craig smith signs at boston college

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SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Fairfax HS' Craig Smith Signs
With Boston College--(Nov. 16, 2000)

craigsmithhead.jpg (2743 bytes) We received word today that Craig Smith (6'-7" Sr. PF) from LA's Fairfax HS, has signed with Boston College and will be playing in the Big East next season if everything goes according to plan. Craig played with his high school team over the summer and this fall in addition to attending the 2000 USA Youth Men's Development Festival (unfortunately, the USA Basketball website has been redesigned, and we didn't save the stats from the games this summer, so we can't give you anything more than the few blurbs we posted at the end of June. . . drat). Craig played with the Double Pump All Stars a year ago (the team with Markee White, David Gale, Errick and Derrick Craven, Chris and Kam Walton, Jonathan Harper, Kevin Elleby and several others), and then played this past spring in the Rockfish Spring League with Belmont Shore. Craig took an official visit to UTEP at the end of September, and was also recruited by San Diego State and a few others. He's a big, strong, powerful player down in the blocks, an excellent rebounder with some great moves in the low post. Fairfax will be one of a handful of teams which will again challenge for a City Section title, and a berth in the Division I State Championship tournament.

Here's the official press release from Boston College announcing the signing:

Men's Basketball Signs Third Recruit
Craig Smith joins Eagles' list of early signees.

Nov. 16, 2000

CHESTNUT HILL - Craig Smith, a power forward from Los Angeles, Calif., has signed a national letter of intent to play men's basketball at Boston College next season, according to an announcement made by Eagles' head coach Al Skinner.

Smith, a 6-foot-7-inch, 220-pound forward who plays at Fairfax (Calif.) High School will enter Boston College in the fall of 2001 and begin his collegiate playing career in the 2001-02 season.

Smith earned all-City and all-Westside honors as a junior at Fairfax High School. He averaged 20.7 points and 11.3 rebounds per game for the Lions in 1999-2000. This past summer, he played for Team West in the 2000 USA Men's Basketball Development Festival in Colorado Springs, Colo.

"We think Craig's a rare individual. He's a big, strong player with good size and good quickness for his size," Skinner says. "He has excellent skills. He can dribble, pass and shoot, and that makes him a very unique type of player.

"Craig can post up, but he can also step away from the basket and make plays. He's very versatile for his size. He not as good as Charles Barkley, but he's a Charles Barkley-type of player.

"Craig comes to us from Fairfax High School, which has a very fine tradition of turning out good players and producing good teams."

Smith is the third recruit to sign with the Eagles during the early-signing period.

Boston College, which will lose three scholarship players to graduation following the 2000-01 season, opens its regular season on Sunday, November 19, against St. Peter's at 2 p.m.