Former MU Target Darius Smith Leaves Uconn for .... Chicago State!

[Tugg Speedman]

How the mighty have fallen.

http://insider.espn.go.com/ncb/features/rumors/_/date/20110121#3364

Ex-Husky returning to Windy City?


As a high school recruit, Darius Smith was in high-demand. After one season at UConn, the 6-foo-1 guard decided the Big East was not for him and decided to look for a new college home. Scott Powers of ESPN Chicago reports Morris, per a source, is strongly considering Chicago State.

Morris is from Chicago and would be a nice addition to Tracy Dildy's program. There is a resurgence in Chicagoland-hoops thanks to the new coaches at UIC, Chicago State and DePaul and Cougars forward Carl Montgomery exhausts his eligibility following this season.

Chicago State plays in the Great West conference and though the conference does not have an NCAA tournament bid, if Morris does join the squad, the Cougars will have a decent shot of landing a bid to one of the various college postseason tournaments that now exist.
-----

Here is March 2009 thread about him .... 

http://www.muscoop.com/index.php?topic=14358.0

And the always interesting BMA725 said this about Smith ...

Smith committed to UConn sight unseen.  He hasn't made a visit, hasn't even met with Calhoun and first met someone from their staff last week.  There's much more at play here than just having a connection.

Given this it should have been easy to see this flame out coming.  Glad we did not get this headache.

P.S. Where is BMA these days?

[nyg]

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recruiting/player-Darius-Smith-73641

[Pakuni]

Smith already left UConn months ago and is playing at the College of Southern Idaho (JUCO).

http://www.magicvalley.com/sports/college/csi/article_e040775b-3244-518f-8d7e-2d70521f3f89.html

[chapman]

Whoever wrote the article could have at least gotten the name right.  Darius Morris is the one really good player on Michigan's team, and for some reason they kept calling Darius Smith "Morris".

[jfmu]

this is from teleps twitter:

"
 
From my man Drew Cannon, America's top intern. 434 guys played in NBA this year. Only 22 played for more than 1 D1 school. That means 5%."

pretty interesting fact about transfers

[Tugg Speedman]

this is from teleps twitter:

" From my man Drew Cannon, America's top intern. 434 guys played in NBA this year. Only 22 played for more than 1 D1 school. That means 5%."

pretty interesting fact about transfers

I'm guessing TMay did not know this last year but does now.

[VegasWarrior77]

Those Chicago guards who are 6'1" and named Smith sure like to transfer!

[ATL MU Warrior]

this is from teleps twitter:
"From my man Drew Cannon, America's top intern. 434 guys played in NBA this year. Only 22 played for more than 1 D1 school. That means 5%."

pretty interesting fact about transfers

I wonder how many NBA players never played any college ball...how many were one and dones.  I'd bet the 3-4 year college player (the only kind that could possibly have transfered) is a pretty small minority anyway.

[GGGG]

Here is March 2009 thread about him .... 

http://www.muscoop.com/index.php?topic=14358.0

Hey, willie thought the sky was falling then too!

[willie warrior]

Hey, willie thought the sky was falling then too!

Hey, I am glad you are reading my old posts, Sultan. I for get about that one and moved on. By the way, did you notice that we did miss out on all of the top bigs we were after in the recent fall recruiting period. This is not a slam on Anderson coming in, but we still need to land at least one quality big--I am sure that you do not recgnize Ox as one.

[Tugg Speedman]

I wonder how many NBA players never played any college ball...how many were one and dones.  I'd bet the 3-4 year college player (the only kind that could possibly have transfered) is a pretty small minority anyway.

I believe 20% of the NBA is foreign players and most of them never played in college.  And Foreign players are taking a bigger market share every year.

What I'm surprised by is how few foreign players are in D1 ball.  Their are tons of NBA prospects in Spain and very few Spanish players in D1 ball.

[ATL MU Warrior]

I believe 20% of the NBA is foreign players and most of them never played in college.  And Foreign players are taking a bigger market share every year.

What I'm surprised by is how few foreign players are in D1 ball.  Their are tons of NBA prospects in Spain and very few Spanish players in D1 ball.

Foreign players, straight from HS, One(or two) & dones...I'd bet they make up the majority of most NBA rosters these days.

I'm not sure I'm surprised by the lack of foreign players in college.  If they can make money playing professionally in their own countries, what's the incentive to give that up to play college ball?