5/5/2021 basketball Edit

Mike Smith's Advice For New Michigan Guards DeVante' Jones, Frankie Collins

Clayton Sayfie • Maize&BlueReview

Staff Writer

Michigan Wolverines basketball's Mike Smith had about as good of an experience as a player can have at a school in one season during a pandemic.

After playing four years at Columbia, Smith, who is currently training ahead of the NBA Draft, transferred to U-M to play for head coach Juwan Howard and Co., and acquitted himself nicely from game one on. The Burr Ridge, Ill., native averaged nine points and a Big Ten-best 5.3 assists per game, while shooting 41.8 percent from beyond the three-point arc.

Following a season in which he led the Ivy League in scoring (22.8 points per game) and attempted over 19 shots per contest, Smith was able to morph his game into the style — and role, as a facilitator — that the Wolverines needed him to play.

Michigan Wolverines basketball fifth-year senior guard Mike Smith signed with Quartexx Basketball Group. (AP Images)

Smith learned plenty in his one year in Ann Arbor while making the jump from the Ivy League to the Big Ten and helping the Wolverines to an outright Big Ten title and Elite Eight berth, and he believes it helped prepare him for the next level, whether that be in the NBA, the G-League or overseas.

"What I took away from this season for me is that I learned how to play hard," Smith said on the 'Defend The Block' podcast. "I learned how to play defense better than what I’ve done in the past — I think that’s a given, because that was a question, if I could play defense. If I couldn’t have played defense, I knew Coach wouldn’t have started me."

The Maize and Blue are now in a similar situation as they were one year ago. They're set to bring in Coastal Carolina graduate transfer DeVante' Jones, the reigning Sun Belt Player of the Year who averaged 19.3 points per game last season as a combo guard. He will transition back to the point — where he excelled in 2019-20, averaging 5.7 assists per game — while simultaneously facing a step up in competition.

Smith appeared on Wednesday's episode of the podcast with host Brian Boesch, and while the two were not able to name Jones specifically (since the show is affiliated with the athletic department, which has not yet announced Jones' addition), they did allude to him joining the team, and Smith had some advice for him and the team's incoming freshman point guard, four-star recruit Frankie Collins.

"I think just going into this year thinking that this is going to be your best years or year ever, depending on the situation," Smith said. "But go in and work each and every day, because if you don’t, Coach is going to make you. So you might as well have the mindset to go in and work each and every day.

"To go in there, if you’re a four-year and you're transferring, I’d say to go in there and run the team and make sure that everybody knows that you’re there, so that everybody listens to you. To go in there and play hard every day, practice and the games, because it translates and people are going to respect you. Do everything you’re going to do in the game, in practice."

"As a freshman, I would say, come in and be willing to learn and work hard every day, because you have a great group of guys and a great coaching staff that’s around you, that’s going to teach you. If you want to be taught, then just learn from then and you will go on to be a great Michigan player because they ultimately know what they’re doing."

Both Jones and Collins would be wise to take his advice, and it appears Jones is already doing so, considering he said that he has already spoken to Smith about transferring into Michigan and playing their shared position.

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