{"id":733228,"date":"2026-06-13T03:57:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T03:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/733228\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T03:57:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T03:57:13","slug":"kirkwoods-armani-smith-commits-to-austin-peay-mens-basketball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/733228\/","title":{"rendered":"Kirkwood\u2019s Armani Smith commits to Austin Peay men\u2019s basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n        <a href=\"https:\/\/mainstreetmediatn.com\/author\/CALVN+WHITE\" onclick=\"_paq.push([&#039;trackEvent&#039;, &#039;Author Byline View&#039;, &#039;CALVN WHITE&#039;]);\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CALVN WHITE<\/a><br \/>Main Street Clarksville\t\t<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/3-5-26-WS-9-of-26-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1844689\"  \/>Kirkwood\u2019s Armani Smith announced his commitment to Austin Peay men\u2019s basketball on June 12. FILE\/WILL SHELTON<\/p>\n<p>Kirkwood boys basketball junior Armani Smith has committed to Austin Peay and head coach Corey Gipson.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Smith is the two-time District 13-4A MVP and All-Montgomery County Player of the Year. In his three years at Kirkwood, he\u2019s helped lead the Cobras to two district championships, one region title and two Class 4A sectional berths.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He averaged 24 points, 8 rebounds, three assists and three steals per game this past season as Kirkwood finished with a 25-8 record. Smith is the first local commitment for Gipson at Austin Peay.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cArmani has earned this opportunity through countless hours of work,\u201d Kirkwood head coach John Stigall said. \u201cNo one puts more time into improving their game than he does, and I truly believe he has the potential to be a star at Austin Peay.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re excited that he\u2019s staying close to home and joining a great program. Coach Gipson is an outstanding coach and a perfect fit for Armani\u2019s development. We couldn\u2019t be happier for him and his family. This is a well-deserved next step, and we can\u2019t wait to watch him continue to grow and succeed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Austin Peay secured its first regular-season conference championship since 2008 and its first ASUN title in program history in its third year under Gipson. The Governors finished 22-9 overall and 15-3 in league play.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Gipson was named as a finalist for the Hugh Durham and Ben Jobe awards. The Hugh Durham Award is presented annually to the top mid-major coach in college basketball, and the Ben Jobe is awarded to the top minority head coach in Division I.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Austin Peay is 55-44 overall and 33-19 in the ASUN under Gipson.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Smith enters his senior season with the Cobras with over 1,500 career points and is the first Kirkwood basketball player to commit to a Division I school.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201c(I\u2019m) beyond grateful for God blessing me with this opportunity to play at the next level,\u201d Smith said. Also to the APSU coaching staff for believing in me. (I\u2019m) excited to work and win games. Go Govs!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CALVN WHITEMain Street Clarksville Kirkwood\u2019s Armani Smith announced his commitment to Austin Peay men\u2019s basketball on June 12.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":733229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-733228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/733229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}