By Five Boro Sports
At first glance, some city high-school basketball followers might not have recognized Russ Smith Sunday afternoon. The scoring touch was the same, but there was something different about the Brooklyn native: much-improved leaping ability.
In the first half of the Nike Tournament of Champions Youth Game, pitting two teams stocked with top-notch local talent, Smith threw down three high-flying dunks, including a slick, one-handed windmill. It was a dizzying display that the 6-foot point guard never showed off at Archbishop Molloy.
That was because he couldn’t. Smith has been working out diligently since school ended and said that at Eastern camp in Pennsylvania in July he really took off — literally.
“Now I realize I’m getting over the rim, I might as well dunk it,” Smith said.
It wasn’t just the dunks that impressed the crowd before Nike crowned its summer basketball champion Sunday. Smith led the Black team with 35 points in a losing effort. He’s already noticeably stronger and more physical, to go along with that new and improved vertical.
“Every year I change,” Smith said. “Everything is just coming into play.”
The former Stanner will start his post-graduate year at South Kent (Conn.) next month. Unlike most players who go to prep school, Smith is qualified and has plenty of interest from colleges. He has other reasons for prepping.
“I’m qualified, but I know what I need to work on,” Smith said. “… I have to get stronger. I want to go to college and have an impact.”
The prolific scoring guard said he has interest from Stanford, Virginia, Louisville, St. John’s, Auburn, Houston, LaSalle and St. Bonaventure.
“I want to play the NBA type of game, the pick and roll,” Smith said. “I want to go to a school that’ll let me show off my jump shot. I don’t even care what tempo it is, as long as I have the ball a lot.”
Smith said he chose not to travel with the Gauchos, his AAU team, much this summer in order to work out more at home — he’s been focusing on getting stronger, core work and leg work.
It has clearly helped him become somewhat of a high-riser.
“At Molloy when I got fatigued, my finger rolls would come up short,” Smith said. “So if I work on getting over the rim and dunking and then, if I don’t feel like dunking, I can always finger roll.”
