Northwestern offers 2017 Justin Smith

[NUHockey]

Local kid from Stevenson. Listed as a power forward on 247 but he doesn't have much mass, 185 pounds. Having seen him play last year, he's a freak athlete (11'7 inch vertical) with the ability to knock down the mid-range shot, and played a huge role in Stevenson's state championship. Might have been overshadowed by Brunson and Cashaw but he will take over his junior year.

247 is reporting he has offers from Rice and Wake Forest, and from Smith's twitter he has offers from Illinois, DePaul, and Indiana. Would be a huge get for NU, local kid, and a type of player that I can't remember NU ever having. It's good to see Collins and staff going after local talent early, hopefully it will pay off.

Side note, most people have Smith as the #2 ranked 2017 from Illinois behind Evanston point guard Nojel Eastern. I would love to see us make a push for him, he practically lives on campus.

 

[WarCat]

Both Justin and Nojel are trained by Octavius Parker, whose first D1 trainee was a guy named Juice Thompson. Parker is on the rise as a coach and trainer of high level players.

 

[Medill90]

Thanks for the heads up Hockey. Smith looks physically similar to Vic Law.

Eastern would be a very nice fit with NU on a bunch of dimensions.

NU is getting close with the talent level where recruits with decent academics in the Chicago area are going to start asking themselves, "why would I go to Iowa or Illinois when we have THIS happening HERE and my parents can come watch all my games?"

 

[MC_Cat]

Thanks for the heads up Hockey. Smith looks physically similar to Vic Law.

Eastern would be a very nice fit with NU on a bunch of dimensions.

NU is getting close with the talent level where recruits with decent academics in the Chicago area are going to start asking themselves, "why would I go to Iowa or Illinois when we have THIS happening HERE and my parents can come watch all my games?"

True that, on so many levels. We may well see half the roster as kids from Illinois in the near future with Collins' recruiting skills and the talent in the area. That would be super.

 

[WarCat]

Smith and Eastern have both cracked the ESPN Top 60-2017 national rankings - Nojel at #39 and Justin at #51. These would be awesome gets. I hope their parents want to see them play all the time, hope they want to get an awesome education, and, as they train together, hope they want to play together at the next level - in purple. This is a tandem that could take us to the top of the Conference.

(ECat - start the savior talk - this time it would be spot on.)

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/basketball/recruiting/playerrankings/_/class/2017/

 

[NUHockey]

@WarCat thanks for the heads up on the ESPN 60, was that just released?

Either Eastern or Smith would be unbelievable gets for Collins, but both would be a pipe dream. It worries me that 247 is showing that we have not offered Eastern yet, and he picked up an MSU offer earlier this week. I'm hoping his ankle injury (dislocated his left ankle and fractured two bones in it on April 25) will help deter some big time schools, but he reportedly had very successful surgery and he's big time, one of 27 players named to the 2015-16 USA Basketball Men's Junior National Team (16-and-under).