Illinois Basketball: Illini have filled hole left by Mark Smith
When Brad Underwood was hired as the next head coach of the Illinois basketball team, the fan base was extremely excited.
Just over a month after Underwood was hired, he ended up landing the 2017 Illinois Mr. Basketball, Mark Smith. This was a great get for Underwood at the time because of the departure of a few key recruits from the John Groce era. Everything seemed to have been fine thanks to the commitment of Smith.
The 2017-2018 season started, and Smith got the nod for the Illini. He was in the starting rotation, but that didn’t last long. He ended up having his role reduce and was relegated to the bench for Illinois. This was necessary based on where his confidence was and how he was performing on the court.
There were times throughout the season where Smith showed the four-star top 100 ranking he received his senior season in high school. Consistency was an issue, though. He finished the season averaging 5.8 points, 1.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game. His best game of the season was against UNLV where he put up 17 points on 5-of-11 shooting from the field and 4-of-5 from the three-point arc.
Smith has now departed the Illinois program and decided to commit to Missouri on Saturday night. Losing Smith hurts the Illini but the fact he decided to pick the Tigers is turning the knife in the side. It is a little extra insult to injury.
While the departure of Smith hurt the depth of the Illini, the did do a great job replacing him and the hole he left. Smith was likely going to be a backup at the guard spot this upcoming season. Illinois has really bulked up in regards to the guard rotation, though.
Underwood has added three guards this offseason which includes Ayo Dosunmu who is a five-star and ranked in the top 30 in the class of 2018. They added Alan Griffin who is an extremely underrated player and has a dad who played in the NBA, so he has NBA blood. And they also added one of the best junior college transfers in the nation in Andres Feliz.
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These three guards make up for the loss of Smith. I hope nothing but the best for the kid, but Illinois will be just fine without him. He needed to go to a program that can help him develop, but I am not so sure that happened. Hopefully, he finds what he needs and puts together a solid basketball career.