UNC Basketball Recruiting: Don’t Look Now, Troy Williams is Ballin’
By Matt Hamm
Oh Troy Williams, here we are again, one thing you have to almost thank Troy for is how entertaining his public recruiting process has been. If not for the Troy and Uncle Boo saga, what else would we all do this summer?
If you haven’t had the pleasure of following this soap opera from day one, I’ll take you through the cliff notes. Troy narrowed his list down to Kentucky and North Carolina in late April. He then announced via Twitter that he would announce his intentions the following day, May 1st via Twitter sometime shortly after his dismissal from school.
May 1st came and went, everybody huddled around their computers, smart phones, tablets and whatever else has the internet these days (Google has glasses coming and I’m not lying about that), Troy tweeted alright, he tweeted that he wasn’t making his decision until later on, that he didn’t feel right making it that day when he woke up.
Then Troy added four more schools back onto his list adding Florida, Louisville, Georgetown and South Carolina. Now considering a total of six schools he said shortly after that UNC and UK were still above the rest that he was just looking at all his options, something Ol’ Uncle Boo reiterated. The next twist had Troy taking those words back stating that all teams were equal and Carolina and Kentucky were no longer in the lead. Asked this week to name the schools he’s considering, he also listed Indiana, Alabama and Arkansas.
Now he and high school teammate point guard Anthony “Cat” Barber are talking about committing together. Indiana, Alabama and Arkansas are new interests for Williams that are directly tied to Barber who is also considering Kansas among others.
I’ve said all along you can’t really blame Troy Williams. He’s a teenager, only he’s 6-7, super athletic and everyone under the sun including me analyzes his every tweet. I’m disappointed in “AAU Legend” Boo Williams, Troy’s Uncle here, step up Boo, shut down Troy’s tweets, monitor his media access, guide him in the right direction please. I just hope if Troy makes it to the NBA one day that he learns by then not to listen to his Uncle and doesn’t make him apart of his management in anyway.
This whole circus of events has caused many if not most of Tar Heel Nation to stop rooting for Troy to commit to Carolina. His struggles early in the summer which resulted in questions about his game, particularly his shot and a drop from #6 to #42 in the overall national prep rankings.
Since delaying his decision and focusing more on basketball, Troy’s game has improved and recently he has been shining. Troy has scored at least 16 points in each of his last three games and added at least seven rebounds in those contests. He’s playing with high energy on both ends of the floor and is attacking the glass like a power forward and utilizing his length and athleticism to snatch rebounds and disrupt the passing lanes. The biggest development has been his improvement in his jump shot, particularly from three over the course of the last four or five games.
I still could see Troy ending up in Chapel Hill also. You don’t see Roy running to offer other perimeter players in the 2013 class. I’m also pretty certain that our favorite uncle also has been trying to steer him to UNC. Teenagers are excitable, they say stupid things, they dream about unrealistic things. Chances are good the Barber thing will blow over and these kids will realize what we all did at some point, you can’t live your life through your best friend. When everything calms down, I don’t see Troy going to a school like Indiana, Alabama or Arkansas. I see him going somewhere he’s familiar with like Kentucky, Georgetown or Carolina. In the end, nobody will remember the drama if he delivers on a college court (somewhere?) like he has been for his uncles AAU team lately.