Williams Stock Shooting Up
Jordan Williams has come full circle in the last four months. When the AAU season began in the spring, he wasn’t the player that many expected him to be, but as the season progressed Williams has begun to emerge at a steady rate. That process appears to have culminated this month as he has shined at a variety of tournaments and consequently drawn the interest of a variety of high major programs.
“Coming into April I wasn’t ready at all. I wasn’t used to the tempo of the game and I was a step slow,” Williams said.
Although Williams won’t make any excuses, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what the problem was. During the high school season Williams stars for Torrington High School in the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Association. Simply put, playing in the CIAC does not prepare you for playing a national AAU schedule where the competition is quicker, bigger, and more athletic. That’s not a criticism of Torrington, the CIAC, or public high school basketball, it is simply a fact that the big man needed time to adjust to a higher level of play.
Williams is quick to credit his New England Playaz Coach John Carroll for guiding him through that transition.
“Coach Carroll was straight up with me,” Williams said. “He told me I looked scared out there in the spring. But playing for him in May and June prepared me for the summer. I can’t say enough about how much he has helped me.”
You could begin to see Williams turning the corner towards the end of May when he shined at the Bob Gibbons Tournament of Champions. He was finishing in the paint at a consistent rate and being a major factor rebounding the ball at both ends of the floor. It was more of the same a few weeks later at the Rumble in the Bronx. But his best basketball has come in the last two weeks as the Playaz have traveled to Cincinnati, Georgia, and South Carolina as he has been a presence at the defensive end of the floor, put up good scoring numbers, and been an absolute monster on the glass.
It was in South Carolina that assistant coaches from the University of Maryland watched the Playaz first two games. After Williams dominated, Maryland Head Coach Gary Williams changed his travel plans so that he could be on hand for the Playaz final four games of the tournament.
That was all [Coach] Williams needed to see as Maryland quickly offered a scholarship, joining St. John’s, Providence, UMass, Xavier, URI, and a host of others. But that list is only going to get bigger as Rutgers, Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, Arizona State and many others are actively recruiting the talented big man.
But even that could be just the tip of the iceberg if Williams continues his strong play at the end of the month when the Playaz head to Las Vegas for the Adidas Super 64 Classic and Los Angeles for the Best of the Summer Tournament.
For now Williams mind is strictly on the court, but once August rolls around he will begin to narrow down his options.
“I’m completely open right now,” he said of the recruiting process. “But by the end of the summer I’m hoping to narrow my list down to between 5 and 8 schools.”
Jordan Williams