SoCalHoops College News

Our Bad: Donte Smith, Not Gates,
Working On Eligibility At Cal--(Oct.21, 1998)

One of our readers on the message board pointed out what should have been an obvious error to us, but we didn't catch our mistake before we posted yesterday.  In our article about Holy Cross and Chicago Whitney Young, we said that Dennis Gates was still "trying to qualify" at Cal.    Obviously this was wrong.  Dennis is enrolled and as far as we know, he appeared last Saturday at the open workout held at 2:00 p.m. at the Golden State Warriors facility in Oakland.

It's not Gates, but Smith who has delayed his enrollment.  Here's what the Bears official website has to say about Smith's eligibility and enrollment from September 28, 1998:

Cal basketball recruit Donte Smith will delay his college enrollment as he works to improve his standardized test score and gain admission for either the spring or fall semester of 1999. Cal will continue to recruit Smith for enrollment for next semester, head coach Ben Braun said. 

A strong student at Anacostia High School in Washington, D.C., Smith graduated this past May with a 3.4 overall GPA and a 3.64 GPA in his core courses. However, he fell two points shy of qualifying under NCAA standards on his ACT. Cal made an appeal to the NCAA Eligibility Committee on Smith's behalf, but the appeal was turned down late last week. Smith plans to re-take the ACT this fall to try to raise his total.  

A 6-2 point guard, Smith was the 1998 Washington, D.C., Player of the Year after averaging 28.3 points, 6.2 assists and 5.7 rebounds this past season. He was rated the nation's No. 52 prep recruit overall by recruiting guru Bob Gibbons while he was ranked the No. 21 point guard in the nation by The Sporting News.

 
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