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Dennis Smith Tears ACL: Nation’s Top Point Guard Will Miss His Senior Year

By Chris Godfrey

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The Class of 2016’s best point guard will not play high school basketball during his senior year. Dennis Smith, a 6-foot-2 prospect known for his jaw dropping athleticism and creative finishing, has been ruled out for the next six to nine months after surgery to repair what has been confirmed as a torn ACL.

Smith suffered the injury at the end of last week’s adidas Nations event in Long Beach. He has already had successful surgery to repair the knee, and will now focus on rehabilitation throughout the school year.

After a slow start to his basketball career, Smith has emerged as the biggest thing to come out of Fayetteville since J.Cole, which translates to him being sort of a big deal. The way Cole represents a new generation of hip-hop, Smith has been associated with the new Derrick Rose/Russell Westbrook mold of point guard that is taking the NBA by storm.

ESPN ranks Smith as the fourth best player in the Class of 2016, and his standing as the nation’s best high school point guard is near unanimous at this point in the process (even though Georgia native Kobi Simmons is nipping at his heels).

It will be interesting to see how Smith comes back from his injury. Smith’s high flying skill set is unusual for a point guard that has yet to even step foot on campus. Though he is expected to make a full recovery from the injury, it will be important to see how Smith performs next summer when he’ll likely hit the court for summer ball.

Despite recently narrowing his list to six schools, it would be surprising to see Smith commit before he returns to the court. He’ll likely want to prove himself to still be an elite prospect before agreeing to join a program. All of Tobacco Road is still in the hunt for Smith (Duke, N.C.State, North Carolina, and Wake Forest), while Kentucky and Louisville represent the remaining out of state options for Smith.

247Sports’ Crystal Ball projects that Smith is currently leaning towards committing to North Carolina State, but it seems that he’s far from a decision at this point (my money is on him continuing the recent trend of Duke owning one-and-done prospects, which is the reason for the Blue Devil mascot as the accompanying photo).

Though Wake Forest may be interested in Smith even if he returns as a shell of who he was before the injury, the rest of the programs on his list will be anxiously awaiting proof of a full recovery.

In the meantime, the door is open for other point guards such as the aforementioned Simmons, Detroit point guard Cassius Winston, and Texas native De’Aaron Fox to raise their profile as the best uncommitted point guard prospects on the board.

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