West Virginia’s Devin Williams Poised For Stardom In Junior Season

One could argue that the worst part about college basketball – at least for the fans – is the unfortunate assurance that no matter how special a player is to a program, he won’t be around forever.

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After last season’s impressive run to the Sweet 16, the West Virginia Mountaineers will have to say goodbye to two key players who both concluded the rare feat of sticking around in college until their senior season; Juwan Staten and Gary Browne.

Of these two, there’s no question that Staten will leave the biggest shoes to fill, as his efforts as the Mountaineers’ point guard led to back-to-back First Team All-Big 12 honors, among other accolades.

As you could expect, there are going to be some significant questions that need answering this offseason for Bob Huggins, and the greatest will be who can step up as the leader and go-to-scorer with Staten now out of the picture.

Luckily for Huggins and the Mountaineer faithful, there’s already the perfect candidate in place: the soon-to-be junior power forward Devin Williams.

In his sophomore campaign, Williams emerged from being a boy to a beast. He entirely surpassed the “man” part and became a beast, and this phrase isn’t simply pinned to Williams due to his bulky 6’9”, 255-pound frame. Just as he should, Williams took a significant statistical step forward across the board from his freshman to sophomore season.

Provided by Sports-Reference.com/CBB: View Original Table
Generated 4/19/2015.

The most impressive thing to take away from this stat line comes when you consider Williams was only 1.9 rebounds per game away from averaging a double double, despite playing only 24.9 minutes per contest in a rotation that went 10-deep on a nightly basis.

But even after playing what could be considered reduced minutes for a player of his caliber, Williams still managed to add nine double doubles to his resume, which was good for second in the Big 12, behind only Rico Gathers. WVU went 7-2 in games where Williams reached this feat.

But with Williams’ impressive second season now behind him, how does he transition from being the team’s second and sometimes third option, to growing into the star of a team looking to continue to make its presence felt in the Big 12?

To me, the answer is simple; rise to the occasion and sharpen the edges where he needs some touch ups.

Williams displayed, on several occasions last season, just how dominant he can be as an offensive weapon. He scored at least 15 points on 12 occasions and fell just short with 14 points in five other contests. Williams’ is much more versatile than given credit for, which will come to the light during his junior season.

When you look at someone with the brute mass Williams’ poses, you immediately think he’s restricted to the paint, but Williams is increasingly skilled from the mid-range and everything inside.

When Williams assumes his more common spot down low on the block, he’s got a growing repertoire of low-post moves, although, simply bullying defenders out of the way for a cleared lane is still his strength.

As an added bonus, the full court press that often leads to turnovers and fastbreaks for the Mountaineers has allowed Williams to become an effective trailer in transition, such as on this play against Maryland in the NCAA tournament.

In a nutshell, offensively, Williams is good as you’re going to get from a second-year big man at program that isn’t widely regarded as a powerhouse.

As a junior, Williams will simply need to continue to polish his offensive game and take full advantage of the scoring load now being placed on his broad shoulders. It’s the other aspects of Williams’ game that, with some improvement, would make him a star.

Most statistically noticeable is Williams’ consistent foul trouble. He fouled out five times last season, and came just short of fouling out in six more games after finishing with four. When you consider Williams playing only 24.9 minutes each night, his foul trouble had a lot to do with that.

Now, of course, a lot of Williams’ foul issues were a result of the full court press defense Huggins implemented, but it wouldn’t have hurt if Williams’ was consistently in more control of his body around the rim, rather than just pummeling opponents on foul calls.

This brings me to the other key area Williams can improve on; rim protection. Now this isn’t to say Williams is a poor defender. He’s far from being a poor defender, but he’s also provides very little when it comes to erasing shots and imposing himself as a defensive stopper.

Only time will tell if he develops this desperately coveted quality for future NBA big men – which I believe Williams will be after his junior season – but if he were able to develop into a more imposing force on the defense end of the court, Williams would be seen as one of the most daunting two-way forces in college basketball.

Williams realistically isn’t too far from becoming the star WVU will need him to become to make Staten’s absence less noticeable and try to duplicate the team’s success from last season. And just as realistic is how close Williams is to reaching that next level.

For the Mountaineers big man, it’s all about stepping up into the spotlight, polishing up his strengths and adding another facet to an otherwise well rounded skill set.

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