Junior guard Desi Sills orally committed to Arkansas after receiving a scholarship offer from the Razorbacks during a visit to Fayetteville on Friday.
Sills, 6-1, 170 pounds, of Jonesboro, also had offers from Missouri, SMU, Alabama-Birmingham and UALR. He said becoming a Hog is a dream come true.
"It feels really good because I always wanted to be a Razorback ever since I was a little boy, and I finally achieved my dream," Sills said. "I was pretty shocked because I'm just a kid from Jonesboro that's just trying to make it and push myself, and I finally got the offer from the school I really love."
Coach Mike Anderson commented on Sills' toughness.
"He was talking about how well I played this summer, and one thing he really liked was my heart and my toughness," Sills said. "There was one time I went down with an injury and I kept on playing. He said after my injury, I played the best basketball I ever played."
He's the fourth member of the 16-under Arkansas Hawks to pledge to the Razorbacks. Little Rock Parkview junior forward Ethan Henderson is the fifth Hawks starter the Hogs hope to land.
"It's awesome, because now we have four and we're working on a fifth one in Ethan," Sills said. "If we get him, we already have the chemistry and we can go win a national championship."
Arkansas Hawks 16-under Coach Kevin Howard said the Razorbacks are getting a well-rounded player.
"Desi is a hard-nosed player, he's a combo guard," Howard said. "He can shoot the ball extremely well, and he's very efficient from the three-point line. If we have a guard we need to shut down, Desi doesn't mind holding that guard and he will shut him down. He normally guards the best guard on the opposite team.
"He's very relentless going to the basket. He's hard to stop."
As a sophomore at Jonesboro, he averaged 10 points while shooting 53 percent from the field, 40 percent from beyond the three-point line and 75 percent from the free-throw line. Getting the scholarship offer from the Hogs was a special moment.
"I was seeing a lot of people getting offers and I wasn't," Sills said. "I kept on pushing and stayed humble, and it finally happened."
Sills was accompanied by his mother, Shawna Neal, and uncle, Nick Neal. He said his family was thrilled about his decision.
"They were hugging me and smiling," Sills said.
No one will outwork Sills, said Howard.
"He's a gym rat," Howard said. "You can find him in the gym at 10 or 11 at night, where you'll find other kids in Jonesboro hanging out and doing different things."
Sills is Arkansas' third commitment for the 2018 class. Oral commitments are nonbinding.
Sports on 08/20/2016