Bria Smith is in search of a new college destination.
The Christ the King girls basketball star told The Post she has was released Tuesday from her National Letter of Intent at the University of Virginia and is reopening her recruitment. Smith chose to attend the ACC school to play for legendary coach Debbie Ryan, who announced earlier this month that she will be stepping down at season’s end.
“It will be hard just opening up the options again, getting everybody to talk to you again,” said Smith, the No. 8 ranked recruit in the country by HoopGurlz. “I feel like it is kind of like a second chance at this even though UVA I felt was the school I would have the most fun at and play under Coach Ryan. But as we all know that didn’t work out.”
The McDonald’s All-American guard found out the news when Ryan called her hours before the Royals’ CHSAA Class AA state semifinal game against St. John the Baptist on March 12. Smith said she was shocked and taken aback by it and immediately began to worry about her future, not knowing at the time she would ask for a release.
Despite her parents calming her down and telling her otherwise, New York’s Miss Basketball admitted her mind still wasn’t right during the game, but she didn’t want to use it as an excuse. Smith struggled to score and eventually fouled out late in the fourth quarter of a 55-52 win. The Royals finished the season 21-9 after falling to nationally ranked Nazareth in the final.
“I was a mess before the game,” she said of the contest against SJB. “I was thinking too much.”
Smith believed she had found the place to continue her career. Ryan, who had been the Virginia head coach for 34 years, is a Hall of Famer and one of just eight active Division I women’s basketball coaches with 700 or more wins. She guided the Cavaliers to 24 NCAA tournament appearances and three consecutive Final Fours from 1990-92. UVA is set to host Boston College on March 24 in the third round of the WNIT. Ryan said in the university press release that: “I am not retiring per se, but I feel we have not lived up to my own standards and expectations this past year and I want to do what is best for our program and the University.”
“It was her experience and her working with other greats inside the game,” Smith said of what drew her to Ryan. “I felt like she could teach me a lot. That was the reason I was going to UVA.”
Back in August, as first reported by The Post, she chose Virginia over Louisville and Georgia. Smith said that she doesn’t have a starting point this time around and didn’t rule out going back to UVA after a new coach is hired, stating that there is a chance for anything right now.
“This time I am going to just open all my options up totally, have schools contact me, have me contact schools,” Smith said. “I will see where I go from there.”