Chris Smith Highlights

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Freshman Season (1988-89) & Sophomore Season (1989-90)


Junior Season (1990-91)

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

I had the pleasure to watch Chris Smith play all through his high school career at Kolbe-Cathedral. He and his team were fun to watch. Chris was the tallest kid on his high school team as a 6'2" point guard. The other kids on the team were small but athletic and could play. In Chris's senior year of high school Kolbe Cathedral made it to the State Finals where they played St. Joseph's of Trumbull which had at the time a bunch of guys who would later play college ball- Marvin Saddler and Chris Watts (Providence), Johnny Jones (Fairfield), Carey Wilson (Manhattan) and Vito Montelli's son who played D-2 ball I think. It was a close game until the final minutes and then Saddler, who was around 6'8" but somewhat mechanical, dominated inside as KC had nobody to match up with him. I used to work with Kolbe head coach Rick Karpinski and he agreed with me that Saddler was the difference in that game but Chris Smith kind of willed that team to the finals and very close to the State Championship with Smith himself the tallest player on that team at 6'2".

I also saw great summer pickup games involving Smith, Watts, Frenchy Tomlin of Harding (another great guard who played college ball at Cleveland State), Saddler and others at the Harvey Hubbell gym in Bridgeport. Chris had the most success in college of any of these kids and what separated him was his ballhandling ability and his shooting, although Watts was probably as good as Smith shooting the 3 but not as good a handle.