Four-star Maryland junior Benny Williams visits UF this weekend
This weekend the Florida Gators men’s basketball program hosts four prospects on official visits, however, one of the visitors is a little different from the other three because he is a junior. His trip to Gainesville is the only official visit he currently has scheduled.
Benny Williams, a 6-foot-9, 185-pound combo forward out of St. Andrews Episcopal School in Potomac, Md. is making the trip to Gainesville with some simple goals in mind for his trip.
“I just want to meet the guys and the coaches and see how they interact and see how the chemistry is with each other,” Williams said. “I think it will be a good experience for sure.”
Williams went on to talk about his relationship with the Gators staff.
“I have a great relationship with the coaching staff. They're all great coaches. Coach (Darris) Nichols is the one recruiting me. I talk to coach Mike White, the head coach, quite often. They’re good people.”
During the Nike EYBL season Williams picked up a half-dozen offers while showing college recruiters that he can dribble, pass, and shoot it, and can stretch the floor. We watched him make three-of-four three-pointers in the 16U Peach Jam including two from behind the new NCAA three-point line.
“This summer with Team Takeover was great. Just playing on a different level. The Coach pushing me to limits I didn’t think I could reach,” said Williams.
We asked Williams what he liked about a few of his other suitors, including one that he recently took an unofficial visit to.
Georgetown: Coach Pat Ewing wants me really bad. I like that it’s close to home.
Maryland: I just came off an unofficial last Tuesday. I met all the coaches. They talk to me pretty often, like maybe two or three times a week. They want to play me maybe at the three or the four and push the ball because I’m a good passer.
Syracuse: My lead recruiter is Adrian Autry. I talk to him like two times a week and coach (Jim) Boeheim once a week. I have a really good relationship with them and coach Boeheim is a legendary coach. Last year I went up there for an Elite Camp.
Virginia Tech: Coach Webbie, Christian Webster, is recruiting me. My best friend Darius Maddox just committed there so they’ve been on me really hard since that. I plan to get up there soon.
Kevin Jones has been the head coach at St. Andrews Episcopal School for eight seasons and has compiled a 128-82 record while coaching multiple Division I players including Gators forward Anthony Duruji. We asked Coach Jones how important Williams is to his team and what type of role he will play.
IN THE WORDS OF HIS COACH
He’s very important. We had a pretty talented team last year and a talented team again this year. I think his role will change. With the experience and talent we had on the team and him being a new player, not just for him but any player, it’s easy to step into a situation and kind of like feel your way around and defer to some of the more experienced guys on the team. Towards the latter part of the season he really started to get pretty confident and next season his role will change significantly. He’ll be the guy that his teammates are depending on and the other guys will be looking to him to see how he carries it.
He’s a guy that can do a little bit of everything. He can score the ball, rebound the ball, plays pretty good defense but he also passes the ball extremely well. You know he's that kind of guy that can get a rebound and bring it up in court. We'll have him at the point some this year. He can pretty much play every position on the floor so that’s awesome, as a coach, to have someone with that type of ability. I've had college coaches say to me. ‘I don't know what position is because he can do a lot of everything.’