Illinois transfer Mark Smith commits to Missouri

Missouri's 2018 recruiting class grew again Saturday night, as Illinois transfer and former Tiger baseball commit Mark Smith announced his intentions to play for Cuonzo Martin.

Smith, who spent one season in Champaign before opting to leave to the program, was on a visit to Columbia when he announced the decision on his Twitter account. Due to NCAA transfer rules, he will have to sit out the 2018-19 season but will have three years of eligibility beginning the following season.

After choosing the Illini over offers from Duke, Kentucky, Michigan State, Butler, Missouri and others last spring, Smith struggled in his first season at Illinois, averaging 5.8 points, 1.4 rebounds, and 1.4 assists per game while shooting 34 percent from the floor. After starting 19 of his first 22 games, Smith was relegated to a reserve role for the final 10 games of the season.

Once he announced his intentions to transfer in early March, Smith received interest from a slew of programs, including Kansas State, Creighton, Nevada, Georgia and Missouri. As a prep star at Edwardsville High School in nearby St. Louis, Smith was offered by Martin during his tenure as head coach at Cal.

Smith joins a 2018 class that features St. Louis area wings Javon Pickett and Torrence Watson, junior college transfer K.J. Santos and Chicago point guard Xavier Pinson, who signed his National Letter of Intent on Wednesday. Depending on whether freshman Jontay Porter opts to stay in the NBA Draft or return to Columbia for a second season, Missouri now expects to have one or two scholarships remaining for this cycle.

Martin and Co. have been heavily recruiting Webster Groves top-50 point guard Courtney Ramey, but they've also been in contact with a number of Division I transfers, including Evansville's Dru Smith and Maine's Aaron Calixte.