Bassett-Smith ready to leave her mark on App State basketball

The Appalachian Online Athleticism has never been a problem for the Bassett-Smith family. Since App State women’s basketball senior forward Ashley Bassett-Smith was just a kid, she grew up in a household where playing sports was the norm, no matter what sport.
Raised in Ohio, Bassett-Smith’s father, James, played professional rugby in Australia, and her mother Terri, played volleyball for Arizona State University.
“When my sister and I were little, our parents let us try every sport,” Bassett-Smith said. “Whether it was karate or dance, I was always the tallest one. As I started to grow up, my two sports were basketball and volleyball.”
Switching over to basketball when she began high school, Bassett-Smith’s father saw the talent in her game, and that is when she signed up to play AAU basketball. Bassett-Smith’s younger sister of two years, Morgan, followed in her footsteps.
Attending and playing for three different high schools, and playing for two different colleges, Bassett-Smith found her home at Appalachian State after transferring from University of Tennessee-Martin her freshman year in 2012.
“When I visited Boone in the summer when I was transferring, I kind of just felt it, and liked the atmosphere,” Bassett-Smith said. “It is a different setting then I ever had in Ohio, and I liked the traditions that they had here, and they had a really good exercise science program here, which would help me academically.”
Now in her final season as a senior, Bassett-Smith moved to third on the Mountaineers all-time blocks list this season with 137 career blocks, has become one of the most prevalent leaders on the team, and will leave her name engraved in App State history.
Transferring was a difficult decision at first for Bassett-Smith. Just a year removed from sitting out a year, Bassett-Smith had to make the decision whether she would sit ...


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