Recruit Update: Josh Smith('10) To Play for UCLA

While many of the elite level recruits wait until the official NCAA National Letter of Intent Day on Friday, one of 2010 class’s best big men, Josh Smith, decided to jump the gun and announce that he will play for Coach Howland at UCLA. Smith, who has intriguing potential at his size, made the tough decision to play for the legendary Bruins over his hometown Washington Huskies. He has been ranked anywhere from #1 to #10 overall in most recruit ranking services, and is regarded as one of the Top 4 big men, along with Adrien Payne(Mich St), Jared Sullinger(Ohio St), and Fab Melo(Syracuse).

Smith should make an immediate impact for a UCLA program which is mostly perimeter oriented with many recent players leaving early for the NBA Draft.  The Bruins also secured the signing of Tyler Lamb, who is an elite backcourt prospect much earlier in the recruiting season. The scouting report on Smith is that he has great hands and a soft touch with the basketball. Despite his ample frame(6-9, 290lbs), he has surprisingly good foot speed, with rebounding and shot blocking being his strong suits. Because of his innate ability to crash the boards, most of his scoring comes from the painted area on mainly on offensive put-backs. It will be interesting to see how far he can develop with such a soft touch with the rock.

Washington coach Lorenzo Romar was surprised that the elite big man chose to play in Westwood instead of playing for him closer to home. Romar has proven to be able to keep a lot of homegrown prospects instate like most recently Brandon Roy, Spencer Hawes(Kings) and incoming super frosh, Abdul Gaddy.

Getting Smith was key for UCLA, since the program hasn’t had an elite big man since Kevin Love, more than 2 seasons ago. It also shows that the Bruins can still recruit with the best collegiate programs in the nation. Smith stated that the deciding factors in his choosing the Bruins was the program’s rich history of dominating centers(Alcindor, Walton, and Love) and getting a chance to win a National Championship. He averaged 26.7 ppg as an All State Selection for Kentwood HS in Kent, Washington, and was also a 2 way player for the schools football team.