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Skilled wing Ziaire Williams making waves in 2020

Ziaire Williams
Ziaire Williams (Matt Moreno/GOAZCATS.com)

Recovered from an injury that cost him much of his sophomore season, top 40 wing Ziaire Williams is making waves on the grassroots circuit.

A 6-foot-7 small forward from Sherman Oaks (Calif.) Notre Dame who plays in the spring and summer with BTI Select, Williams skill, size and versatility has drawn offers from USC, UCLA, Virginia, Stanford, Cal, TCU and many more.

He's quick to credit his team's success for helping to increase his profile.

"I feel like the spring has gone pretty well," Williams told Rivals.com. "We have a great BTI team and we all play great together. I feel like a lot of teams underrate or disrespect us because we aren't a shoe circuit team, but I think we've definitely prove ourselves.

"I feel like I've been doing pretty well. I've been to stay calm and poised throughout the game and I've been trying to stay off the three point line and try to take it inside and mix it up more."

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IN HIS OWN WORDS

Williams has been on campus at Cal, Stanford, UCLA and USC and plans to see Virginia in a few weeks when he heads to Charlottesville for NBPA Top 100 Camp. He discussed each program.

Cal: "Cal was great, I love the environment there. The coaching staff is really chill and when I went they made me feel welcome. Some coaches you kind of have to talk proper you know and coach Wyking Jones, he just lets me be myself."

Stanford: "Stanford is beautiful. I would say Stanford has showed the most love towards me and they have been on me the hardest ."

UCLA: "UCLA is like a backyard school. I've had a bunch of friends' parents who went to UCLA so I always go to their games since I was little. It's just a great place to be, it's at home, so I would have all the support."

USC: "The relationship is great and they've picked up a lot of people and I've been watching them, that's awesome. It's definitely making me more interested, that's for sure."

Virginia: "I've been playing great defensively and that's the one thing that coach Bennett always tells me about, defense. You see it on tv, they are insane at defense. I also love the style that they play on offense. I like to play more under a certain offense with sets and stuff and that's what they do."

RIVALS' REACTION, WHAT'S NEXT?

Because of his high skill level, ability to play inside and out and budding athleticism, Williams is a player that Rivals.com feels is going to see his recruitment take off this summer. His plan is to be open to anybody that jumps in and it is going to be a while before Williams looks to cut anything down or get too serious about his recruitment.

"We probably won't really talk about recruiting until way into my junior year," said Williams. "I'm not even thinking about that stuff right now."

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