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Penn State 74, Illinois 52 POSTGAME
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<blockquote data-quote="Deleted member 631370" data-source="post: 1374523"><p>I don't believe in pinning our failures on Mark Smith. And in the end, I agree with Underwood that I think he's going to be a 1,000 point scorer.</p><p></p><p>But the bolded isn't quite accurate. That's not entirely why people (like myself) held those expectations. Rather, what generated those expectations was Underwood's comments about Smith early in which he raved about how special a talent Smith was. The fact that Smith got into the starting lineup right out of the gate -- and was scoring 13/14 points a game early -- confirmed my hopes that he was poised for a big freshman season. I didn't expect him to score 13 a game in B1G play, but I certainly expected more than 3 points/game.</p><p></p><p>But we also can't downplay his rankings in HS and suggest that he wasn't really highly touted. He didn't soar into the top-50 across all services, mostly because he blew up very late. But what spoke volumes -- more so than a ranking on a website -- was the manner in which schools like UK and Michigan State pursued him. They weren't going after a kid they thought was a project. </p><p></p><p></p><p>No need to freak out about Mark Smith, but his expectations were fairly lofty for a reason. But not everybody adjusts as quickly as we all hope. Hopefully he sticks with it, and this offseason proves to be pivotal for him.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Deleted member 631370, post: 1374523"] I don't believe in pinning our failures on Mark Smith. And in the end, I agree with Underwood that I think he's going to be a 1,000 point scorer. But the bolded isn't quite accurate. That's not entirely why people (like myself) held those expectations. Rather, what generated those expectations was Underwood's comments about Smith early in which he raved about how special a talent Smith was. The fact that Smith got into the starting lineup right out of the gate -- and was scoring 13/14 points a game early -- confirmed my hopes that he was poised for a big freshman season. I didn't expect him to score 13 a game in B1G play, but I certainly expected more than 3 points/game. But we also can't downplay his rankings in HS and suggest that he wasn't really highly touted. He didn't soar into the top-50 across all services, mostly because he blew up very late. But what spoke volumes -- more so than a ranking on a website -- was the manner in which schools like UK and Michigan State pursued him. They weren't going after a kid they thought was a project. No need to freak out about Mark Smith, but his expectations were fairly lofty for a reason. But not everybody adjusts as quickly as we all hope. Hopefully he sticks with it, and this offseason proves to be pivotal for him. [/QUOTE]
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Penn State 74, Illinois 52 POSTGAME
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