Dru Smith vs. KJ Santos

Posted on: March 14, 2019 at 17:02:27 CT

I was among those excited about Santos. But a lot of that was extrapolating based on the idea that he was a big wing player who could shoot, put the ball on the floor, and finish at the rim.

Then he sat out a year (not a redshirt, but wasn't even on a team), got injured, showed no willingness to even try to shoot, and looked overweight. Totally different player than the brief glimpses of what we saw from his freshman year.

Smith, however, has two years of college play under his belt as opposed to one, and his sophomore year was significantly better than what Santos had shown. He also has been working with Martin and this squad all season while sitting out. It's more than reasonable to expect him to translate better than Santos did.