Eagle Seniors Close Out Great Home Slate
by Phil Kasiecki
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – What Boston College head coach Al Skinner saw in Craig Smith and Louis Hinnant a few years ago was simple. He liked their basketball I.Q., and from there it was just the basics.
“Louis was just a very intelligent basketball player, and at the point position that was important for us and the way we want to play,” Skinner said of his senior floor leader. “With Craig, I saw a young man with his size and I thought good lateral quickness, good ball-handling skills, a good passer.”
Those skills have proven invaluable over the past four seasons, where the two good friends have been keys to the Eagles’ success. After Saturday’s 59-57 win over Virginia Tech on Senior Day for both players, the Eagles are on the verge of their third straight NCAA Tournament bid as they stand 24-6 overall and finished their first season in the ACC at 11-5 in conference play. Saturday marked the 121st start in 124 career games for Smith and the 116th start in 120 games for Hinnant. Skinner clearly saw what many other coaches did not, as both players flew under the radar in high school, and has reaped the benefits.
Two players who weren’t projected by many as high-major talents have started since less than a month into their college careers. Both moved into the starting lineup after Uka Agbai went out for the season with an injury at Holy Cross, and that changed the course of the Eagles for the next few years. Smith became the inside complement to star guard Troy Bell, who went on to become the school’s all-time leading scorer later that season, while Hinnant was instantly a solid pass-first guard who complemented everyone else and had a 1.9 assist/turnover ratio.
Hinnant never expected to be a starter so soon, and remembers being a little nervous at first.
| Scouting Report: Craig Smith |
|---|
| Strong, athletic post player really knows how to score and often makes some tough shots near the basket. He knows how to use his body inside and has quick moves, sometimes scoring more with quickness than over-powering the defender, and he can step out and hit from mid-range. He’s also a very capable ball-handler and passer for his size, and he’s generally solid rebounding the ball. Athletically, he improved noticeably between his sophomore and junior seasons, as he’s now quicker off his feet, more explosive off the ground, and runs the floor even better. Generally, scouts aren’t sold on him, with a question about his position. He doesn’t project as a first round pick, and whether he gets drafted at all will depend in part on which underclassmen that come out. – Phil Kasiecki |
“I came in and understood that Troy (Bell) and Ryan Sidney, best backcourt that year, I just wanted to come in and wanted to work hard in practice, maybe shore up a spot for next year,” Hinnant reflected of his freshman year. “That was my focal point, because Troy wasn’t coming out of the game and Ryan wasn’t coming out of the game.
“We had practice, getting ready for the next game, and I was sitting on the sideline like, ‘What, am I starting the next game, too?’ I wasn’t sure, because we call out the lineups for who’s starting each game – it’s usually consistent, but after you get that first start, you’re like, am I going to start? So I’m over there sweating it out.”
Over three years later, Smith, whose only other high-major suitor for the longest time was UTEP, is the second player in the school’s history to score over 2,000 points and grab over 1,000 rebounds. He currently stands third all-time with 2,225 points, and could reach second if the Eagles make a deep run in the ACC Tournament and get a couple of wins in the NCAA Tournament. The native of Los Angeles didn’t get attention from the Pac-10 schools until it was too late, as he was committed to Boston College because they were the first high-major to recruit him and he relished the thought of playing in the Big East. He signed as a high school senior at traditional powerhouse Fairfax High School, and wasn’t about to change his mind while playing a year in prep school at Worcester Academy, less than 50 miles west of Boston.
Worcester, in some ways, is a special place for Smith. Not only did he play his prep year there, which was an important one for him, but it was also where two significant events in his college career occurred. His career really got going as a result of the aforementioned Holy Cross game, and three years later he surpassed 2,000 career points in a win over Holy Cross.
Smith said the year of prep school did wonders for him. He was a young senior, needed to develop his body (he entered Boston College at a beefy 265 pounds), and Worcester Academy proved to be the right place.
“I didn’t think I was ready to play at the collegiate level,” he reflects. “I gained so much confidence from a basketball standpoint and a school standpoint.”
It showed right away, as only Carmelo Anthony was a better freshman in the Big East – and there’s no shame in ranking behind him. He was a big second half scorer, which he has continued throughout his career, balancing Troy Bell’s scoring from the perimeter. Each year, he has continued to get better, with a noticeable jump as a junior. He came in having lost some weight, down to 250 pounds, and he clearly looked better. That was before watching him play, where it was obvious he was quicker and more explosive, the latter evidenced by some of the dunks he would get that he never would have had his first two years.
A third-year captain, Smith has really played like a man possessed at times this season, carrying the Eagles on his back. Perhaps the best indicator is how, despite getting constantly double-teamed, knocked to the floor, and having various nicks and bruises, Smith shot 66.7 percent from the field in the Eagles’ eight ACC road contests, averaging 17.9 points and 10.1 rebounds per game, both of which are above his season averages.
Smith had his critics before, whom he feels he’s proven wrong, and he still has them now when it comes to playing at the next level. The general feeling from scouts is that the questions are still there – what position he will play, if he can really play small forward, if he can rebound at that level playing as an undersized power forward. Having proven the critics wrong once, he will no doubt be eager to do so again.
As good as Smith’s accomplishments are – and the accolades are many – Skinner prefers to see his success in terms of the winning the Eagles have done. The Eagles are 92-33 in the past four seasons, making Smith and Hinnant the winningest class in the school’s history. They have kept up the best five-year stretch in the program’s history, where they won 116 games from 2000 up until the end of last season.
“You could get numbers and play on some bad teams, but to get some numbers and play on a good team, that’s an accomplishment,” said Skinner.
While Hinnant’s numbers won’t match those of Smith, there’s no doubting his importance to everything, especially this season. When the Eagles lost their first three ACC games, questions swirled around the team and their adjustment to the ACC. At that point, Hinnant called a players-only team meeting to talk about where the team was headed. He and Smith remembered what happened their freshman year, when the team led by Bell didn’t make the NCAA Tournament and had a disappointing loss in the NIT. They’ve had the same mentality of wanting to get seniors to the NCAA Tournament every year, and now they were telling the underclassmen to “have our back” and close out their careers with an NCAA Tournament appearance.
That clearly got through to the players, as the Eagles have since gone 13-2, including two non-conference wins. They are assured of a bye in the first round of the ACC Tournament, and could still finish second. They hold a tie-breaker with North Carolina State, so they won’t finish any lower than third. In the end, their floor leader was a leader again, just like he’s been all along.
“He’s an underrated guard, one of the best floor generals and leaders in the country,” Smith says of his good friend. “Obviously, you don’t see that on the stat line, but we see that he has a big impact on what we do. Without him, I don’t know if we could be in this position.”
The charismatic Smith has always been a fun interview. He has a keen knowledge of the game, both historically and in the present, is down to earth, and gives you the feeling of a man who’s going somewhere in life. It’s no surprise that the sociology major has a lot of ideas for his post-basketball days, with the first one he mentions being real estate. In reflecting on the experience many miles from home, he sees all the value in being away from home. Fans have to like that he is a good player, but also a fine young man, someone you want to see have the kind of success he’s had.
Hinnant and B.C. media relations assistant director Dick Kelley joke about the contrast in personalities between the two seniors, but there’s no doubting that both balance each other out to some degree. Hinnant says he has changed off the court since first coming to The Heights, and Smith has a big role in that.
“I remember when I first came here, I was one of those guys who was here, in class or in my room,” he reflects. “I didn’t go out much and really interact with the rest of the student body. But now, hanging out with Craig, who is the outgoing guy of the century, I meet a lot more people.”
But don’t be fooled. Staff at Conte Forum have spoken of him as a kind young man and one that they all like. Nicknamed “Bird” because his dad, Louis Sr., was nicknamed “Tweet”, his family hasn’t been able to see many of his games, but one of his aunts who lives in the area has seen every home game and close road game. She makes signs – ones that support the players instead of ridiculing opponents – and makes cookies for the players. At the end of last Tuesday’s win over Wake Forest, he ran over by where she was sitting and tossed his headband her way.
“All she asked me for is if she could have a headband,” the senior communication major says with a laugh. “She always comes bearing gifts.”
The past four seasons, Eagle fans have been blessed with the gift of having Craig Smith and Louis Hinnant donning Boston College jerseys. Saturday was the last time that happens in a game at Conte Forum, and while not exactly the end of an era, it marks a near-conclusion of a great four-year period in the school’s history.
