LOACHAPOKA — There may not be a better recruiting tool than proof of concept.

Words and promises can carry some weight, but nothing beats a concrete example. For Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl, there are few players he can point to better than former Tigers star Jabari Smith, who recently wrapped up his second season with the Houston Rockets after getting selected No. 3 overall in the 2022 NBA Draft.

Smith, the highest-rated recruit to ever sign with Auburn, averaged 16.9 points, 7.4 rebounds, two assists, a block and a 1.1 steals during his lone season on the Plains. He has no problem answering questions recruits considering Auburn may have.

That includes AJ Dybantsa, who is ranked by the 247Sports Composite as the No. 1 overall player in the Class of 2025. Dybantsa visited Auburn in March.

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"I tell him the same thing I tell all the top recruits — No. 1 player in the country, No. 2 player in the country, whatever — all schools are going to tell you the same thing," Smith said Saturday at his youth basketball camp at Loachapoka High School. "They're going to give you the ball, they're going to do all of that. But if you come here, it's just going to be more than that. It's going to be a family atmosphere. We're going to play to win, we're going to play the right way. We're going to play defense. (Pearl is) going to show the best side of you always."

Smith helped the Tigers to their first ever No. 1 ranking in the AP Top 25 Poll and a regular-season conference title during the 2021-22 season. Through 155 appearances with the Rockets, he's averaged 13.3 points and 7.6 rebounds while making 33.5% of his 3-pointers on five attempts per game.

"He's going to coach you," Smith said of Pearl. "I feel like that's the biggest thing, so it won't be a shock when you get to the league. ... You want it to be like that. You don't want to go to campus and somebody is kissing your butt all day. BP never did that to me, and I feel like that's why I am so humble. Because I see how he carries himself, and how he treated me when I was a five-star (prospect), the highest recruit to come to Auburn. He never treated me like that. I feel like that helped me.

"No matter where you go, you're probably going to end up in the same place. That's what I told (Dybantsa). But if you come here, I feel like you'll remember it. You'll want to come back, you'll make memories forever and you'll win some basketball games. That's what I try to tell them."

More than 100 kids, both boys and girls, attended Smith's youth basketball camp. Other former Auburn players such as Wendell Green Jr. and Jalen and Jared Harper were in attendance to support him.

"Auburn means so much to me," Smith said. "I really like to call Auburn home. I wasn't here for long, but the relationships I built, how much fun I had and just how much love I was shown when I was here, it's great for me to give back. I wasn't here for long, but Auburn is home."

Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsilva@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @rich_silva18.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Jabari Smith: How former star pitches Tigers to top recruits