Arizona Wildcats Basketball: Ray Smith has learned a lot so far in life, he’s learned from his coaches, his father and family, and a comeback from an injury.
Ray Smith (Reykwan) was offered by 11 schools including Connecticut and Louisville, and four other Pac-12 schools; Cal, Oregon, ASU and USC. Thankfully for Wildcat nation, he signed on July 14, 2014 with Coach Sean Miller and the Arizona Wildcats!
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Smith plays small forward. He stands 6 feet 8 inches, weighs 200 pounds, he has gained since last reported at 180 pounds. He lives in Las Vegas, Nevada and attends
. He is currently a Wildcat, so he won’t be changing much except states, and black for blue (his uniform is red, white and black.)
When asked what he was looking forward to at the University of Arizona besides basketball, he answered “Just looking forward to moving cities..to see something different.”
According to Paul Biancardi, ESPN Insider Ray Smith has “a freakish ability at the small forward position.” More from ESPN.go.com on Smith’s strengths:
"Smith runs the floor on the break extremely well and is a major factor on the glass especially offensively. He is a tip dunk, tip in threat or he simply keeps the ball alive. Smith is an excellent slasher and defensively can defend both wings and some smaller power forwards. He is a active live body on both ends of the floor."
Picture Given ti ZInaZeakits by Ray Smith
This falls in line with his interview with the Las Vegas Sun Times three months ago with Ray Brewer, sports editor. Ray explains how he is doing as compared to last year, “From a mental aspect I’ve gotten more aggressive on the court.” Ray suffered a torn ACL last season.”I will never sit down and just soak in my misery, its not an option.” Gotta love his attitude!
He has learned a lot from his dad and how he’s yelling instructions from the bench, “’Cut.’ All these three years or two years I have been with my dad he’s always said, ‘cut, cut’ and he’s yelled at me ‘cut, cut, cut’ and I remember I was talking to somebody on the Dream Vision bench, Justin Simon, I was telling him ‘cut, cut,’ I sounded just like my dad, it was really wild!”
You can learn more about his favorite movie, who he listens to and more in this video of the interview.
Ray and Justin Simon played together in Las Vegas with Coach Miller watching on, and they tweet back and forth to each other, so nice to see they already have a bond. Here is Simon’s birthday message to Smith:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my future teammate @raysmith2297 😜🐻👇🔴🔵 I will forever be giving you buckets U remember the last pic pic.twitter.com/MRFCD0zTck
— Justin Simon✨ (@simon_Says_so) February 2, 2015
Smith has overcome a lot; he has fully recovered from a torn ACL. It was hard work, but he never gave up. So don’t worry Wildcat fans, you are going to enjoy watching him play! Ray signs his LOI with Arizona and announces on Twitter!
With his gorgeous mom on signing day:
Tweet picture with a couple of his high school teammates:
Smith has overcome a lot; he has fully recovered from a torn ACL. It was hard work, but he never gave up. Ray wants everyone to know “my knee is good and I’m moving like I never tore my acl.”
So don’t worry Wildcat fans, you are going to enjoy watching him play! #BEARDOWN RAY!
Next: Learn about how Arizona gets seeded in the NCAA Tournament!