The Road to the 1986 championship led through Annette Smiths return to health
Annette Smith -The Game Changer
by Annette’s teammates, Billy Dale, and jule cart
BY JULIE CART- Times Staff Writer- DEC. 10, 1985 -AUSTIN, Tex. —
In 1983 Annette Smith of Texas was All-Everything, averaging 25 points per game for the nation’s top-ranked women’s college basketball team.
It was pretty swell for a while, but in stories like these, there’s always a Then as in, Then her world caved in. One day in practice, she landed so hard that she cracked a bone in her left leg, which resulted in extensive cartilage and ligament damage. Then it was, Annette, you’ll play basketball again . . . when they invent a reliable leg transplant.In real life, Annette Smith of the University of Texas spent five hours under the knife while surgeons reconstructed her left knee. She was on crutches for five months and in rehabilitative therapy for nearly a year and a half.
Smith’s doctor, Jerry Julian, suggested that if she really were interested in walking normally again, she should think about giving up on her comeback in basketball.
Below is a slide show of teams during Annette’s years at Texas
“There’s nothing wrong with her heart,” Texas Coach Jody Conradt said. “She has worked so hard. Annette literally loves to play the game. When she walks on court, she exudes enthusiasm. It’s contagious.”
Conradt hopes her team will catch it, as the No. 1-ranked Lady Longhorns host the No. 5 Trojans tonight in Texas’ Frank Erwin Center.
For the Lady Longhorns, Smith’s status will be a key.
“Smith is, hands down, the quickest 5-11 post player in the country,” USC Coach Linda Sharp said. “Her injury has not impaired her speed and agility.”
Sharp may be saying that for the benefit of her players, lest they take Smith lightly. In truth, Smith does not have the quickness and agility she had two years ago. After only four games this season, she is still feeling her way.
Last weekend in a tournament at home, Smith–who averaged 25 points a game before surgery–scored only 12 points against Western Michigan and none against Northeast Louisiana.
“I can’t get up and down the floor as fast as I used to,” Smith said. “But I think I can make up for that in other ways.”
One of those ways is defense. Smith held Cheryl Miller to “only” 21 points when the teams met two years ago at Austin. USC came into that game undefeated and top-ranked, but Texas won, 77-68. The Lady Longhorns went on to finish 32-2 and No. 1 in the regular-season polls.
Last season, Texas lost to USC at Los Angeles, 73-71, on a last-second basket. It was a similar prayer shot, this time in the Mideast Regional championship against Western Kentucky, that gave the Lady Toppers a 92-90 win and kept Texas out of the Final Four again.
The Lady Longhorns finished the regular season at 28-3 and ranked No. 1, but they kept intact their record of never advancing to the Final Four.
“I’m sure we all remember the USC game last year,” Conradt said. “Just as I’m sure their players remembered our win the year before. Please tell them it’s our turn to win.”
on par with its starters.
That’s true with one exception; USC can go with two or three reliable point guards after starter Rhonda Windham. Texas relies heavily on All-American Kamie Ethridge
Sherryl Hauglum is both a Longhorn basketball teammate of Annette and a TLSN Board Member.
Sherryl Hauglum was a teammate of Annette Smith and a TLSN Board Member. Sherryl says, “Annette Smith was truly a joy to play with and fascinating to watch! “I marveled at her incredible footwork and moves!”
“Annette’s quick first step made her a scoring machine. Scoring points before her opponent knew what had happened. She made all ofher teammates better players with her presence on the court. “Annette Smith-Knight was billed as “the best little center” in the nation during her career.
Annette’s teammate Beverly Williams says -“Playing with Annette for two years was exciting, fun, and competitive. She had a quick first step and was aggressive on the boards. She was definitely an All-American to me.”
Lyssa McBride/Seale says of Graduate/Assistant coach Annette Smith in 1986. “Annette was a great influence on us when she was our graduate assistant back in the 1986-87 season! Her positive attitude and contagious energy, along with her unbelievable skill and knowledge of the game, was invaluable!”
The road to a National Championship is a difficult one to master. It takes good recruiting, a competent coaching staff, players with faith in the system, trust and respect from teammates, talent, team chemistry, a strong work ethic, and a little luck. Several times during Conradts first ten years, her teams possessed all the ingredients to win but luck. In 1983-1984 and 1984-1985, texas was ranked as #1 in the nation, but serious knee injuries to 5 starters during the 1982-1983 season kept the Horns out of the Final 4. One of those injuries was to Annette Smith, who missed the entire 1983-84 season while rehabilitating her knee injury.
Luck
Coach Royal believed in cause and effect. He believed that if you want more good luck in life, then prepare accordingly. Golf Coach Harvey Penick, the great golf instructor, said, “giving luck a chance gave players a high probability of scoring”. Coach Royal agreed with Harvey Penick. Royal understood that preparation for a game increased the chance of “giving luck a chance” Royal said, “luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
But baseball Coach Gustafson agreed that preparation is the key to good luck. Still, he also conceded that sometimes bad luck was inevitable even with preparation. In 1982 Coach Gustafson had one of his best teams. They were projected to win the CWS tournament, but some quirky uncontrollable incidents defied all the Wichita State game preparation, and Texas lost the National Championship. After the game, Coach knew his players were dumbfounded and felt responsible for the loss in the locker room, and he calmed the team by saying, “men, I know how you feel. But I want you to remember one thing: It took winners to get this far, and you are definitely winners. You had a great year, and you’re a great ball club.”
Every year a sports team comes close to winning some important game but falls short. These teams aimed high and put themselves in a position to have “something really fortunate happen,” but the team, for some reason, did not reach the pinnacle. Many times the loss is caused by bad luck. Other times the loss is caused by a quirky play, serious injuries to key players that no amount of preparation could mitigate. That, I believe, is true for the 1981-1984 women’s basketball teams bad luck (injuries) kept the Longhorns out of the final Four for a decade.
The whole story about luck is at https://www.texaslsn.org/good-luck-follows-preparation-1?rq=luck%20%20#>
Coach Conradt’s record in her first ten years in women’s basketball was phenomenal, recording 322 victories and only 49 losses. I don’t believe any Longhorn Coach will ever beat this percentage won/loss record for a 10-year period.
Without her, the team made it to Elite 8 in 1983-1984 and Sweet 16 in 1984-1985. In 1985-1986 Annette Smith’s injury status is the X factor that would either transform Texas into a national champion if healed or an also-ran if not.
History says that with Annette’s return for the 1985-1986 season, the Horns went 34-0 and won the national championship Annette finished her career as the Longhorn’s all-time leading scorer with 2,523 points.
Smith-Knight led Texas to a runner-up AIAW national championship finish in 1981-82 as a high-scoring freshman from Bay City. They were ranked #1 when they lost to Rutgers.
There will probably never be another women’s Longhorn basketball player that will duplicate Annette’s accomplishments.
· Annette Smith-Knight entered the Longhorn Hall of Honor in 2013.
· Played at the University of Texas from 1981-1986, finishing her career as the school’s all-time leading scorer with 2,523 points
· Smith-Knight led the Longhorns to the 1986 NCAA Division I National Championship with a perfect 34-0 record
· She was named the 1983 Southwest Conference Tournament MVP
· In 1983 and 1984, she was the University of Texas team MVP and Southwest Conference Player of the Year.
· Smith-Knight was a 1984 Kodak All-American, USBWA All-American, and Wade Trophy finalist
· At the University of Texas, she ranks 1st in field goals with (1,052), 2nd in career scoring average (19.3 ppg), 3rd in career free throws made (419), 5th in career steals (295), and 6th in career rebounds (966).
· She holds the University of Texas record for most consecutive games, scoring double figures with 33 games.
· Smith-Knight started all 131 games she played while at the University of Texas and never lost a Southwest Conference game
· She was a member of the 1983 World University Games team, which captured gold
· She was inducted into the University of Texas Women’s Athletics Hall of Honor in 2002 and into the Texas Black Sports Hall of Fame in 2006
· In 2022 Annette’s #15 jersey was retired. Smith-Knight’s No. 15 will be the third jersey from the 1986 national championship team that Texas has retired, after Clarissa Davis’ No. 24 and Kamie Ethridge’s No. 33.
· Annette entered the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville in 2013.
· She also earned USBWA All-American honors and was a Wade Trophy finalist.
· Smith-Knight was a 1983 gold medalist U.S. national team member for the World University Games team in Edmonton, Canada.
Smith-Knight returned to Texas in 1993 and was an assistant coach on Jody Conradt’s staff for five seasons. She later served as a director of basketball operations and worked on the athletic department’s administrative staff before retiring in 2015.
Coach Conradt’s entire story is at
1976-2007 JODY CONRADT (squarespace.com)
