Former Bradley recruit Darius Smith commits to Eastern Illinois

[Da Coach]

Former Chicago Marshall star guard Darius Smith was recruited by Jim Les, and eventually went to UConn. But after playing little his freshman season, he left UConn, just before their run to the national championship. This past year he played for The College of Southern Idaho, and helped lead them to the championship of the NJCAA.

He reportedly had interest from some top level D1 schools (a February JucoJunction article reported that North Carolina coaches had contacted him and were following him), but he ended up with offers only from Northern Illinois and Eastern Illinois. Yesterday, he committed to Eastern Illinois.-

http://rivals.yahoo.com/jucojunction/basketball/recruiting/player-Darius-Smith-120150

[thefish7]

Wow. Nice pickup for EIU.

[tornado]

wow -- this is a stunning drop in the kid's choice from UConn to EIU --
..and nice find Da Coach -- hardly any recruit in the past 10 years who went elsewhere had generated so much talk and discussion on the message boards as Darius Smith did between 2007 and 2009 when Bradley was hard after him....over 50 threads were devoted to him and his recruitment...

think of it -- had he stayed at UConn he'd have won a National Championship!
But he went to College of Southern Idaho and won a juco National Championship instead..and now ends at lowly EIU.

As a flashback...
Darius Smith burst on the scene in 2006-2007...Darius's sophomore season...
when he was mostly unknown to start the season then by mid-season, Brian Stinette of chicagohoops.com spotted the kid, started writing about him and hyping him, and pushed Darius into the Top 10 in Class of 2009.

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=3102

(Just to show how tough it is to know talent this early -- this ranking has great D-I performers like Robert Covington at #49, Dyricus at #48, and Drew Crawford at #25, while ranking Chris Colvin at #2, Michael Haynes at #4, Kyle Rowley at #6, Darius at #7, and several other kids we've never heard from since like Bell, Conway, & Owens -- as better players!) - LINK

Anyway -- by May of 2007, Darius was ranked #4 - in Illinois...Link

Then through some really heavy hype -- and remaining uncommitted, he skyrocketed to #62 in the nation! - 4-STARS
Link

Chicagohoops - also cranked Darius all the way up to #1 - Link and Link

Up 'til this point Bradley was recruiting Smith -- but obviously dropped off when Darius was being fed this hype that he was 4-Star and the top kid in the state -- so Darius decided he was only going to consider top offers...
"...with the high volume of calls coming in from schools from around the country
including top Big 10, ACC, SEC, Pac 10 and Big East, that it is very difficult to
list all schools that are involved in the process." - Marquette, Iowa, Indiana, Oregon, DePaul, Miami...

Finally he went with UConn....aimed too high......very interesting story....

[real fan]

I really liked him in high school, hard to figure how a kid goes from UConn and ends up at EIU, there has to be something we don"t know about , I kind of compared him to a bigger W.Lemon only I thought Darius was a better outside shooter but then I only saw him in the state tournament.

[Da Coach]

Former BU recruit Darius Smith committed to Eastern Illinois after finishing up his year at College of Southern idaho.
But I notice in their game yesterday at Indiana State that Darius Smith did not play for EIU-

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201111110274

In fact, Darius Smith is not even on their roster-

http://www.eiupanthers.com/roster.aspx?path=mbball&

Nor any mention of him in their media guide-

http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/05fd18e3

Anyone know what happened to him? The only reference I can find is in ESPN-Chicago's preview of the Illinois schools where Scott Powers says-
"Former Connecticut guard Darius Smith is expected to join the team later in the season."

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/colleges/post/_/id/4390/illinois-college-hoops-power-rankings

[tornado]

It appears Darius Smith had a hard time transferring credits and was not eligible initially at EIU -- now he's made up some courses at another juco and is now at EIU, enrolled, and has finally been deemed eligible.
However, the juco transfer is going to redshirt the rest of this year and will then expect (hopefully) to be eligible next fall with two years remaining at EIU.
Like any redshirt he's fully able now to practice and travel with the team.

[tornado]

I found that a bit odd as well that Darius Smith - after all his efforts and bad decisions - was finally all set and supposedly enrolled at EIU and gonna be eligible this fall......

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showpost.php?p=247591&postcount=6

http://eiupanthers.com/news/2012/1/13/MBB_0113121454.aspx

then he up and disappears and no mention of him and not on the roster...

[Da Coach]

I found that a bit odd as well that Darius Smith - after all his efforts and bad decisions - was finally all set and supposedly enrolled at EIU and gonna be eligible this fall......

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showpost.php?p=247591&postcount=6

http://eiupanthers.com/news/2012/1/13/MBB_0113121454.aspx

then he up and disappears and no mention of him and not on the roster...

It's a mystery. After a year at UConn when he played very little, and reportedly had academic issues, he spent a year at College of Southern Idaho. He then committed to EIU in April of 2011, but did not get accepted for the fall, 2011 semester. Apparently he made up some credits somewhere, and was finally admitted for the second semester in January, 2012. But he was to sit out and be eligible this fall. Now he not on the roster. I wonder if the coaching change lead to him leaving again, or if he had other problems. Too bad, as he was a talented kid.

[tornado]

Ex-Chicago prep player, ex-UConn, ex-EIU Darius Smith finally resurfaces - seems he never had the grades to get into any college after juco and tried many avenues - finally trying out for and making the Chicago Force - the ABA team there that plays against our guys (Matt Salley, Justin Bocot, et al) of the Bloomington Flex

[Tommy]

This forum is amazing. The info you guys dig up on all things Bradley related never ceases to amaze me!

Good stuff, and quite a strange path Darius has taken.