind the three-point line and reached the final of the national NJCAA finals with the team. Here they suffered only the second defeat of the season and lost with one point difference against the rebels of the Dixie State College of Utah . After that one year, the freshman had recommended himself for higher assignments and received a scholarship from the University of Virginia , while his brother Steve continued his studies at Iona College in New York . Devin played at the University of Virginia for the basketball team Cavaliers along with, among others, the later basketball league -Profi Elton Brown in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) of the NCAA . With the Cavaliers, whose basketball team had their most successful time in the 1980s with Ralph Sampson , Smith could not qualify for a final tournament of the NCAA in the episode .

After Smith could not recommend himself in 2005 for a contract in the highest-endowed professional league NBA , he began a professional career in the second Spanish league LEB Oro at Gipuzkoa BC in San Sebastián . With this club he reached the main round fifth in the play-offs for promotion, in which one remained undefeated and reached the championship of the second division. After promotion to the top division ACB league , however, they won only eight of 34 games in the 2006/07 season and were relegated from bottom of the table. For the following season 2007/08 Smith left Spain and moved to the first Italian Lega Basket Serie A , where he worked with A.IR. from Avellino won the Italian cup competition in 2008 and was named “ Most Valuable Player ” (MVP) of the cup tournament. As third of the regular season they reached the best final placement in the top division for the club and were eliminated in the play-off semi-final series for the championship title.

In the 2008/09 season Smith played in the Türkiye Basketbol Ligi for the Turkish champions Fenerbahçe Ülker from Istanbul . As third of the main round you reached the final series of the championship, in which you as defending champion the main round first Efes Pilsen Istanbul , who had only suffered two defeats in championship and play-off games, two home defeats at the beginning. Then you lost the next four games in the series and could not defend the championship title. In the most important European club competition ULEB Euroleague 2008/09 they were eliminated after only one victory in the group games of the intermediate round in the round of the 16 best teams. In the 2009/10 season Smith played in the Greek A1 Ethniki for Panellinios from Athens . The team reached the “ Final Four ” tournament in the Eurocup 2009/10 , where they lost in the semifinals to the eventual title winner Power Electronics Valencia and later also the game for third place. Smith himself was elected to the "2009-10 All-Eurocup First Team", the selection of the five best players in the competition. In the Greek championship they were eliminated as fourth in the main round in the play-off semi-final series against series champion Panathinaikos Athens .

In the 2010/11 season Smith played again in Italy for Benetton from Treviso . In the Eurocup 2010/11 they suffered only one defeat in group games before the Final Four tournament and defeated, among others, the German representatives ALBA Berlin twice and in the quarterfinals the BG 74 Göttingen once after a draw in the first leg in Göttingen. At the final tournament of the best four teams in front of their home crowd, however, they lost to Cajasol Sevilla in the semi-finals and only finished fourth and last after they also lost the game for third place. Smith was selected again for the All-Eurocup First Team. In the Italian championship you could defeat your former team from Avellino as fifth in the main round in the play-off quarter-final series, but were eliminated in the semifinals clearly against series champion Montepaschi Siena . For the following season Smith then moved to the series champion in Europe (in the sense of the member associations of FIBA Europe ) and played for Maccabi Tel Aviv, who had won 49 championships in Israel since 1954. With Maccabi Smith was also able to defend the Israeli championship and win the 50th championship title, the first for Smith personally. With Maccabi, Smith also played again in the most important European club competition ULEB Euroleague , in which they lost just one point in the play-off quarter-final series in the decisive fifth game against defending champion Panathinaikos Athens in 2012. A year later they were eliminated in three games in the quarter-finals against Real Madrid . Smith had previously been named best player of the month in March 2013 in the Euroleague. Smith won the ULEB Euroleague with Maccabi in the 2013-14 season. After defending the title in the national cup competition, at the end of the season they also won the title in the national championship against defending champion Maccabi Haifa and won a triple crown .

Web links

Commons : Devin Smith  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• SMITH, DEVIN - Statistics on the websites of the ULEB ( English )
• Devin Smith Bio - University of Virginia Sports Website Profile
• Devin Smith Stats - Virginia Cavaliers - NCAA stats on statsheet.com

Individual evidence

1. ^ Coffeyville Community College: Athletics - Men's Basketball, Record Book. (No longer available online.) Coffeyville.edu, archived from the original on March 13, 2013 ; accessed on June 16, 2013 (English, best performances). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ 2002 Division 1 Men's Basketball Championship: National Championship Results. (No longer available online.) NJCAA.org, archived from the original on August 18, 2012 ; accessed on June 16, 2013 (English, overview of results). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ David Benezra, Mark Mayemura: Dixie's 'D' the key in NJCAA title. ESPN , March 29, 2002, accessed June 16, 2013 . 
4. ↑ Associated Press : Dixie comes back to beat Coffeyville for men's title. In: Fort Scott Tribune. Google Inc. , March 23, 2002, accessed June 16, 2013 (English, repro). 
5. ↑ ACB.COM: Devin Smith. Liga ACB , accessed June 16, 2013 (Spanish). 
6. ↑ ^{a b} Legabasket: Devin Smith. Lega Basket Serie A , accessed June 16, 2013 (Italian, player profile with statistics). 
7. ↑ Devin Smith - Turkish Basketball League Player. TBLStat.net, accessed on June 16, 2013 (English, profile on statistics pages ). 
8. ↑ 2009-10 All-Eurocup first, second teams announced. ULEB , April 7, 2010, accessed June 16, 2013 . 
9. ↑ 2010–11 All-Eurocup first, second teams announced. ULEB , April 6, 2011, accessed June 16, 2013 . 
10. ^ The Israeli Basketball Super League Administration Ltd (BSL) / Devin Smith. Ligat ha'Al , accessed on June 16, 2013 (English, player profile with statistics). 
11. ↑ 2011–12 Playoffs, Game 5: The champs survive - Panathinaikos KOs Maccabi in thriller! (No longer available online.) ULEB , April 5, 2012, archived from the original on December 27, 2012 ; accessed on June 16, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
12. ^ Bwin MVP for March: Devin Smith, Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv. ULEB , April 1, 2013, accessed June 16, 2013 .