Family and basketball: Cedar Park senior Alisa Knight following in family footsteps of success

Photo Credit: Scott W. Coleman

Cedar Park senior Alisa Knight has learned a lot of basketball skills over the years from many different coaches, but her determination was inherited from the person she looks up to the most.

Annette Smith-Knight is truly a basketball legend. She is the all-time leading scorer in Texas basketball history with 2,523 points, led the Longhorns to a perfect 34-0 record and the national title in 1986 and won a gold medal with Team USA at the 1983 World University Games.

“I wish to this day I could watch her play,” Alisa said. “I always hear of all the things she did during her freshman year of college. Now, I’m the same age as she was in those videos. I want to learn from it in a way. We watch film all the time, I wish I could just watch film on my mom.”

Alisa has flourished at Cedar Park, being named district Defensive Player of the Year in back-to-back seasons, winning three straight undefeated district titles and reaching the regional tournament twice before breaking through to the state title game this season.

“She’s worked hard at it and it she wanted to be one of the best,” Annette said. “It seems like it’s paying off.”

The Knight family is a basketball family through and through.

Alisa’s older brother Trey was part of the first Cedar Park boys’ team to qualify for the state tournament in 2015, while her father Curtis played for legendary head coach Larry Brown at UCLA and went on to an extremely successful coaching career.

The one thing Alisa has never lacked is confidence.

Curtis said he knew Alisa was going to be good when she was at a UT basketball camp and the director asked if anyone wanted to sing, an eight or nine-year-old Alisa stood up in front of 400 people and belted out a song.

“She couldn’t hit a tune,” he said. “But she was feeling the song. Anybody who can do that is not gonna be shy.”

Trey was the same way. He was on varsity at Cedar Park for four years and averaged 14 points and eight assists per game as a senior in 2015, when he was the district MVP, First Team All-Conference, All-Region and All-State the year the Timberwolves made it to the state semifinals.

When Alisa first got to high school and getting a little better, Trey would started getting a little more rugged when the siblings faced off. He always told his sister that if she could guard him, she could guard just about any girl in the state.

It’s clearly paid off.

“To me, it’s a blessing because I get to basically relive what I did, but now from a different standpoint,” Trey said. “Now I’m a fan. I didn’t realize all the emotions fans get. I enjoy the excitement of watching someone who used to come to my games and watch me play and work hard.”

Alisa wanted to make the Cedar Park varsity team as a freshman. But her parents, with a vast amount of playing and coaching experience between them, told her to pump the breaks and be patient.

The willingness to let Cedar Park head coach Donny Ott do his job and trust the coaching staff is one of the things Ott appreciates most about the Knight family being part of the Cedar Park program.

“Her parents allow the coaches to coach their daughter and don’t try to coach over them,” Ott said. “That’s the greatest thing that’s helped Alisa because she’s stayed locked in to all the details. Alisa is one of the ultimate and complete competitors I’ve been around.”

Smith-Knight grew up as one of six siblings, all of which played basketball. Her sister Audrey played for the Longhorns, and her brother LaBradford played at Louisville, was a first-round NBA draft pick. (He had one VERY memorable game against Micheal Jordan).

Family and basketball have always been interconnected for Annette Smith-Knight, and she’s getting a chance to be part of another historic group with her daughter and Cedar Park’s historic run to the state final.

“I’m experiencing (the family atmosphere) again because I look at Alisa and she’s working hard and she wants to get to the next level,” Annette said.

Alisa is planning to play basketball in college while working on her nursing degree, where that happens is yet to be determined.

Wherever Alisa plays in college, she’ll undoubtedly always pay attention to the little details, just like her mom taught her.

“It feels like it’s paying off, but I wouldn’t say the job is done until we win the game on Wednesday,” Alisa said. “I worked harder because growing up I always idolized my mom. I had something to work towards.”

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Originally published at https://www.hillcountrynews.com/stories/family-and-basketball-cedar-park-senior-alisa-knight-following-in-family-footsteps-of-success,84746?