Recruiting Update - Jeremis Smith

Another article on the loss to Cedar Hill (subscription required).

Here is the article:

Tracy Schultz's Southwest Dallas sports column
08:30 PM CST on Thursday, December 11, 2003

The Cedar Hill boys basketball team kept its perfect record intact on Tuesday. Coach David Milson hopes the benefits go beyond that for the Longhorns, though.

The 70-64 victory over Fort Worth Dunbar already has produced a few.

Milson had the opportunity to see his team against top-notch competition. He also had the chance to see an arena nearly filled with fans.

Nearly 4,000 turned out to watch two of the nation's top-ranked teams play. A large portion of that crowd cheered for the Longhorns, No. 2 in the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches Class 5A state rankings and No. 22 in the National Prep Poll.

Cedar Hill students even got into the action, drawing a post-dunk stare from Dunbar star Jeremis Smith. That type of crowd was something Milson hadn't seen this season.

"Anything to create excitement for our program," Milson said. "I just wanted to get people's attention. We were 8-0, and nobody was at our games."

Milson remembers when that wasn't the case. Crowds showed up for every Cedar Hill game. The opponent didn't matter.

That isn't the case any more, Milson said. The fans still come. They show up in droves once the District 4-5A schedule starts and rivals Duncanville and DeSoto are on the opposite bench.

When it comes to the early-season games, though, there doesn't seem to be much interest. Granted, the Longhorns had only one home game before hosting the Cedar Hill Lions Club Tournament, which began Thursday.

Milson needs only two hands to count the number of fans whofollowed his team on the road, though. Maybe it's the holiday season that keeps the supporters busy. Perhaps they already know the outcome.

After all, South Garland and Dunbar are the only teams to come within 20 points of Cedar Hill through the first nine games. The Longhorns are winning by an average of 32 points. They have won four games by more than 45 points.

That type of success even affects the Longhorns.

"Winning causes complacency," Milson said. "And when you're up by 30 points, it's hard to keep pushing."

That's why Milson put Dunbar, ranked No. 1 among the state's Class 4A teams and No. 19 in the National Prep Poll. The Wildcats pushed Cedar Hill.

Milson was pleased to see the Longhorns push back and ended Dunbar's winning streak at 48 games, despite a size disadvantage. The Wildcats started three players who were at least 6-4 and had bulk to boot. The 6-7 Smith, a Georgia Tech signee, did his usual damage. He scored 32 points and grabbed nine rebounds.

Cedar Hill made Smith work for most of it, putting two and three bodies on him every time. Smith seemed fatigued in the fourth quarter when he missed 5-of-10 free throws.

"It reiterated that we're doing the right things," Milson said. "We're not real big, but we've got some strong guys. The things we're doing are working."