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SG Lenzelle Smith (Hapoel Eilat - Israel)

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I would love to see Smith get a shot at the PG position. He has the height and frame that would make a very nice PG and from everything that I have read it seems like he has some of the tools that might benefit us:osu: next year.
 
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I hadn't seen Lenzelle at all other than in highlight clips before the all-star game yesterday, and it was difficult to watch the webstream (not very high quality, which I suppose you could expect, so I couldn't really watch it at times). From my count, Lenzelle was 1-4 or 1-5 from the field (he got 2 points from a putback off a teammate's missed shot), and I didn't see/can't remember any plays where he would've gotten credit for an assist but there certainly were several opportunities for assists where his teammates either didn't shoot or missed shots. All of his shots came in the last 3 minutes of the game. He started at PG on the National team. He basically played as a pass-first PG in this game. At first it looked like he was a little loose with his handle, but as the game progressed, the more it looked like he's a real good ballhandler, very smooth for a "wing" - Lloyd Carr might call him "real slick" because he's kinda in that "ball on a string" category. I don't think people should have a very negative view of his performance in that game for many reasons. First of all, both teams had 15 players and they had to evenly distribute the minutes between all of them, which left Smith getting about 16 minutes in the game (it had 4 quarters of 12 minutes). Secondly, he was not looking to score at all until the last 3 minutes of the game, so you can kind of throw the point total out the window. He was obviously intent on distributing the ball to his teammates. Even in the 4th quarter of a close game, he passed up a couple scoring opportunities (honestly, he should've shot on those two plays) to make an extra pass - one play was where he had the ball in the paint in a few feet from the basket & appeared to have an edge on his man but kicked it out to an open teammate at the FT line, the other was a play where his team was on a fastbreak and he was on the left side of the paint and passed it back to his teammate who was trailing the play instead of going up for a shot (his teammate didn't catch the ball). So he didn't play aggressively until the last few minutes of the game (he was in the group that started & finished the game for his team). He didn't turn it over at all from what I saw. On the D end, I saw a couple plays where he got scored on, but nothing alarming - one play was where he kind of lunged at a ballhandler near the FT line and got off balance and left the lane open for a drive, the other was where he helped on another guy and couldn't recover back to his man quickly enough to contest the shot real well (he gave good effort, just couldn't quite get there). Physically he looks fine - not the most athletic guy, but good enough to do a solid job when combined with his good height & length. I don't think his highlight clips do him justice in the sense that some of them kinda make it look like he's out there in Army boots - he appears to be in better shape than he used to be.

I believe anyone who thinks of Lenzelle as just a wing (or that he would somehow be miscast if played at PG) is missing the boat. While he could fit in at wing, PG is where OSU could use him most, and he has the handles and mindset to be a PG. He is a smart kid - his 4.1 GPA was the highest at the Academic All-American game. He has some flashiness to his game.

I'd like to see him improve on finishing around the basket (with his right hand especially), keep working on his shot, & be careful about not being too pass-oriented. It definitely would help for him to get a little quicker, but he's not bad in that area.

It will be interesting to see how Matta allocates PT at PG for next year's team - I don't think there is an obvious favorite for the lionshare of the minutes there.
 
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Smith's injured wrist required surgery

Jon Diebler mentioned during an interview yesterday that freshman guard Lenzelle Smith Jr. of Zion, Ill., was not participating in open gym this summer because he had had wrist surgery. This was news to anyone outside the program because Ohio State had not announced it.

Smith said in an interview with The Dispatch early last month that he had injured his left wrist (his dominant hand) in May trying to break a fall while playing basketball, but he said an X-ray was negative and surgery was not required.

But his father, Lenzelle Sr., confirmed today that the family decided otherwise shortly after his son enrolled at Ohio State in June and a magnetic resonance imaging revealed a torn ligament or tendon.


"It's a situation where he could have played with it," Smith Sr. said. "He felt pretty good, he was not in that much pain. But when they did the MRI, we decided as a family to go ahead and get it fixed so it?s not something that could affect his career."

I've requested an estimated time of recovery from Ohio State. When I get it, I'll post it.

Oh, and by the way, I just checked the athletics department website to see if Smith's bio was available. It's not. But the 2010-11 roster is up and Smith is listed as 6 feet 3 and 230 pounds.

That's what you call a "big guard."
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Smith's injured wrist required surgery (Hoops & Scoops: an OSU basketball blog)
 
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Smith will be out 3-6 months

I just received an e-mail back from Ohio State regarding Lenzelle Smith's estimated recovery time and the news is not good.

Smith had surgery to repair a torn ligament in his left wrist on June 22 and is expected to be out of action three to six months, according to an athletic department spokesman. So it could be anywhere from late September to late December before he returns.

Smith was expected to compete for minutes off the bench and possibly handle the ball at the point. How much this sets him back remains to be seen.
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Smith will be out 3-6 months (Hoops & Scoops: an OSU basketball blog)
 
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I can't tell from that exactly which ligament or tendon he injured in his wrist, so that makes it real hard to second-guess the spokesman's 3-6 month timetable. However, I did find a PDF file that described a certain type of wrist ligament injury that they claimed was the most common and gave a timetable for recovery. The timetable says at 12 weeks the ligament will be as strong as it will possibly be, so after 12 weeks you can go back to all "normal" activities, but that the wrist would be slow to settle, and the final outcome would be apparent at six months.
http://www.pncl.co.uk/~belcher/information/Scapho-lunate stabilisation.pdf

So I would estimate that since the surgery was about 1 month ago, it will be about two more months before he can start playing again (and of course there may be some discomfort at that point that will cause him to have to take it slow). It certainly appears to be a significant setback, but hopefully he can use this time to get his cardio up to snuff.
 
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Ohio State-bound Smith on mend from wrist surgery
CAMPUS CLIPS
July 27, 2010
News-Sun Staff Report

Hopefully, this is just a minor setback ... a blip on the radar screen that is Lenzelle Smith's basketball career.

The former Zion-Benton High star and current freshman at Ohio State University is missing all the summer work being done by the Buckeyes' incoming freshman class of basketball players while he recovers from surgery on his left (shooting-hand) wrist.

smith.jpg_20100726_21_36_04_79-282-400.imageContent

Lenzelle Smith Jr. and Lenzelle Smith Sr. were both thrilled with the youngster's decision to play hoops at Ohio State.
(File Photo)

According to reports out of Ohio, Smith, a 6-foot-3, 230-pound guard who was a four-year varsity player at Zion-Benton High, will be sidelined from 3-6 months after surgery to mend a torn ligament in his wrist.

If Smith is fortunate and the recovery period is three months, he'll at least be back well before the start of the Big Ten Conference season, and he'll have a chance to get back in shape with the non-conference games.

Smith, who enrolled at OSU for the summer session, reportedly told a paper in Ohio that he injured his wrist last month trying to break a fall while playing a pickup basketball game.

An MRI revealed a torn ligament.

According to a report, Lenzelle's father, Reverend Lenzelle Smith, said it was "A situation where he could have played with it. He felt pretty good; he was not in that much pain. But when they did the MRI, we decided as a family to go ahead and get it fixed so it's not something that could affect his career."
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Ohio State-bound Smith on mend from surgery :: News Sun :: Sports
 
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Freshman guard Lenzelle Smith Jr. was medically cleared Friday to resume full practices with the Buckeyes, coach Thad Matta said after the game, and could play in the regular-season opener Friday night against North Carolina A&T.

Matta said it was his decision to hold Smith out today.

"I didn?t want him to go yet. He?s just not ready to play yet in terms of conditioning and kind of knowing what?s going on because he just hasn?t been able to get in there and really get involved yet," Matta said.

Smith, who is left-handed, had surgery in June to repair a torn ligament in his left wrist.

"He?s missed six months of basketball, be it pickup in the summer, the speed, the quickness," Matta said. "As I told him, you can run all the suicides and dribble around chairs and all that stuff, but when the chairs have arms and feet, it?s a little bit different."
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http://blog.dispatch.com/hoopsscoops/2010/11/postgame_smith_could_play_frid_1.shtml
 
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The few minutes I have witnessed Smith play this season have me looking forward to his following years in Columbus.
With him, Sibert and Craft probably being 4 year guys, the future is looking as bright as the present.
 
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PtownBuckeye;1880326; said:
The few minutes I have witnessed Smith play this season have me looking forward to his following years in Columbus.
With him, Sibert and Craft probably being 4 year guys, the future is looking as bright as the present.
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I just hope that he stays around because, like you, I really think that he can contribute to the program in the coming years. He left extremely athletic and a few minutes that he has been on the court.
 
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With Lenzelle having just recently recovered from torn ligaments in his wrist, he knew his minutes would be limited going into the season. I get the feeling that Lenzelle is in it for the long-haul with OSU.

He shows flashes when he's on the court. He's always the ball handling PG when he's on the court late in games, and his handles are really good. Watching him in warm-ups last week, it would not surprise me if he has the best vertical jump on the team... kid's got some hops. I like his stroke as well. I wouldn't be surprised to see him be a regular player out there for us next year and I am really excited about this kid. He's got a bright future here.
 
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