I'll be damned if I don't see a veritable Jamal Murray clone in Mark Smith! Is he a one and done, budding Lottery Pick talent like Murray (who we recruited hard for a while)? Umm...no! But does he bring to the table a similar mindset and skillset? From my limited vantage point.....yes!
Depending on what happens on the court for the remainder of this season, hence Groce's future, I could easily envision at least two players defecting from among the wing/2G players going forward. JMO.
Will not explicate my reasoning at this point, out of deference to the team, but it doesn't take a geneticist to figure out who those players might be, especially if Mark Smith is added into the mix, alongside Frazier, DaM. Williams, TJL and Pickett.
Therefore, there will be enough rides to accommodate landing another interior player to round out the 2018 class, in addition to pursuing Tim Finke and "the best available talent" in the 2019 class. Landing someone like Smith somewhat mitigates the necessity to land another PG in 2019, thereby allowing Illinois coaches to pursue more frontcourt talent instead (well, unless you can get a Dosunmo or Ramey, which I think would be a tough sell with Frazier and Smith onboard).
That said, I would like to see JCL and DJW remain in the orange and blue (irrespective of a coaching change), but I don't think JCL's aspirations to get to the next level as a legit combo guard can be potentiated with legit lead guards like Frazier and Smith spearheading the offense,and certainly not within Groce's offense. Too bad! Jalen has the purest stroke from beyond the arc I've seen in my 35 years of following Illinois basketball (Bradford and Smith being the only contenders), and could still develop into a Luther Head type of CG in the right system for his two remaining years of eligibility.
We'll see.
