SEC: Johnathan Williams The Only Bright Spot For Missouri
What happens when a person says something about someone and it becomes true? Is it because someone spoke something into existence that it happened?
Missouri Tigers head coach Kim Anderson spoke into existence that one of his players would have their game’s progress rapidly to lead the Tigers, and so far his words have come to life. Because the player he spoke those encouraging words into, responded.
The Tigers looked at one of their best NBA draft prospects for leadership, and I’m not talking about the 6’6″ shooting guard, Montaque Gill-Caesar. I’m referring to the 6’9″, 225-pound forward from Memphis, Tenn., Johnathan Williams III.
Over the course of the season Williams has become the go-to scorer for the Tigers and even though it’s not a role he looks completely comfortable with yet, he’s doing exceptionally well.
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In his sophomore season, Williams has taken the huge leap that many felt like he could. He’s more than doubled his scoring average from his freshman year where he averaged 5.8 points to his sophomore year averaging 12.5 points. He’s also managed to shoot a better field goal percentage.
In addition, Williams who isn’t a great three-point shooter went into the gym and worked on his jump shooting and it’s starting to show. His three-point shooting percentage isn’t great (30 percent), but he’s gotten a lot more comfortable taking shots from beyond the arc.
On the year he’s 6-for-20 from the three-point line, which is more frequent than his 4-for-11 shooting from his freshman year.
What’s stayed consistent is everything else about Williams’ game. He’s a really good rebounder, and out of the 11 games he’s played in, he’s only had two games where he’s had less than five rebounds, and one of those games he only played for seven minutes.
What’s truly shocking is how consistent offensively he’s been. Williams’ has only had two games where he failed to score in double figure points. In his last five games Williams has been scoring pretty well.
He’s had an 18-point game, one 17-point game, two 16-point games, and one 15-point game and in all of those contests he managed to grab at least eight rebounds.
Those words of that gotten spoken into existence were by Anderson and he’s thankful it clicked with Williams. In an interview with Tod Palmer of the Kansas City Star, coach Anderson said this about Williams:
"“He’s such a great kid,” Anderson said after that game. “… (But) I yelled at him tonight, ‘You’ve got to quit being such a nice guy. You’ve got to be a meaner guy.’ We need that…. “A year ago, he was a secondary guy — from the games I watched he was,” Anderson said. “… Now, he’s a primary guy. He’s got to learn, but it takes time and it takes encouragement and it takes falling down and getting back up.”"
Williams has a combination of size and strength than can make him a matchup nightmare. His 225-pound frame is very muscular, and he’s strong enough to back his defenders down into the post and get to spots on the floor that he likes.
Also because of the newly found confidence that he has on the perimeter, he’s comfortable shooting in the mid-range even though he’s shooting nearly 35 percent on his two-point jump shots.
The Missouri Tigers aren’t supposed to have a great season this year. In the beginning of the season they were picked to finish seventh. Right now the Tigers sit dead last within the SEC so they are underachieving, but at least they have a bright spot for the near immediate future in Williams.
Williams’ continued growth over his college career is going to give Missouri one of the best weapons in the conference for the next few years. They do need to work on developing the rest of their roster if they want to have the success that they’ve seen over the last decade.