(2026) - Jordan Smith to Arkansas

[Pagoda]

12 hours ago, mike vannice said:

I watched some of the USA vs New Zealand and my takeaway was damn Daniel Jacobson is going to be good for Purdue.

Love Jordan Smith though.

Agree on Jacobson, unfortunately.  We’ve seen Matt do well with guys like him too many times…

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Smith and Team USA coming home with the gold medal after a 109-76 win over Germany.  They let Germany hang around through halftime nursing a 56-47 lead and then dominated the 3rd period outscoring Germany 28-10.  Smith's stats for the tournament:

 

[Demo]

Has set his 1st 2 officials, per London:

Arkansas  9/20-21

UK. 10/10-11

So I imagine we’ll know in the next week or 2 whether this is actually a thing.

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Indiana: “Kenny (Johnson) always been there from the start. He helped me get into PVI, helped me with Takeover. He’s always been a helping hand, I really appreciate him. He’s always been there.”

https://www.on3.com/rivals/news/jordan-smith-jr-down-to-six-schools-arkansas-duke-georgetown-indiana-kentucky-and-syracuse/

 

https://www.insidethehall.com/2025/08/05/iu-basketball-among-six-finalists-for-class-of-2026-five-star-guard-jordan-smith/

https://www.thedailyhoosier.com/iu-basketball-recruiting-hoosiers-make-the-final-six-for-2026-5-star-guard-jordan-smith-jr/

[WayneFleekHoosier]

1 hour ago, Class of '66 Old Fart said:

Indiana: “Kenny (Johnson) always been there from the start. He helped me get into PVI, helped me with Takeover. He’s always been a helping hand, I really appreciate him. He’s always been there.”

https://www.on3.com/rivals/news/jordan-smith-jr-down-to-six-schools-arkansas-duke-georgetown-indiana-kentucky-and-syracuse/

 

https://www.insidethehall.com/2025/08/05/iu-basketball-among-six-finalists-for-class-of-2026-five-star-guard-jordan-smith/

https://www.thedailyhoosier.com/iu-basketball-recruiting-hoosiers-make-the-final-six-for-2026-5-star-guard-jordan-smith-jr/

Really hope we can get a couple alpha recruits this cycle.  Jordan Smith would be a fun one to root for. 

[yogisballin]

13 hours ago, Class of '66 Old Fart said:

Indiana: “Kenny (Johnson) always been there from the start. He helped me get into PVI, helped me with Takeover. He’s always been a helping hand, I really appreciate him. He’s always been there.”

 

Considering what he said about the other 5 schools, I don’t like our chances. Gets to talk about IU and its well KJ has always been there talk. Which, is a good thing that KJ has been there for him. Idk, I’m reading too much into it

[Demo]

2 hours ago, yogisballin said:

Considering what he said about the other 5 schools, I don’t like our chances. Gets to talk about IU and its well KJ has always been there talk. Which, is a good thing that KJ has been there for him. Idk, I’m reading too much into it

I think that’s probably fair. IU’s by far his newest offer. The others have all been on him for a good while. Kid’s never been to Bloomington and has no relationship with DeVries. But his longest and by far closest single relationship is with Johnson and that’s not nothin’. IU can compete money-wise, facility-wise and exposure-wise. If he gets on campus and he and DDV click and he likes what he says of the offense and the students do the students thing and start chanting the kid’s name out of nowhere and then they offer to write him a big check? Wouldn’t bet the house on it but he may well be gettable. 

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Don't forget our secret weapon P-A M is hard at work recruiting him as well.

[Demo]

Maybe slightly curious, maybe not:

Watching Smith’s game tonight on ESPN and they’ve now mentioned multiple times that he still lists IU among his 5 finalists. I’ve never thought this one was a thing at any point, still don’t, but now that he’s not committing until spring it’ll be interesting to see if he ends up taking an official. If he does, the one thing we can say for sure given the roster turnover that’s inevitable is none of his other finalists can possibly guarantee him the number of minutes and number of shots that DeVries can. They can pretty much give the kid the keys. If Johnson is as tight with him as you always hear, I suppose stranger things have happened. 

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Smith is scheduled to announce on Friday.  While it's nice for our pr that we continue to be named as one of his finalists, I don't recommend holding your breath that we're his pick.

[Stuhoo]

Ah, what the hell:

247jordan-smith-46136952/

On3 jordan-smith-jr

Here's to a puncher's chance!

[WayneFleekHoosier]

Hearing Arkansas beat out Duke in this one.  

[Brass Cannon]

[68Hoosier]

Any big news today or is it what we expected?

[Uspshoosier]

46 minutes ago, 68Hoosier said:

Any big news today or is it what we expected?

Arkansas 

[Asha’man]

Good luck to the kid. Probably will be a great player in the pros. But any kid going to Arkansas isn’t serious about winning in college. They are serious about getting to the NBA. And for IU I want to see wins. 

[Rico]

12 hours ago, Uspshoosier said:

Arkansas 

[WayneFleekHoosier]

While freshman were unremarkable as the stars of college basketball the past couple years, short of Flagg and a few others, this years class of freshmen is the best I can ever remember.  So many good ones.  Dominating.

Athletically, Jordan Smith has a strong chance to be that next year.