STATESBORO – Anybody who saw Ike Smith play as a sophomore could tell he was hurting last season. He did his best to hide it and tried his hardest to grind through it, but his body just was not right.

Fans only got the occasional peek at the Ike of 2016-17, the one who led the Sun Belt in scoring with 19.6 points a game and shot 50 percent from the floor and 40 percent from 3-point range. That Ike played against Wake Forest, in the first home game against CSU Bakersfield and Missouri State down in Estero, Fla., then took a long hiatus, reemerging at Arkansas State, against Louisiana and at Texas State. 

But even that Ike was hobbled, and battling the ups of downs of playing with an injury was clearly frustrating. You know what you are capable of and what you want your body to do, but sometimes it just was not there. He never knew how he was going to feel on game day.

"It was very frustrating, but I have great teammates who picked me up and told me everything was going to be okay," said Smith. "I had to just find ways to help my teammates."

The senior finally got some time to mend after the season and, after the better part of a year and a half, is healthy. 

"Last year, you only saw glimpses of the guy who looked like himself as a sophomore," said Georgia Southern head coach Mark Byington. "He is a veteran guy who can score in every way possible - whether it's shooting 3s or posting up or driving and getting to the free-throw line. Having him healthy makes me really excited because I hated watching him be frustrated last year because he is such a talented player."

That bodes well for the Eagles, who return just five letterwinners. Two of them - Smith and Tookie Brown - are two of the best scorers in school history. 

Also good for the Eagles is that Smith has gotten better.

"I think he's gotten much smarter in understanding the whole complexity of the game," said Byington. "Whether it be on defense or in different situations, his intelligence has really improved."

It was a by-product of being held out of practices and games – having to watch from the sidelines with a different perspective and seeing the game through the eyes of the coaching staff. In addition, when you are a gym rat who cannot work out, you watch film.

"After every game, I go back and watch things and learn from every mistake that I made," said Smith. "I'm way more mature now, and I've learned a lot. Now, I'm trying to help the younger guys to develop and learn."

When his body did finally heal after some time off last summer, Smith got back in the gym. Safe to say he never wants to go through that frustration again, and he is pushing hard to be even better than he was as a sophomore.

"I'm ready to take it to another level," he said. "I worked on getting healthy and getting back into a rhythm and worked on the same things I did before my sophomore year. I tried to get healthy and get stronger, and I feel like I'm in great shape and my body is feeling good."

As for the Eagles, who have the talent to play on Sunday in the Sun Belt Tournament this year, Smith will provide needed leadership to six newcomers to the program. His wisdom is simple, yet effective and sometimes gets lost through the grind of a five-month long, 30-plus game season.

"We need to come into practice willing to learn and ready to get better and go out and compete every night and everything will take care of itself," he said. "Go out and compete every day."
 

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Georgia Southern reached 20 wins for the second time in four years in 2017-18, posting a 21-12 mark, and joined Louisiana and UTA as the only three Sun Belt schools to notch double-digit conference wins in each of the last four seasons. The Eagles return three starters and five lettermen to the 2018-19 team and open the campaign with a home exhibition contest against Charleston Southern in Hanner Fieldhouse Oct. 30.

Georgia Southern annually offers one of the best values in the Sun Belt for men's basketball season tickets and this year is no different. Season tickets in the lower reserved sections (F-J) are $175 and sell out quickly while season tickets in the upper reserved sections (7-12) are $140. General admission season tickets are $100 and courtside seats are $450 each (minimum $1,200 Eagle Fund donation required to purchase courtside seats).

Fans who purchase a men's season tickets will have a women's season ticket included for no additional charge.