Nearly three years ago now, Deadspin’s Will Leitch had this to say about former Illinois guard Jamar Smith:

Who’s Jamar Smith, you ask? Oh, you’ll know very soon. He’s the Illini’s freshman shooting guard whose 3-point touch is like a tip-in. We mean that almost literally; the quickness and accuracy of his release resembles nothing less than a tip-in from a normal player. Before you even realize he has been passed the ball, it’s on the way to the hoop. It’s the damndest thing, and we’re absolutely obsessed with the guy.

This was true; he buried threes against my Hoosiers that year. Smith had much promise. His sophomore year wasn’t quite as star studded and then, suddenly, he crashed his car while drunk and nearly killed teammate Brian Carlwell. Smith was charged with an aggravated DUI. Bruce Weber suspended him for the next season. He got probation from the courts. Then he violated said probation this summer because he admitted to drinking a few beers to police outside of Fubar on Green Street in Champaign — drinking was a no-no under his probation. He has since been booted from the team.

So after getting probation for almost killing a teammate and friend and now violating that probation, Smith will be um, serving more probation, this time with an ankle bracelet that monitors his alcohol intake. Ouch. (Though I assume this is a more pleasant sentence than prison.)

Jamar Smith made a very bad, drunken decision in a snowstorm one blistery February night. A decision plenty of people have made before in this country. But he got caught. And because of that, something as innocent as a night out at a bar with friends has thrown him even deeper into the legal system. Drinking and that whole college thing sort of go hand and hand. In that respect, I kind of feel for the guy. (He claimed in court he was an alcoholic. Fair enough. But I’m wondering if that was only used to gain a lighter sentence.)

So that lightening quick release Leitch so breathlessly described? It might only see the light of day again at the University of Evansville in Indiana, where he says he’ll transfer to eventually play ball.

Hopefully that ankle bracelet doesn’t slow him down too much on the court. Godspeed, Jamar.