Brad Winton ‏@JucoRecruiting 2m

Texas A & M transfer Shawn Smith has signed with Lee College. Will play his sophomore year there this season.

Cyp steer him there?

What happened to Northwest Florida?

What a shame. This kid could've been a really good two way player here.

Everyone that leaves is amazing.

I think Smith could have been pretty good.

I think he could have been solid by his junior year. He had a long way to go.

Takes mental discipline in addition to physical talent to succeed. Good luck to Shawn as he gets a fresh start.

Bounced by staff at NW Fla already. 4 high schools in 4 years. Now 3 colleges in 3 years. Pattern?

Amazing what good coaching and a structured system does for kids.

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Amazing what good coaching and a structured system does for kids.

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Alex Caruso and Jordan Green are SG recruits who are still here at A&M and have had more basketball success than Smith did and who did not have to be asked to leave the program. Elston Turner was a SG who made first team SEC playing here for the same coaching staff. Fabyon Harris came here from very difficult circumstances and did not flame out like Smith did.

Golden and Claiborne were going to be starters on A&M defense but didn't have their heads on straight. Are you over on the football board lamenting over and over how good all the players who have been kicked off of the football team might have been?

When a player fails, I do think coaches share some responsibility because they recruited and coached the players, but a player himself also has a lot of impact on how his career turn out. Kennedy has not produced enough as a head coach at A&M, and replacing him at the end of last season would have been justified, but that does not give a guy like Shawn Smith a free pass if he screws up so bad that he has to leave the program. It does not give J-Mychal Reese a free pass. They were playing right along side guys like Jordan Green and Caruso and Fabyon and Elston.


[This message has been edited by Pumpkinhead (edited 8/15/2014 10:14a).]

Thank you, PH. Well said.

By the way, speaking of Fabyon Harris, he is apparently graduating from A&M today:

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Fabyon Harris #12 ‏@Fab_Blessed078

When life gives you a hundred reasons to cry, show life that you have a thousand reasons to smile. 🎓

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Congrats to Fabyon for getting his A&M degree.

[This message has been edited by Pumpkinhead (edited 8/15/2014 10:23a).]

Look I agree PH. This is on Smith.

PH...along with Kourtney and Payton Carrel

I would just love to Lover's career rely on the success or failure of kids that are 18 and 19 years old when you choose to rely on them.

If a player clearly has physical talent but messes up so bad that a coaching staff actually has to suspend them or ask them to leave the program, then I generally put most of the responsibility on the player for flaming out that badly.

There are few good excuses for a player with some natural talent not taking care of business well enough to at least avoid getting kicked off the team.

I do wish them the best and hope they turn their career around at their next stop.



[This message has been edited by Pumpkinhead (edited 8/15/2014 11:08a).]

Come on guys, we all know this is all on BK, he is totally responsible for Smith's failures... Any other opinions are merely excuses and fools taking up for BK!

Never said it was Kennedy's total fault over Smith. I am however watching a revolving door under Kennedy.

Funny how last summer he was the best player on the team. Now it's toss the kid under the bus time.

Sloan couldn't shoot after his freshmen year either. Coaches can develop players. That's part of coaching.

I don't recall anyone saying that he was the best player on the team last summer. His teammates and insiders were saying that he was the best athlete, could get to the rim, and had the personality and ability to perhaps be a great defender. His shooting was often described as 'streaky'. He did have some nice YouTube video highlights from HS where he seemed to have a pretty decent shot.

In terms of best overall player, that has often been mentioned as Caruso (including last offseason). Logan last summer I remember seemed to like Fitz and Jamal the best of the new guys, but was often hesitant on Reese and Smith. A few posters like Jorts though were really high on Smith.

This offseason, Logan seems to be a bit hesitant on A-Rob right out the gate (seems to like him but describes his practices as having been a bit 'wild') but appears to love Jalen Jones. Everybody seems to love Jones, and he already has a D1 resume to evaluate. That would be my current bet of which new guy is most ready to immediately help. Sucks though that he might not play until December.

But it has always been a mix really of opinions. There are plenty of posters who assume new players will suck until proven otherwise, and posters vice versa. Once reality kicks in, we will really see who is ready and who is not.


[This message has been edited by Pumpkinhead (edited 8/17/2014 12:17p).]

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People are overlooking the fact that Smith is a shooting guard that can't shoot and doesn't distribute.

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Hop, Logan said that Della Valle in that recruiting class would have committed to A&M (instead of going to Ohio State) but the staff liked Smith better instead. Presumably because he was a better overall athlete. I guess they made the wrong call recruiting wise. Della Valle though not as athletic can certainly shoot.

That is where I place part of the blame on the staff on things like this. They make the recruiting decisions and have to live with their choices. If they recruit guards who are athletic but can't shoot or distribute consistently, and which have potential headcase issues as well, well then...

Now in terms of a player like Smith screwing up so bad though that he actually gets suspended and asked to leave the team...that is all on Smith. See Jordan Green or Alex Caruso for a role model. There is no excuse for any player messing up his own bed so badly that he gets kicked off a team.


[This message has been edited by Pumpkinhead (edited 8/17/2014 12:19p).]

Shawn Smith >>> Jordan Green at everything but being a human being.

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People are overlooking the fact that Smith is a shooting guard that can't shoot and doesn't distribute.

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Makes you wonder why BK signed him?

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People are overlooking the fact that Smith is a shooting guard that can't shoot and doesn't distribute.

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Makes you wonder why BK signed him?

"Raw" talent (aka athleticism)? Just like HOP said...the guy was a SG with poor shooting skills. However, Smith showed some good flashes of his athleticism running down the court after a couple of steals or long passes.

I really liked Amadeo DeValle yet it is important to note that he decided to go pro after two seasons at Ohio St. so I guess similar scenario as SSmith in regards to just playing two seasons.

Agtrevino, they definitely liked Smith for his athleticism.

I think Kennedy - and I don't really fault him for this - is taking some chances on iffy recruits (possible head cases, international players who have a tougher time qualifying, etc) in his efforts to bolster the talent. It can pay off but can also lead to situations like this.

[This message has been edited by Deputy Travis Junior (edited 8/18/2014 3:06a).]

It is always easy to second guess a recruiting decision a few years after the fact.

Both Shawn Smith and J-Mychal Reese were recruits with talent who had to be asked to leave the team. And the fact that things got that point are on them. A player not playing with good fundamentals, or not being put in good positions to succeed on the court, I get that you go after the coaching. But a player who makes bad decisions that results in getting booted for 'violation of team rules'...that is all on the player IMO.

Though of course you ask the question: Should the coaching staff have seen some problems coming? Should they have recruited the guy to begin with?

I can't blame the staff for recruiting J-Mike. Heck, we all were pretty excited when Reese signed with us. And his own dad was on staff and his brother connected with the program. People seemed generally more excited about Reese than Caruso, who similarly was a local but less heralded star. Turns out Caruso was the recruit who really turned out great while Reese made some mistakes. We recruited two 4-star local guards and hit the jackpot on one of them and busted on the other.

Then Shawn Smith...he clearly had some athletic talent. He had been a Mizzou commit at one point. The staff could have gone with a guy like Della Valle who frankly did not do a whole lot for Ohio State the 2 years that he was there, but he was a good pure shooter. The staff instead went with the better athlete Smith and what they probably felt was a higher ceiling (including on the defensive end). But given how Smith was not even academically eligible to play his first season here, and then ultimately got suspended near the end of his second season before getting kicked off the team, well now it easy for me to say maybe Della Valle would have been a better play. But again, I got advantage of looking at things 2 years later.

The one recruiting pickup in the Kennedy era that I really don't understand very much is the Andrew Young get. I don't get frankly how Oregon or NC State were showing the interest that they did in him either. Apparently he led the Cali JUCO system in both scoring and rebounding the previous year, but his play while A&M made one really question the quality of that JUCO system. While the talent of guys like Smith and Reese was obvious in brief glimpses here and there, Young just seemed completely out of his depth trying to play at A&M in the SEC. Maybe he screwed up his conditioning, or just mentally wasn't ready or something, but that looked like just a complete recruiting mis-evaluation by the staff (at least to me).


[This message has been edited by Pumpkinhead (edited 8/17/2014 7:21p).]

Players can develop. And all the reports from this site were how awsome Smith was. Now that he is gone it's time to bash the kid.

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And all the reports from this site were how awsome Smith was.

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Hyperbole much? And as for "throwing players under the bus," here are quotes from you re: Danuel House:

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He is soft can't play. Move on.

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This kid is way soft, doesn't play defense and frankly isn't that good.

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So it's OK to "throw a kid under the bus" as long as it is a kid who wants to play here?

Yea and I stand by it. I'm talking about the laugh I get about all the glowing reports on Smith 12 months ago.

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It is always easy to second guess a recruiting decision a few years after the fact

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BK makes it easy. Repetitively.