6-8 post Josh Smith becomes Brad Brownell's third 2012 commitment

When Jaron Blossomgame committed to play basketball at Clemson last spring, he was barely a blip on the 2012 recruiting radar.

Today he’s rated as a national top-100 player by ESPN, and unquestionably one of the ‘steals’ of the 2012 recruiting cycle.

Josh Smith is in the same mold: a relatively unheralded, raw talent who’s been a solid performer at the high school and AAU level and who is still developing in his game.

Clemson offered the 6-8, 250-pound center from Olympic High in Charlotte after he visited campus last week, and on Saturday Smith became the third commitment to Brad Brownell’s 2012 class, joining Blossomgame and Jordan Roper, a point guard from Irmo, SC.

Smith’s current offer list is hardly imposing – he had an offer from Tulane, as well as from mid-majors like UNC-Greensboro, Ohio and Winthrop. With interest from schools like Virginia, Georgia and Xavier, Smith comes from a pool of prospects that might well have deferred signing during the November period and waited until April, after his senior high school season.

But Brownell liked him enough to extend an early offer to Smith, who plays AAU basketball for the Charlotte Nets and who averaged 12 points and nine rebounds per game last season for his high school team.

Both ESPN and Rivals have tagged Smith as a two-star prospect.