While most LSU women’s basketball players were at home this summer, or at least enjoying their summer vacation away from school, Sa’Myah Smith was in the weight room, working on her craft almost every day.
Smith’s true freshman season last year was a success. Not only did she win a national championship during her first year at LSU, but she appeared in every game during the season, often playing a crucial role off the bench.
In the national championship, Smith played 11 minutes, scoring two points along with two rebounds and a block.
“A national championship is always the goal,” Smith said. “But it’s a surreal feeling to actually go out there and win it, for sure.”
She made her reliability known from the start of the season against Bellarmine, where she scored 12 points along with 11 rebounds. While the competition was introductory at first, she continued to make an impact once SEC play came around.
Against Georgia, where the Bulldogs took LSU to overtime, Smith scored 10 points and grabbed five rebounds in her 16 minutes of playing time.
In addition, the most playing time she got in any SEC game came against South Carolina, where LSU lost 88-64. In 27 minutes, she totaled seven points, six rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block.
In the NCAA Tournament, she scored six points along with five rebounds against Miami in the Elite Eight, a game where the Tigers struggled to put points on the board.
Overall, Smith was consistent last season, and a player Kim Mulkey frequently went to off the bench. She averaged 14.7 minutes of playing time per game, and averaged 4.6 points per game, four rebounds per game, and 1.1 blocks per game.
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LSU reloaded its depth for this coming season, and Smith looked to be a big piece being that she’s one of the few returners to the team. But she took those possibilities into her own hands, and went right to work after the season ended.
 “I spent a lot of time in the weight room, just trying to get not like stocky, but just get stronger,” Smith said. “The weight room was a big part of my offseason.”
It was noticeable that Smith got stronger. In both of the Tigers’ exhibition games against East Texas Baptist and Loyola, she was much more aggressive in the paint.
Against Loyola, she grabbed 14 rebounds along with six points and three blocks. Her assertiveness in the paint is especially important because LSU’s forward options are thinner than their perimeter player options.
Despite her production and experience in the program, Smith was still an option off the bench for the team’s regular season opener against Colorado.
While this was mainly expected, Smith continued to show the results of her hard work this offseason, and it came during a time where the team needed it most.
In LSU’s 92-78 loss to Colorado Monday night, Smith played 25 minutes, which is the third-most minutes she’s played in any game at LSU thus far. She scored 16 points, five rebounds and blocked one shot in the loss.
To compare that to her teammates, she was the second-leading rebounder in the game only behind Angel Reese, and was the second-leading scorer only behind Mikaylah Williams.
However, while Smith’s production was one of the positive takeaways from Monday’s loss, the biggest takeaway from Smith’s game for Mulkey was her effort.
“You live with a tough night offensively, what I don’t live with is no guts and fight and physical play,” Mulkey said after the loss. “I thought this lady [Mikaylah Williams] and Sa’Myah Smith gave it all they had.”
It said a lot about the faith Mulkey has in Smith, but Mulkey has always had an abundance of faith in her. During the offseason, Mulkey saw the work Smith was putting in, and admired her for it. In fact, Mulkey sees her as “a coach’s dream.”
“She knows that she’s got to get stronger,” Mulkey said. “She wants to do good and she wants to get more minutes. She’s a joy to coach.”
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Smith has shown several times during her time at LSU that she can come through for her team, especially when things aren’t going so well. But Mulkey expects that as the season progresses, Smith will play a bigger role.
The potential change of her role on the team plays a factor to why Smith stayed in Baton Rouge over the summer to train.
While it’s the type of player Smith is, regardless of the team she plays for, Smith may have to step up at times this season and be ready to play a significant role.
“She’s super talented. She played her role last year,” Mulkey said. “She realizes that her role needs to change and she’s prepared for it.”
As Smith’s sophomore season is getting ready to pick up, she and Mulkey can look back and say confidently that she has done her job thus far at LSU.
But for Smith, it’s all about consistency. And despite being an important part of a national championship team, she knows her job is not yet finished.