By Terry Boehmker
NKy Tribune sports reporter
After his college basketball career ended, Kellen Smith wanted to play on the next level and the Northern Kentucky native traveled halfway across the world to get that opportunity.
Three months ago, Smith turned down a job offer in Cincinnati and bought a one-way ticket on an airline flight to Australia to join a professional basketball team there.
It hasn’t been easy adjusting to a new lifestyle thousands of miles away from home, but he has no regrets. As the starting point guard for the Norwood Flames, he’s averaging 13 points, seven assists and four rebounds in the team’s up-tempo style of play.
“We want to just get the ball and run,” Smith said during a telephone interview. “We play in transition and get easy buckets that way, and we’ve been pretty effective at it so far. As long as our defense allows us to get stops and rebounds, we’re running. That’s the way I’ve played my whole life so I couldn’t ask for anything better than that.”
Smith, 24, was a three-year starter on the Scott High School boys’ basketball team. He averaged 19.3 points and 5.7 rebounds in his senior season and was recruited by Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan.
In college, he became a pass-first point guard for the Cardinals, who compete on the NCAA Division II level. He set team records for most career assists (546) and most assists in a season (185) when he was a senior.
Saginaw Valley State’s head coach recruits Australian players every year and he used his connections in that country to get Smith on the Norwood Flames professional basketball team that competes in the South Australia Premier League.
South Australia is one of six states in the island nation. Norwood and the other nine teams in the Premier League are all located in and around Adelaide, the state capital. Each team in the league is limited to two “import players” on its roster and most of them are former college players from the United States.
“There’s some real good players in this league,” Smith said. “It’s just hard to compare it to college basketball because the age varies so much. On any particular team you can have some players up to age 30 and some as young as 17, and they all get to contribute. Both of our older players are solid starters and we have a set of teenagers that play every game.”
Smith joined the Norwood Flames a few weeks after the season started because another U.S. player left the team. Once he worked his way into the starting lineup, the Flames won seven of their last nine games, including the last six in a row. In a 103-66 win over the Woodville Warriors on July 1, the newcomer had 12 points and a season-high 11 assists.
“I’ve always had a good feel for the court and been able to find my teammates when they’re open,” Smith said. “So I’m not really surprised by my assists, but scoring in doubles figures is something I didn’t have to do in college. I had scorers all around me so that’s why I was always a pass-first point guard.”
With four games left on the schedule, the Flames have a 9-5 record that puts them in a three-way tie for second place in the Premier League. The top four teams in the final standings will advance to the playoffs. Two years ago, the Flames won the league title and they’re beginning to look like contenders once again this season.
All five starters now have double-figure scoring averages. The leaders are Jerrell Sanders, the team’s other import player from the United States, and Daniel Webber, a 29-year-old guard in his eighth season with the Flames.
“I just think they were missing that one part that makes a team full,” Smith said of the team’s turnaround since he joined the lineup. “We’ve got some good Aussies, which not every team has in this league. We have three or four Aussies that can really ball and the other import player is pretty much our top dog in scoring and rebounding.”
Premier League teams seldom play more than one game each week in small gyms. Even though the seating is limited, Smith said there’s usually a vibrant atmosphere at games because the fans “sit right on top of you.”
Smith conducts training sessions for young players in the Adelaide area three days a week to supplement the salary he receives from the Flames. In his free time, he goes to beaches near the coastal city, attends Australian Rules Football games and visits other parts of the country. He took a flight to Sydney earlier this week.
Driving has become a new adventure for him. Steering wheels in Australian cars are on the right side because they drive on the opposite side of the road than we do in the United States.
“I’m used to my (turning) blinker being on left and it’s not so I’ll just hit the windshield wipers when I’m trying to turn,” Smith said. “Just small things like that let you know you’re in a completely different world.”
He reserves time in the morning to call and text family and friends back home since there’s a 13 1/2-hour time difference. If he makes a call at 9:30 a.m. on Monday in Australia, it will be 8 p.m. Sunday here.
Smith plans to return to Northern Kentucky after the season ends in August. Where his love for basketball will take him from there no one knows. He said he talked to an agent who’s “been trying to put me in other places.”
“I’ll definitely come home after the season ends, and if there’s another opportunity I’ll pursue that if it arises,” he said.