Every year a couple of under the radar prospects blow up and have coaches and fans alike scrambling to gather info and make projections. Obviously Anthony Davis is the ultimate senior riser, but guys like Frank Kaminsky, Alec Peters, and Fred Van Vleet also started showing serious HM potential in their final years.
Every case is different: sometimes it's a growth spurt, sometimes a lack of AAU exposure, sometimes an injury. With our own Mike Davis, it was that everyone thought he was going to prep school for a year before college. He was still vastly underestimated, but he'd have been a 3-star type with a couple of HM offers. Instead, the 1-star we signed turned out to be a 6'9 rebounding machine with a silky mid-range game.
With Mark Smith, it's the fact that he was (is) an MLB prospect who didn't play much AAU because summer time is baseball season. He'd also already committed to Mizzou for baseball, so coaches weren't using resources to scout him. If he's decided to focus on basketball and his grades are in order, the staff needs to lock this up immediately. I've spent too many hours daydreaming about what the program would look like if we'd landed the names mentioned above (along with Jerome Randle, Jacob Pullen, et al). We've seen this one before. Offer Mark Smith today!