Williams Back on the Scene

You can throw the “Anyone seen Shawne Williams

?” milk cartons away. The 6-foot-8, 200-pound small forward from Memphis resurfaced on the national scene earlier in the month at the ABCD camp and played in the Nike Peach Jam and the AAU Super Showcase. So what’s been going on with the former top 20 player from the class of 2004?

Williams has been missing in action since leaving his former high school, Hamilton, after failing to keep up his academics. He moved to North Carolina and enrolled at Laurinburg Prep to improve his grades. But he didn’t play hoops and watched his All-American talent slip into idle mode.

The No. 19 ranked player in the class of 2004 rekindled the fire that he started last summer on the AAU circuit when he played in the infamous shoe camp in New Jersey. Then he put on the familiar YOMCA/Team Memphis jersey for two of the biggest Nike tournaments.

“I’m about 95% right now,” Williams said. “I still haven’t got my legs under me but I’m doing my best and that’s all I can do. Back home (in Memphis), I’ve been playing with Darius Washington and he’s been getting me going. Sometimes it gets frustrating because in my head I know what I want to do but my body isn’t doing what I’m thinking.”

With his traveling, basketball disappearance and academic instability, he remains strong with the school that has stuck by his side since day one.

“I’m still solid with Memphis,” Williams confirmed of his verbal pledge to the hometown Tigers.

But there is a catch. There is always a catch with a guy like him - the kind of guys who have the size, ball handling ability, scoring touch, youth and potential.

“There is also the NBA,” he said. “I’ve heard people talking about me in the league. Guys like Sonny Vaccaro said (after the ABCD camp), that there are a few guys in this class that could make the jump. After seeing some of the guys that went last year, I know I’m better than them. I’ll have to weigh it out when I get to that point.”

The five-star prospect said he’ll play out the year at Laurinburg. After that, his next stop might be the Grizzlies, not the Tigers.