The Spiece Indy Stars 2012 team is attracting a lot of attention for a team in their age group. Ron Patterson and Jeremy Hollowell have offers from some of the top programs in the country before ever entering their sophomore year in high school. Austin Burgett continues drawing a crowd and has coaches from Indiana, Purdue, Cincinnati, Iowa, and other schools taking close notes. Kellon Thomas is a can't miss point guard prospect with a sweet shooting stroke and the mentality to score or distribute.
But today in Kansas City playing up against the powerful King James Shooting Stars in the 16U division it was Rhett Smith of Sullivan, Indiana who knocked in the three pointer at the buzzer to win the game. Smith often plays a key roll for his team. He has a nice soft shot, is good on the glass, and can put the ball on the floor some. I spoke with Stars coach Chris Hawkins from Kansas City today after Smith knocked down 18 points in the win and he indicated Smith has quite a bit of D1 interest already. Indiana State likes him and Southern Indiana is "looking hard".
The good Mongrel has seen this squad play several times, as has a host of college coaches. Tom Crean and Bruce Weber joined me to watch them play a couple of games on the first day of the evaluation period in July. Thad Matta, Matt Painter, Mick Cronin, and others were soon to follow. Right now Smith is about 6'5 or 6'6 and plays a wing forward role. He can put the ball on the floor but his athleticism is more up and down than lateral at this point as I've seen him block a few shots that got my attention. Smith has a good soft shot and is tough on the glass. At this level and age he is good guarding big kids and playing in the paint on offense.
Comparisons are always a little tricky for kids who just finished their freshman year, but if he can put on a couple of inches during the next couple of years I could see Smith having a style of play not unlike former Iowa Hawkeye Greg Bruner. Smith has a really good feel for the game and is seemingly always in the right place at the right time. His fundamentals and intensity always stand out.
Smith first caught my eye in Sullivan's sectional loss to a strong Edgewood Mustangs 3A squad when he scored 23 points. His 7.6 rebounds per game was the second highest total in the state for freshmen and he also averaged about 12 points per contest.
The photo above is from a Goldandblack.com article on Smith from a few weeks ago. http://purdue.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=962589 They are an excellent Purdue rivals site which provided quite a bit of coverage of this squad from the Hoosier Shootout and Kentucky Hoopfest earlier in the month.
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