STANFORD, California – Alanna Smith had already left for her flight across the world to join Stanford’s basketball team, so she never saw her mother’s tears as the freshman departed Australia by herself.
Smith, 19, unintentionally made history the moment she stepped on campus.
Amazingly, the 193cm forward is the first international recruit for the Cardinal women’s program, even after all of those talented squads in recent decades playing for Hall of Fame coach Tara VanDerveer.
“It was the hardest for my mum to let me go,” Smith recalled of the emotional goodbye at Melbourne airport almost three months ago.
“But it’s been a goal of mine for quite a while now. My uncle went to college in California and it’s been stuck in my head that I wanted to go to college here.”
It has been daunting at times how much she has to learn, adjusting to a new level, new rules and even popular foreign phrases —— “tailgating” tripped her up not long ago.
Or, there’s “bear-hugging” while playing post defence. Which we call half-fronting,” Smith explained.
