Flashes Announce Signing of Malique Jacobs and TK Smith
4/16/2020 5:45:00 PM | Men's Basketball
KENT, Ohio- The Kent State men's basketball program has announced the additions of Malique Jacobs and Tekorian "TK" Smith to the Flashes' incoming class for the 2020-21 season on Thursday.
Jacobs and Smith join James Jordan, Gabriel O'Neal, and VonCameron Davis to make up Kent State's 2020-21 signing class so far. The duo makes up the three Flashes that are ranked among the top-100 by JucoRecruiting.com. Smith ranks 35th while Jacobs is 66th, and Jordan is 79th.
A 6-foot-3 guard, Jacobs comes to Kent State from Indian Hills Community College, where former Flashes Antonio Williams and Kevin Zabo played. Jacobs averaged 8.6 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 4.3 assists per game at Indian Hills before the season was cut short due to the coronavirus. Prior to Indian Hills, Jacobs played at Bull City Prep and attended Hutchinson Community College. The versatile guard who is known as an offensive and defensive threat will have two years of eligibility.
"Malique is someone we have recruited all year long," said head coach Rob Senderoff. "He is an excellent guard with length, size, strength, athleticism and competitive spirit. He is a leader and a great passer as well. Malique plays at one of the elite junior colleges in the nation (Indian Hills) and for one of the best coaches in the country in Hank Plona. He improved all season at Indian Hills and I believe his best basketball is still ahead of him. We have had a track record of success with players from Indian Hills and we are really excited to see how Malique can contribute these next two years."
Smith, a 6-foot-4 guard, comes from Polk State College. Smith earned First Team All-Suncoast Conference and NJCAA All-Region honors averaging 18.1 points per game, 3.2 rebounds, and 4.4 assists last season. In the 2018-19 season at Polk State, Smith set the freshman scoring record with 574 points. Through two seasons, he scored over 1,000 points and made 142 3-pointers.
"TK was one of the best scorers in Junior College," added Senderoff. "Like Malique, we are familiar with his Junior College (Polk JC) because we just graduated Troy Simons who came from the same school. TK is competitive and can really shoot the 3 and can create for himself and others. One of the things I love about TK is that he really wants to be a great player. He is really committed to developing his game and you can see that in the improvement in his asst/to rate from his freshman to his sophomore season. He truly is a gym rat. We can't wait to get TK here this summer and start working with him."
Jacobs and Smith will be eligible to play in the 2020-21 season.
