It is imperceptible to the naked eye, but protruding from USD sophomore guard Tyler Williams’ shoulders are bumps.
“He’s a guy with a chip on his shoulders,” said Toreros head coach Lamont Smith.
Raised in Plano, Texas, outside Dallas, the 6-foot-5 Williams was a highly recruited guard out of Hebron High. He played on an AAU team called Nike Team Texas. On the team were players currently at Michigan State, Oklahoma State, Clemson and DePaul, including the Cowboys’ Jawun Evans, who’s averaging 18.4 points.
A solid, all-around player — “I’ve always been kind of a glue guy,” he said — Williams did not mind deferring to his teammates.
There was interest from major basketball powers, among them Gonzaga, UCLA, Creighton and Michigan. But late in the recruiting process, the bluebloods shied away.
“That AAU team featured those other guys a little more,” said Smith. “I think his stock went down. We were the beneficiaries.”
“I felt I was disrespected,” said Williams, who has started every game this season for USD, which tonight hosts BYU. “I just used that to fuel me.”
After averaging 2.5 points and 2.3 rebounds as a freshman, Williams is blossoming this season, particularly of late. The first four games he averaged four points. He has scored in double figures six of the last eight games, averaging 11.6 points, including a career-high 20 last Saturday versus Pepperdine.
“The game’s starting to slow down for me,” said Williams.
Williams is what coaches refer to as a stat-sheet stuffer. At the conclusion of games when coaches peer at final statistics, there tend to be a lot of crooked numbers beside Williams’ name.
He’s averaging 8.9 points on the season, fourth on the team. He’s averaging 4.7 rebounds, fourth on the team. He’s dishing out 2.2 assists, second on the team.
“I don’t know that he excels in one area,” said Smith. “That, I think, is where he excels.”
Williams thinks he was too passive offensively last season. He often drew the opposing team’s best-scoring guard, enabling the player to pace himself on the defensive end. That’s not the case in 2016-17.
A year ago, Williams shot 29.5 percent from the field, 23.5 percent on 3s and 55.6 percent from the free-throw line. Those numbers this year — 48, 48.8 and 86.7, respectively.
“Just time in the gym,” said Smith, explaining Williams’ drastic shooting improvement. “The next piece of his game is strength and conditioning, becoming more explosive, a better athlete, getting more separation off the dribble.”
Smith calls Williams “a mixer.”
“He hangs out with everyone,” said the head coach. “He’s not afraid to vocally lead.”
In the pregame video montage played at Jenny Craig Pavilion before USD’s starting lineup is introduced, there’s a clip of the team huddled in the hallway outside the Toreros’ locker room. Williams lets loose with a primal scream.
The emotion is a contrast to Williams’ deft playing style. Knocking down shots here, grabbing boards there, dishing, guarding.
“He’s not a guy who needs to take 15 to 20 shots to impact the game,” said Smith. “He lets the game come to him, naturally.”
BYU at USD
Saturday: 7 p.m., Jenny Craig Pavilion
On the air: Spectrum SportsNet; 1700-AM.
Records: BYU 13-5, 4-1, USD 8-9, 1-4.
Series history: BYU leads 11-3 and swept last year’s games. The first was a 69-67 squeaker at JCP. Two nights later, the Cougars embarrassed USD 91-33 in Provo, Utah. It was the fewest points USD ever scored in a game. The Toreros were 0 for 20 on 3s.
Toreros update: USD is looking for its first conference home win after losing to Pacific and Santa Clara by a combined five points. USD’s bigs will be tested. BYU is 33rd in the nation out of 351 Division I schools in rebounding margin at plus-6.3. USD is tied for 256th at minus-1.4.
Cougars update: Averaging 83.9 points, BYU is 21st in scoring. Forward Erik Mika will be a difficult cover. At 6-10, 230, he’s averaging 21 points (tops in the WCC) and 9.2 rebounds (second in conference). He has 10 double-doubles this season and is coming off a career-high 31 points vs. USF. Of BYU’s five leading scorers, four have served Mormon missions, making them two years older than most players in their class.
Norcross is a freelance writer.
