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up 20-30 shots." around (believing it). Regardless of the reason, Smo"But now, you just realize that therman wasn't producing the way was a number they put by you. … It any player who'd accepted a Big Ten doesn't matter." scholarship as a high school sophoWhen Smotherman finished off more is naturally expected to. his high school career in high form, Naturally, this was pointed out now prior to proving to be a very valuable and again on the Internet. player right away in his Purdue ca"It hurt me, the people out there reer, those around him have praised saying I couldn't play in the Big Ten," his effort and engagement as keys to Smotherman said. "I wanted to go out his success. and prove people wrong." It's a compliment for SmotherThat he did, quieting critics with man's current-day game, but also a an outstanding senior season, one in reflection of what he may have lacked which he played with comfort, confiin those days when his reputation dence and aggressiveness. Smotherwas at its most inflated online. man was named all-state after being "It was hard. There were moments Tom Campbell stung the summer prior by his exclu- Smotherman's violent dunks have brought my mom would ban me from Twitter sion from the Indiana junior all-star the house down inside Mackey Arena. Yet, and my dad would tell me to stay off team, essentially an honor for the it's other areas that have proven to be is Twitter for this long or that long," most valuable assets, such as realizing his Smotherman said. "People are going state's top 18 juniors each year. Here was a player committed to role. to say negative and positive about a prominent in-state program, one you. Negatives can bring you down who'd committed to Purdue early over other offers from and positives can give you a big head. It's hard when you're Indiana, Xavier and Notre Dame, among others, and he 14, 15, 16 years old when you have something good going wasn't considered among the top dozen-and-a-half players for yourself like that. in his state heading into his senior year. "You have to stay grounded and like my mom says, 'Less Prior to that senior year, Smotherman had been on the said is best said.' She's right: Keep your mouth closed and wrong end of the very public life high school athletes often keep doing what you're doing, because the more you hype lead, and the less-than-desirable influences that can creep in. yourself up, the more you have to back it up. The less you But as a younger player, he'd been on the other end of say, close your mouth, go out on the court and just do what it, too. you have to do, no one's going to say anything." In the race to rank that's become part of Internet recruitIt was a lesson that was hard learned, as Smotherman ing coverage, someone saw Smotherman at a very young went from being considered one of the nation's elite prosage and saw him for the long, tall and über-athletic pros- pects before enduring a couple very average high school pect he was at the age of 15 or so and decided he was wor- seasons, the jump shot he relied on so much when he was thy of being ranked as a top-25 player. very young looking broken for a couple seasons before it Nationally. — along with the rest of his game — turned around just That's a lot for a young person to process. Such praise is in time for him to get to Purdue. the polar opposite of the venom Internet life can also bring, It was a turbulent go of things for Smotherman during and to an extent, potentially no less detrimental. his formative years as a player, going from over-hyped to "(The ranking) was a good thing, but I kind of tell myself over-looked seemingly about as quickly as it might take that, that was a bad thing for me to look at a lot," Smoth- somebody to type out one of those either coddling or venerman says now in retrospect. "But rankings don't mean omous tweets. anything. … I'd see, 'I'm ranked this in the nation. I'm the But the good news for both player and Purdue is that all best, better than this guy and that guy,' and I'd kind of walk Smotherman went through prior to college enrollment set 62 IllustrateD volume 24, issue 3 f