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Illini offer scholarship to sophomore

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06:35 AM ET 04.02 | Illinois coach Bruce Weber, who already has two commitments from the Class of 2010, has offered a scholarship to another high school sophomore: Lenzelle Smith of Zion-Benton (Ill.). Smith, a 6-foot-3-inch wing, averaged 13 points and seven rebounds for the Zee-Bees, who finished second in the Class 4A tournament. mith also has an offer from Southern Illinois, his father said. Smith said his son ranks 12th academically in a class of 844 and has heard from Northwestern, Wisconsin, Notre Dame, Virginia, Kentucky, Southern California, Stanford and Indiana State.

Chicago Tribune

Bruce Weber, AP Bruce Weber, AP
April 2, 2008  11:21 AM ET

recruiting high school sophomores is just WRONG -- what is the kid -- 15 or 16?

April 2, 2008  12:00 PM ET

My 10 year old son can hit 80% of his free throws. Think John Calipari at Memphis might be interested?

April 2, 2008  12:53 PM ET

How is this even news? Almost every good sophomore already has tons of offers. It's sad, but definitely not newsworthy.

April 2, 2008  01:30 PM ET

Weber is finally doing it right... After the Gordon trainwreck, he's starting to recruit as a 'backup plan' in case his high-profile recruit falls thru. With all that's happened this past year with Jereme Richmond, there's no guarantee that a scholarship won't be available for Smith. He lost out on a couple recruits because he counted on Gordon and now he's preparing earlier and better than in the past.

April 2, 2008  01:33 PM ET

Being ranked 12th out of a class of 844 is a nice little booster shot to the illini program as well. If I recall correctly, Dee Brown had similar bragging rights. He didn't turn out to be a straight-A student, but academics were never a concern.

April 2, 2008  02:46 PM ET

Zee-bees!!!!!!

 
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