Addressing The Troy Williams Negativity
By Matt Hamm
Obviously I pay much more attention to the North Carolina side of things. But both UNC and Kentucky has a portion of their fan base that for some reason are making it a point to voice negativity about Troy Williams. Now I understand rooting for your favorite team and wanting the best players to put on your teams colors. What I can’t comprehend is why anybody wouldn’t want a top 10 recruit on their team.
Troy Williams isn’t even finished his junior season of high school. He has more than a year before he will arrive in Chapel Hill or Lexington. Yet Roy Williams and Jon Calipari, two of college basketball’s best coaches, and best recruiters have chased this kid for quite some time. I don’t know exactly how long Kentucky has been seriously interested, but I can tell you Roy Williams has been very familiar with Troy since his breakout sophomore season.
Williams is an explosive athlete who excels at getting to the rim. He has a relentless motor and runs the floor exceptionally well. Among the elite risers and finishers in the class. Williams is also a decent defender and a very good rebounder. And according to his uncle and AAU coach Boo Williams, he may have another 2-3 inches to grow from what doctors have told him. His potential is through the roof in other words.
Ahhhh but he’s not Hubert Davis when it comes to shooting the ball. And with all that athleticism and work ethic he seems to be gushing with, I guess there’s no chance he can fix that with some work. I’m sorry to sound sarcastic, the last thing I want to do is upset anyone. But think about this realistically, Williams and Calipari have great eyes for talent. They know what they are doing when they recruit players. Each have vastly different styles when it comes to recruiting and building teams. But yet here they are, in the final two, both vying for the same prospect, Troy Williams. It’s too bad the UNC-Kentucky series probably won’t happen in 2013. Either way it goes this case would be a perfect one to demonstrate just how hard it is to evaluate talent accurately. Whoever ends up with Troy is getting a very good player with potential to be much much more.
I would hate for the message of this column to be that fans shouldn’t for certain players. And if your simply rooting for Jabari Parker or players your team has already offered, that is fine. Recruiting is much like free agency in professional sports. In those cases it’s okay to shout your opinions from the roof tops. You can say whatever you’d like about a player, he’s a man and more importantly, he’s a professional being paid tons of money. College athletes even become conditioned to criticism by the media and fans alike. High school kids have to deal with scouting reports and evaluations. All those things are okay, what’s not okay is criticizing a kid in a manner that is derogatory. Twitter and other social media sites should be used to debate, discuss, analysis, share information and our love for sports. Never ever should Troy Williams or another kid have to read that they suck or that fans don’t want them. They are kids and they deserve the opportunity if the coaches and Universities want to extend it to them.