Family, meeting with Pearl to influence Smith

He was an 18-year-old basketball player with no worries.

He smiled, had a couple of windmill dunks, waved to a Freedom Hall crowd of 10,176 and scored 11 points in the adidas Derby Festival All-Star game.

Today, it's back to reality.

The serious, business side of college athletics jumps back into Smith's lap when he gets home to Giles County.

It's time for the Tennessee signee to decide if he really wants to play for the Vols and new coach Bruce Pearl next season.

"It's getting real serious," the 6-foot-7 forward said. "I want to make a good decision, based on not just Coach Pearl, but my family too. I think everything's going to work out right.

"Like I've said, I just want to talk to (Coach Pearl) again before I actually make my decision."

Pearl is headed to Memphis on Monday for the first leg of the Big Orange Caravan, so Smith wasn't sure when the meeting could take place.

Smith said Friday night he's leaning toward honoring his letter of intent to UT. But he's not leaning by much.

"I'd say it's about 55-45," he said, putting a percentage on UT's advantage.

Basically, it's still too close to call.

Family is obviously going to weigh heavily in the decision.

Smith's father, Billy, has tried to shield Tyler from most of the re-recruitment headaches. He fields the bulk of the calls and has been bombarded with questions since the firing of former UT coach Buzz Peterson on March 13.

More calls came when lead recruiter and Smith family friend Chuck Benson wasn't retained by Pearl last Wednesday.

So how much of an influence is the father playing in Tyler's decision?

"He's pretty much leaving it to me," Smith said. "He puts his opinions in there, but he wants me to make my own choice because he says I'm 18 and my own man."

Other relationships come into play as well.

"My family is going to be a big influence," Smith said. "My mom lives in Texas, but I'd like her to get to come see some of my games.

"In a way, Tennessee would be a good choice because most of my family lives in Tennessee, but I've got to put my mom into consideration. She wants me to go to Tennessee, but she has her doubts, too."

If Smith decides to ask out of his letter of intent, it's then Pearl's decision to agree, deny, or put stipulations on Smith's release.

"What I understand is they won't release me to another SEC school," Smith said. "If that happens, I would probably go to prep school because that would wipe my letter of intent out and I could get re-recruited again."

Hargrave Military Academy, Mt. Zion and South Kent were mentioned as possible prep school destinations.

Smith finished Saturday's all-star game with an ice bag on his right knee after slightly hyper-extending it in the first half.

Still, he took advantage of his chance to show off some of the moves making him the No. 34 recruit in the nation by Rivalshoops.com.

Smith had three slams - including one alley-oop dunk that resulted in a three-point play - a nice reverse layup and a 10-foot jumper in a 136-125 loss.

"All-star games are all about the oohs and ahhs," Smith said after earning his share from the Louisville crowd. "That's what they want, to see dunks and fancy stuff."

Ronnie Chalmers, Smith's Derby Festival coach, was sold on the UT signee.

"Tyler's an outstanding ball player," he said. "I think Tennessee stole a good player.

"He's a quiet enforcer who's only going to get better with time. He really doesn't know how good he can be yet. He needs somebody to tell him, 'We really need you to make this team go.' "

Skill-wise, Chalmers didn't see many weaknesses.

"He's long and lanky and he loves to get out and play defense," he said. "He gets his offense going with his defense.

"Once he creates something and gets a couple of dunks, watch out."