Four years ago, Jamar Smith spent most of his Friday nights sitting on the bench. A freshman at Richwoods High School in Peoria, Smith started for the freshman and sophomore basketball teams, but while he suited up with the varsity, it was a rare occasion that the gifted guard got into the game.

“I sat on the bench my whole freshman year, and I told myself, ‘I don’t ever want to sit on the bench again,'” Smith says.

Four years later, Smith is a freshman again, but this time things are working out a little differently. The goofy guard with big eyes and big energy might be the surprise of the Illini basketball season: a freshman coming off the bench to light it up from three-point range night after night. He’s got Peoria roots like his childhood hero Frank Williams, a clean three-point shot reminiscent of predecessor Luther Head and a personality all his own.

“Jamar is a joyful person,” says his dad, Juandale Jordan. “He’s confident. I think he’s just a happy kid.”

And with good reason. In just his first season playing college basketball, Smith averages nine points per game for the Illini and is hitting more than 50 percent of his three-point attempts. He’s already logged 449 minutes on the court at the Assembly Hall, and has drawn crowds when he tries to get in extra practice at the IMPE gym.

“I used to go over there because it was closer to my dorm than Ubben is,” Smith says. “But now everybody’s always wanting to play with me, and I don’t get a lot done.”

That same work ethic that drove him in high school is now helping Smith adjust to Big Ten basketball. He runs extra, shoots extra and lifts extra, all so he can have an advantage on the court.

“In high school you’re playing with players where maybe one or two of them are Division-I material,” Smith says. “But when you’re playing Division-I, everybody you’re playing against is just as good as you, if not better.”

His exceptional athleticism and near-flawless shot give him an edge over most freshmen. Also working in Smith’s favor is his background – he learned the game watching former Illini like Marcus Griffin, Sergio McClain and Frank Williams, and playing with them in neighborhood gyms and at summer camps.

Smith’s introduction to basketball came when he was eight or nine years old. He’d attend summer camps run by National High School Coach of the Year and current Illinois assistant Wayne McClain, where he developed an admiration for McClain’s son Sergio and his teammates.

“You could just kind of tell that he was a natural,” Wayne McClain says. “You can’t be extreme, but you can just tell that some kids are ahead of the curve for their groups. He was clearly one of those kids who was pretty natural at basketball.”

He had the natural skill but not the poise needed for a big-time shooter. Smith didn’t even make the basketball team in fifth grade, and although he made the cut the next year, he spent a lot of time on the bench. He said as a junior high player he’d sink 75 percent of his shots, but that he’d pass up open buckets each time down the court. When his coach told him to take 20 shots a game or run laps, he started to come out of his shell.

By his freshman year of high school Smith was already varsity material, but his shot wasn’t perfect and his ball-handling needed work. It was while he was sitting on that varsity bench that he realized he could reach the level of those kids he had idolized, but it would take work.

“He got really focused,” Jordan says. “He began to challenge a lot of people, challenging himself to get better. He’d go to the gym morning and night, and he’d just stay there. He gave 100 percent when he went.”

Soon, Sergio McClain, now an assistant at Manual, was calling his dad at Illinois to come watch the guard from Richwoods.

“Sergio called me and said, ‘You’ve got to come see this kid Jamar Smith,'” McClain says. “I didn’t put two and two together, and when I went to the game to watch them as an Illinois coach, I was like, ‘That’s the kid from my camp.’ He did some things as a freshman that make you realize this is a kid you need to continue to watch. That’s how this thing evolved.”

By his junior year Smith was earning All-State recognition from The Chicago Tribune and the Associated Press. Iowa, Wisconsin and Northern Iowa were recruiting Smith hard, but they all lacked one important thing: the Peoria Pipeline.

There are five high schools in Peoria: Central, Manual, Notre Dame, Richwoods and Woodruff. While Smith attended Richwoods, he’d always looked up to the three-time state champions from Manual. And when the coach you always wanted to play for is recruiting you to fill the shoes of your childhood hero, you don’t turn that opportunity away.

“Frankie Williams, he’s a big reason I came here,” Smith says. “When he was in high school he was my idol. I would fight somebody if they said he wasn’t good. Then when he came here I was like, ‘Wow, I want to go to Illinois.’ Once they offered me (a scholarship), being from Peoria, I felt honored because I could continue the Peoria Pipeline.”

Smith turned down an opportunity to wear Williams’ number – “with the respect that I have for Frankie,” he says, “I wouldn’t play in his jersey” – but accepted the offer to play at Illinois, where he scored a game-high 16 points in his first contest, an exhibition game against Illinois Wesleyan on Nov. 3.

While he lit it up through Illinois’ nonconference schedule, he began to falter under the weight of Big Ten competition. But he went back to the gym, worked on his defense, and is back closing in on double-digit production.

Illinois’ star freshman turns 19 four days after the NCAA Championship, and he and his teammates wouldn’t mind picking up an early birthday present. But if it doesn’t happen this season, there are still three more chances to make the run, and Smith is likely to be a big part in getting Illinois back to the top.

“I think it’s unlimited what he can be here,” McClain says. “It’s up to him, he has to make his own history, but if he continues doing what he’s been doing, he’s going to be pretty good.”