VI's Leslee Smith makes early impressions with Huskers!
In watching the Nebraska basketball team workout this summer for instance, Brian Rosenthal, a reporter with the local paper the Lincoln Journal Star, came away impressed with the athleticism and agility of Leslee Smith, a 6-foot-8, 250-pound junior college transfer.
"He’s more nimble than I expected, and he carries his weight well. Look for him to challenge for a starting position at forward, where Tim Miles says Smith can play in screen-able situations and play out of the high post."
“He’s got a good enough shot, where right now I feel really good about his 15-foot, 17-foot shot, and I would expect he’s going to need to stretch that in time,” Miles said.
This is the third collegiate programme for Smith, a native of the [British] Virgin Islands who began his career at SMU and played last season at Seward County (Kan.) Community College. Not surprisingly, he’s still getting acclimated to yet another new system. "He’s going a tad too fast sometimes and making mistakes," Miles commented.
But Miles loves Smith’s poise and maturity.
“He’s a really poised guy. He’s got a savvy-ness about him,” Miles said. “You like being around him. He’s a real magnetic personality.”
Miles also likes Smith’s strength.
“He did a full workout the other day, and then he put 225 on the bar and did it nine times, and probably could’ve kept going,” Miles said. “He’s just got a real powerful presence about him. That usually translates well into basketball.”
Smith averaged 8.3 points and a team-best 6.6 rebounds last season, but over Seward County’s final six games, he averaged 12.1 points and 7.8 rebounds.
"He’s also had a knee injury and that knee still causes problems and swells up at times," Miles said.
Smith also isn’t yet where he needs to be conditioning-wise, but the same could be said of most new players at this stage.
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12 Responses to “VI's Leslee Smith makes early impressions with Huskers!”
This guy OJ doesn't even have the heart to big-up his nephew.