Recruiting Report: Aaron Smith (2018)
A lot of guys aren’t comfortable with the ball in their hands late in hotly contested games. Aaron Smith is, and he’s effective in that setting.
Smith is one of the top wing players in the state. The 6-foot-4 swingman averaged 16 points per game for St. Anthony Village as a junior and is enjoying a solid spring season with Minnesota Heat Pratt.
“I think the season has been going really well,” said Smith. “I really enjoy playing AAU because it’s great competition. All these talented teams with great players all over the floor. It’s a great challenge.
“The [Northstar State] tournament a couple weeks ago was my first tournament back in about a month. I hurt my ankle and was out for four tournaments. Came back for the state tournament, won our first game, lost the second and won the third. Then we went on break. It felt really good. I was advised not to play but it was feeling great so I wanted to give it a go.”
Smith is a dynamic offensive player who can do it all with and without the ball. He’s a good 3-point shooter and his range extends well beyond the arc and he’s very good attacking and getting to a pull up jumper or to the rim. And he’s comfortable making plays late in games.
“I like to penetrate and dish,” said Smith. “I’ll distribute the ball and when it comes down a close game I’ll try to score and take over a game if I need to.”
Smith’s drawn a lot of college interest to this point despite missing four tournaments in the middle of the season. He’s heard from Duluth, Hamline and Crown as well as several other local schools.
His team has a few tournaments left. Smith said his main goal is to try to help the team win a few more high-leverage contests.
“I just want to have more team success in some of these tournaments we have left,” said Smith. “We always seem to lose one of our first games and then we can’t get into the winner’s brackets so I’d like to see if we can do that.”