Jordan Smith continues to receive effusive praise from national college basketball analysts not just for his athleticism and talent, but for his intangible qualities. On the CBS Sports Eye On College Basketball Podcast, hosted by Gary Parrish of CBS, 247Sports college basketball writer and editor Kyle Tucker revealed what people inside the Arkansas basketball program told him about Smith.
Tucker asked Arkansas insiders who is the alpha on the team? The answer was swift and unanimous: Jordan Smith.
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“The kid who plays with heart, is about winning the most, the kid with the most energy and effort, that makes him different, is Jordan Smith,” Tucker said. “The harder it is, the more he steps up… Tyran Stokes (Kansas) is definitely the best pro prospect, but in Jordan Smith, you got a kid who is an absolute winner. He won every national high school player of the year award. He won three state championships. He won national high school championships. He won gold medals in the U-17 and U-19. Does this sound a little like Cam Boozer to you? Winner, winner, winner, just intense and a dog who’s coming at you. Calipari is very, very excited and thinks he’s the real deal. It’s a tough act to follow, what he just had with (Darius) Acuff with a guy who could just take over a game and take your head off, but they feel really good that they do have an alpha, and it’s definitely him.”
When a young player wins that consistently, it’s not an accident. One player can make a huge difference for a team, but he can’t do everything by himself. He has to relate well to teammates and make them better in addition to achieving personal improvement. Jordan Smith is about winning and the things that go into winning. He isn’t about the stats or the shots or needing the ball, even though he will be taking big shots for Arkansas and naturally welcomes being the guy counted on to win games. If he needs to make the pass to the open man late in a game, and if that’s the best chance to win the game, Jordan Smith will make the play, a lot like LeBron James passing the ball to Ray Allen of the Miami Heat or making a similar basketball play in a crunch-time situation.
Jordan Smith’s maturity and focus on team first could lift this bunch of Arkansas basketball freshmen to a higher plateau. If Arkansas makes the Final Four, Smith will be reason number one.
