Tyreek Smith Lists UF In Final Five

Trinity Christian (Dallas, TX) four-star forward Tyreek Smith trimmed his list to five schools Monday night and Florida made the cut along with Louisiana-Lafayette, LSU, Texas A&M and VCU. The Baton Rouge, Louisiana native announced his list via Twitter.

Smith spoke with GatorsTerritory.com and told us why each of the five schools made his list.

Louisiana-Lafayette: They have a nice program. I think everybody doubts them because they’re not a high major program but I feel like if you have talent you can make it from anywhere. Plus I like the coaching staff. They’ve been on me really hard and they believe in me.

LSU: It’s a new coaching staff and they have a big plan to switch the whole program around. It’s mainly a football school but they’re trying to change it up and do big things. They believe in me and my style of play so I’m giving them a chance. Plus that’s my hometown.

VCU: Another school that’s not high major but like I said before you can make it from anywhere. I like their style of play. They let their bigs push it up the floor and they give their bigs a lot of freedom. It’s a basketball school, they don’t have a football team so it’s mainly basketball and they support the basketball team a lot. I really like the coaching staff as well.

Texas A&M: Another school that has been on me real hard since my sophomore year. They compare me to the guy who went in the draft to the (Boston) Celtics, Robert Williams, which alone was big because he had a big impact at Texas A&M. So for them to compare me to him, that’s a lot. And I like the coaching staff.

Florida: Coach Al (Pinkins) was on me real hard since the start of the AAU season and that showed a lot. He really believes in me and so I gave him a chance. We text every day, we talk about Florida a lot and he wants me on campus.

Smith, the No. 85 ranked prospect in the Rivals150, is scheduled to take an official visit to Texas A&M, his first, August 29-31.