Days after taking an official visit to Ohio State, class of 2017 four-star guard Mark Smith officially committed on Wednesday to play for Illinois and coach Brad Underwood.
The Edwardsville, Illinois, native chose Illinois over other offers from Ohio State, Michigan State and Kentucky. Smith had recently been named Mr. Illinois Basketball, an honor previously given to former NBA first-round picks like Derrick Rose, Jahlil Okafor and Jabari Parker.
In the last three weeks, Smith has received visits from Kentucky, Duke, Missouri and Michigan State, and has received offers from those schools in addition to Indiana, Kansas State and Nebraska among others.
It had been speculated before his announcement that he would sign with either Illinois or Michigan State with 247Sports giving the Illini a 82 percent chance to land the guard and the Spartans a 18 percent chance.
Smith was ranked the fourth-best prospect in the state of Illinois, 16th-best point guard and 74th-best overall prospect in the 2017 class by 247Sports composite rankings. The 6-foot-5, 225-pound point guard was also ranked the top player at his position in the midwest by Scout.com.
In his senior year at Edwardsville High School, Smith averaged 21.9 points, 8.4 assists and 8.2 rebounds per game.
Smith is the first shooting guard to commit to Illinois and the second four-star prospect, joining point guard Trent Frazier.
