Monday, January 02, 2006

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Jan. 2, 2006) - The Atlantic Sun Conference announced on Monday that ETSU senior Tim Smith (Newport News, Va.) has been named player of the week for games played Dec. 26 through Jan. 1.

It is the first individual A-Sun honor earned by a Buccaneer men's basketball player, and it gave ETSU basketball a sweep of the A-Sun weekly honors, as earlier in the day senior women's guard B.J. Banjo (Baltimore, Maryland) was also honored with a POTW award for her 39-point effort against Southeast Missouri State.

Smith, a 5-foot-9 guard, earned the honor after leading the Bucs to their second-straight win, an 82-70 victory over Morehead State on Dec. 29. In that game, Smith scored 24 points and dished out seven assists in 37 minutes of play.

His 24 points helped him move to No. 3 on the ETSU all-time scoring list with 1,884 points, overtaking former Buc great Calvin Talford (1988-92), who scored 1,872 points in his career. Smith remains on pace to become the program's all-time leading scorer by year's end, chasing Greg Dennis (1987-92), who netted 2,204 points in his time at ETSU.

This A-Sun honor only adds to Smith's list of accolades, which includes back-to-back Southern Conference Tournament MVPs, Freshman of the Year honors in 2002-03, and two first-team All-SoCon selections in 2003-04 and 2004-05.

Smith and the Bucs return to action in A-Sun play on Wednesday night when they host Florida Atlantic in Memorial Center. Tip is set for 7 p.m.