Tops' Smith to Travel to Far East with Sports Reach USA Program

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — WKU Hilltopper Basketball forward Tolu Smith will participate this month in a cultural exchange basketball trip to the Far East through the Sports Reach USA sports ministry program.

Smith joins several Hilltoppers who have traveled abroad through the program, including Jared Savage, Moustapha Diagne, Justin Johnson, Nigel Snipes, T.J. Price, George Fant, A.J. Slaughter and Steffphon Pettigrew.

Savage and Diagne journeyed to Belize last year with Sports Reach USA.

Participants on this year's friendship/cultural tour, which runs from May 13-26, are scheduled to play four or five games against professional teams from Spain and China.

They will also be conducting basketball clinics with school age children, visiting historical sites and experiencing the Far East culture, while sharing their own culture.

Players on the trip will be involved in character development and servant leadership training focused on integrity and service to others.

Smith – a 6-foot-10 rising sophomore forward from Bay St. Louis, Miss. – averaged 3.3 points and 2.6 rebounds as a freshman in 2018-19 while shooting 58.3 percent from the field and appearing in all 34 games.

He averaged 10.1 minutes per game and made his final eight field goal attempts of the season over a seven-game span. He scored a career-high nine points against No. 13 West Virginia and grabbed a career-high nine rebounds at Louisiana Tech.

Smith is highly active in community service with the WKU program and is a member of the athletic department's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. He was also named to the C-USA Commissioner's Honor Roll in April for maintaining a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher.

Tops' Smith to Travel to Far East with Sports Reach USA Program

Players Mentioned

Moustapha Diagne

Justin Johnson

Jared Savage

Tolu Smith

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