SerpApi.Org
Edwardsville graduate Mark Smith is returning to Japan to continue his professional basketball career.
Smith, the 2017 Illinois Mr. Basketball, recently signed a one-year contract with the Akita Northern Happinets. Akita competes in B. League Premier, the highest division of Japan’s B. League.
“So excited to announce I'm coming back to Japan and joining Akita,” Smith said in a release from the organization. “To the fans and boosters—I promise to bring everything I've got every single night.”
Smith has played overseas since finishing his college career at Kansas State in 2022. He previously played one season at Illinois and three at Missouri.
Last season, Smith played for Ratiopharm Ulm in Germany’s Basketball Bundesliga. The 6-foot-5 point guard averaged 12.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.0 steals per game.
Seeking to improve an offense that finished last in the league in scoring, Akita signed a player who has already enjoyed success in Japan. Smith averaged 18.6 points for Nagasaki Velka two seasons ago, finishing fourth in the league in scoring.
“He will be a player who will further evolve the aggressive playing style that the team aims for, both offensively and defensively,” the Akita organization said in a press release. “We expect Smith to be a major driving force in delivering even more exciting games than before.”
The upcoming season will be Smith’s fifth as a professional and his second in Japan. He has also played three seasons in Germany, averaging at least 12.5 points in each of his first four professional seasons.
Smith’s professional career followed one of the greatest individual seasons in Edwardsville basketball history.
As a senior in 2016-17, Smith averaged 21.9 points, 8.4 assists and 8.2 rebounds while leading the Tigers to a 30-2 record and an appearance in the Class 4A state super-sectional. He recorded 13 double-doubles and three triple-doubles.
Smith scored a career-high 45 points on 14-of-21 shooting and grabbed 13 rebounds against Danville in the Class 4A Ottawa Sectional championship game. It remains the most points scored by an Edwardsville player in a postseason game.
The performance was also the highest-scoring game by a Tiger since Dan Lytle set the program record with 48 points against Alton in 1999. Smith matched Scrappy Jackson’s 45-point performance from 1967. Greg Ahart scored 47 points in 1974, and Dick Brown had 46 in 1975.
Smith scored 700 points during his senior season, joining Mannie Jackson, who had 838, as the only Edwardsville players at the time to reach that mark in a season. Jack Marinko joined them with 701 points in 2017-18.
Following his senior season, Smith was named the Gatorade Illinois Boys Basketball Player of the Year and Illinois Mr. Basketball. He was the first Edwardsville player to receive either honor.
Smith was also selected to the Associated Press All-State first team and named the Champaign News-Gazette’s Illinois Player of the Year. He became the first metro-east player to win Mr. Basketball since East St. Louis’ Darius Miles in 2000.
Smith finished his Edwardsville career with 1,477 points, ranking third in program history behind Ahart and Paul Schaefer. Smith, Ahart, Schaefer and Mannie Jackson are the only members of Edwardsville’s 1,400-point club.
