Latavious Williams Begins a New Era At Memphis
Words. Andrew Katz
(photo courtesy. Brad Locke)
John Calipari took UMass from being one of the lowest ranked teams in Division I to the Final Four. After his departure, the Minutemen slipped back into relative obscurity in the A-10. Despite fears that Memphis would follow the same pattern, the Tigers are going to remain competitive in the hunt for big-time recruits. They proved that with the addition of five-star big man Latavious Williams yesterday – and they’re still a definite possibility for Lance Stephenson.
A 6-8 banger with great athleticism, Williams is the type of player who would much rather take an extra dribble and attack the rim with two hands than pull up for a jumper. He’s all over the “Dunk of the Day” mixes on YouTube for tomahawk two-handers and big-time LeBron-esque one-handed crams. That description makes him sound a lot like Tyrus Thomas. And the truth is, that’s exactly the type of player that he is right now – even if a couple of inches shorter.
While Williams takes a good amount of pressure of off former Arizona assistant Josh Pastner now that he’s locked up his first big-time recruit, it also signals a missed opportunity for Georgetown. After getting consensus Top 5 prospect in the Class of ’08, Greg Monroe, John Thompson III has only one player (maybe two, depends on your ranking) in the Top 150. The Hoyas were in the running for Williams, but Thompson is yet to take on a partial academic qualifier. That meant the Hoyas were holding out waiting for some of Williams’ academics to sort out. Instead of pairing Williams and Monroe in the frontcourt with 6-6 SF Hollis Thompson replacing DaJuan Summers at the three, Georgetown will need to Monroe and Thompson to shoulder a bigger burden.
Damn that Josh Pastner is on his grizzy, I ain’t mad at him. And I think Georgetown will be better with Monroe assuming a larger role in the offense and not trying to carom yet another of Summers’ errant foolish shot attempts.
[...] Latavious Williams off the list as the first big-time recruit for Josh Pastner, the 6-8 forward from Christian Life Center in Humble, Texas is headed to China. Following in the [...]