Gold Rush: Williams Comes Up Big For Deacons
12/19/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 19, 2002
By Jay Reddick
Eric Williams' college basketball career started with an ultimatum. More accurately, it started because of Williams' response to an ultimatum.
Williams came to Wake Forest as one of the school's most highly touted recruits in recent history. He was a McDonald's All-American (the Deacons' first in six years) and one of the top 25 players in his class. But in August, Skip Prosser told him if he wanted any playing time with the Deacons, his then-320-pound frame would have to get a little smaller.
"Coach told me, if I wanted to play, I had to lose weight," Williams said.
Immediately, Williams took advantage of the facilities and trainers at Wake Forest and began exercising like he never has before. He worked himself into playing shape.
Just a few months later, the 6-foot-9 freshman from the town of Wake Forest has lost somewhere between 40 and 50 pounds.
"I did a lot of conditioning drills, and went through a lot of weight training," Williams said. "I didn't change my diet that much. Mostly, I was just working harder and exercising more." The hard work has paid off. Williams earned his immediate spot in the playing rotation and averaged 13 points and six rebounds per game during Wake's 3-0 start. His signature game so far has been the 19 points and 10 rebounds he laid on Temple on Dec. 1, but Williams has been consistent enough to rank second in the ACC in field-goal percentage (.696) through Dec. 12. Among Deacons freshmen, only Niki Arinze shot 60 percent or more over a full season.
Williams is a polite 18-year-old, full of "yessirs" and "no, ma'ams," but he is extremely confident in his own abilities. Even so, the first month of college basketball, from practices to games, has taken the big guy a little bit by surprise.
"I like the way we started as a team," Williams said. "We saw the upcoming games, and we prepared for them well. For myself, I'm really pleased. I didn't expect to start the way I did, with double-doubles, 14- and 19-point games. I knew I wanted to make an impact, and I'm pretty pleased that so far, I have."
Many observers expected the young Deacons to take a while reaching their potential. With four freshmen in the team's early eight-man rotation, learning to play together would be a big obstacle to overcome, they said. But that hasn't been a problem for Williams.
"I've played with or against most of the guys on this team in high school," Williams said. "Me and Taron (Downey) played on the same AAU team. I met Chris (Ellis) and Justin (Gray) at Nike camp summer before last and saw them play there. And I've known Trent (Strickland) since I was 13 or 14 years old."
No wonder Williams has few worries about the upcoming ACC grind.
"I expect us to be extremely good," he said. "We started off at a good, fast pace, but we still have lots of room for improvement."
The same could be said for Williams, who averaged 28 points and 14 rebounds a game as a senior at Wake Forest-Rolesville High School. It remains to be seen if he can approach those numbers as a Deacon, but you can expect him to pay considerable attention to his rebounding total. After all, there's $2,000 riding on it.
Williams' mother, Debra, played college basketball at Livingstone, and once pulled down 31 rebounds in a game. When her son began to develop into the player he is today, Debra Williams bet him that he would never match that total and put up $2,000 as incentive.
He hasn't collected -- yet.
"I had 21 once in a high school game, with some time left," Eric Williams said. "The coach pulled me out of the game, though."
Williams wasn't a big basketball fan growing up. "I preferred watching cartoons and playing video games," he said. But it hasn't taken long for him to find out which team will be his and the Deacs', biggest rival.
"I hate Carolina," Williams said. "At one time, I thought I wanted to go there, but they didn't recruit me heavily until I committed to come here. That was kind of late, but that's not the only reason. When I did meet some of their people, I felt they were too cocky."
Williams already has his sights set on one Tar Heels freshman in particular.
"I really can't wait to play against Sean May," Williams said. "We were at the McDonald's game together and practiced against each other, and I'm looking forward to the challenge of playing against another big body with the same build as me."
Playing with his former girth, Williams had nine points and a game-high 11 rebounds in that McDonald's game. With Williams now even more athletic, May might need to watch out when they meet for the first time Feb. 2.