Williams emerging out of Memphis

Elliott Williams has the recipe that the high-majors like to find in prospects. For starters, he's a good student from a good school. He is a versatile guard with a body that can handle the rigors of physical basketball. And he is peaking at just the right time.

Williams, a 6-foot-4 guard from St. George Academy in Memphis, Tenn., is quickly becoming a hot name amongst college recruiters. The class of 2008 prospect has been on a tear early this summer.

He recently made a splash at Virginia's elite camp last weekend, picking up an offer from the ACC school. A trip to Memphis's elite camp also yielded an offer from the hometown Tigers, Williams said. Both trips impressed the rising star.

"(The Virginia cam) went really well. I had a couple of good games," Williams said.

Good means games of 33 and 29 points, respectively, against some of the top talent from the East Coast.

"It was a good weekend. I made it to the final four of the one on one thing that we did but I had to leave and catch a plane," Williams said.

He did have a chance to look around the Charlottesville campus before heading back to the land of Elvis, ribs and blues music.

"That was my first time up there. It's a beautiful college," Williams said. "Coach (Dave) Leitao gave us a tour of the campus. It is a really nice place."

Williams also spoke highly of his time with Memphis head coach John Calipari.

"I had a real nice time there. I spoke with Coach Cal. He's a great guy. I liked it there, too," Williams said.

Virginia and Memphis beat the rush with offers, according to Williams's M33M Ballers coach Ernie Kuyper. A number of other programs are on the verge of offering, he said. Georgia Tech, Illinois, Stanford, Virginia Commonwealth and Pepperdine have all shown various amounts of interest, too.

Williams knows he has to play at his best in July to not only validate the offers but to continue proving himself as a high-major prospect.

"(July) has to be my breakout month," Williams said. "I want to be able to show what I can do. I just have to do what I do. I know I can score. I can pass. I try to be the key asset to the game. I'm mostly a scorer."

Williams, a 25 point per game scorer as a sophomore, rounded out his game with seven boards and six assists a game last year. His confidence is at an all-time high after the Virginia camp, he said.

"I think it is boosted up a lot," Williams said. "I didn't think I'd have that kind of breakout. It was a great camp."

Now he is hoping the camps propel him to even better things over the next month and a half. The M33M Ballers will be in Louisville for the Kentucky Hoopfest to start July. A trip to the adidas Super 64 in Las Vegas on July 22 is followed by the last tournament of the summer in Los Angeles at Loyola-Marymount.