Chris Smith (basketball, born 1999)

Smith's father, Sean, was his coach in middle school. During his first two years at Fort Worth Country Day School, Smith was the quarterback on his football team in addition to playing basketball. He grew nine inches between his freshman and sophomore years in high school.[1][2] He transferred to Huntington Prep School. In January 2017, Smith announced he would reclassify from the class of 2018 to the class of 2017. A three-star recruit, Smith signed with UCLA after considering offers from Oregon, TCU, Michigan, Ohio State, North Carolina, and Virginia Tech.[3]

The Los Angeles Times described Smith as "a 6-foot-9, 215-pound string bean" that "played his first slate of nonconference games for the Bruins at 17, sprinkling enticing potential atop a mound of mistakes."[1] He averaged 3.9 points and 1.9 rebounds per game as a freshman but struggled with turnovers.[4] In his sophomore season, Smith scored in double figures in his first five games but only reached double figures scoring in five of the remaining games.[1] As a sophomore, Smith averaged 6.3 points and 3.7 rebounds per game as a part-time starter, shooting 28.1 percent from behind the arc.[5]

During his junior year in 2019–20, Smith averaged 11.1 points per game during nonconference play as the Bruins went 7–6.[6] He improved his performance during the season, posting his first double-double of 17 points and 12 rebounds on January 2, in a win against Washington followed by 22 points in a loss to Washington State.[7] Smith scored a career-high 30 points on January 31, in a 72–68 win against Colorado.[8] Smith led UCLA in scoring with 13.1 points per game as well as averaging 5.4 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.0 steals per game. He helped the Bruins finish second in the Pac-12 Conference and was named first-team All-Pac-12 as well as the conference's most improved player.[6] Following the season, he declared for the 2020 NBA draft.[9]

• UCLA Bruins bio