Few sophomores made their varsity basketball debuts with more pressure than Smackover’s D’Kylan Hildreth did this season. He exceeded expectations, averaging 17 points and seven rebounds per game.
“He had a great year for us. He was, night-in and night-out, he was our leading producer. He showed up. He had multiple 20-plus games. And it seemed like in our biggest games, he was the one. When we played Dumas and teams that were really good, those were some of the biggest games he had. And he’s just scratching the surface,” said Smackover coach Caleb Spradlin.
“Being a sophomore was why he got snubbed for All-State. All those other guys were juniors and seniors. But he can hang with anybody in the conference and anybody in the area. He had 26 or 27 against Camden Fairview when we went over there. The bigger the stage, the better he played for us. We sure wouldn’t have made it as far as we did without him.”
After the basketball season ended, Hildreth competed in track and won the triple jump, long jump and high jump in his first meet. But, his first sport might be football, where he’s considered one of the top prospects in the state.
“I think he’s going to get bigger offers in football. He’s a power-five, (Division) one. It’s just a matter of time. The offers are going to come for football, and I think that’s the route he’s going to go,” said Spradlin, who was asked if his football future might limit his basketball progress.
“He’s a special kid. When we started up the season, some of the guys it took a while to get going. But he just jumped in ready to go. He has that going for him. Also in the summertime, with all the COVID stuff we went through last summer and with all the restrictions on what we could do, comparing him to the other guys, he was in the gym more than the other dudes even with the restrictions. He’ll put in the time. He’ll come up and lift in the mornings in the summer and then come into the gym for an hour for shoot around, get shots up, get on the gun. He puts in the time. I think he’s going to be fine and will get better every year. He’s just one of those kids. Like this track thing, track’s brand new to him, his first time to ever high jump, not even practiced it and he went out and won it. Things come pretty easy to him. He’s gifted.”