Rodney Williams

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No one seems to be talking about Rodney Williams as a key component for next season. This kid was ranked as a consensus 4 star, top 100 talent out of high school. I was a little disappointed with his freshman season, but I saw enough to be at least slightly optimistic about his future. If he works his butt off in the offseason and develops a handle and a decent jumper, look out! He fills a perfect spot in the starting line-up. I think his biggest impact as a college player will be on defense. I don't think he'll average more than 10 ppg at his peak, but he could become the top perimeter defender in the conference.
My question to GLers: What are the chances he becomes a full-time starter and impact player as a sophomore?
Man, that would be awesome!
 

Rodney can dunk. Other than that, he showed little in terms of basketball skills. I would say slim chances as a sophomore, but much better as a junior and/or senior. He needs more than one season to develop skills like dribble driving and a solid jumper. He certainly has the physical gifts, just needs to be able to work with the coaches to translate that to B10 basketball skills.
 

If the Gophers are going to be better next year than they were this year, I think it's paramount Rodney make a big jump. I think he is THE key guy next year in terms of whether the Gophers can turn the corner a little bit. If he shows marked improvement, I think the Gophers can sneak into the top 3 or more likely 4 in the Big Ten. If not, I don't see how we're going to finish any higher than 6th.

With so many unknowns right now, the Gophers really need a couple of the returning guys to take a major step up in their games. Rodney's ceiling is the highest, I think.
 

The most disappointing thing about his freshmen year was his inability or unwillingness to do anything off of the dribble. Now, this could be a kid afraid to mess up, or it could be a lack of dribbling skill (i'm guessing a mix of both). We absolutely need him to attack the basket with the ball this year. His jumper doesn't even have to be that good; as long as he can get in inside of 10 feet, he should be able to rise above with his leaping ability and finish.
 

10 ppg at the most? cmon he averaged that when he was a starter at the beginning of the season. When big ten play came he got less than 2 mins a game. I bet if he played a whole game he could've scored 10 a game this year. 13 againist OSU. didnt start. 8 points 6 rebounds againist Illinois. Didn't start.
 


Yes but why didn't he start? Why didn't he play more?
 

Rodney Williams @ Robbinsdale Cooper Senior High School • averaged 15.5 points.

Rodney is not a good shooter or dribbler. He's a freak athlete, but has a lot work to do, if he can get that jumper going sky's the limit.
 

He definitely got more than 2 min a game during Big Ten play. If he played a whole game he could've scored 10 a game? That's a lot of minutes. Even if he could have, do you think we would've been better off doing that? That would mean barely any time for Hoffarber and Carter and less time for DJ. I love Rodney, but he wasn't ready to get many more minutes than he did.

You mentioned a couple games where he scored pretty efficiently. How about the numerous games where he barely scored when he did receive significant minutes? It's not all about scoring, but if that was a serious argument about Rodney, it was a pretty bad one.

Go Gophs eh? said:
10 ppg at the most? cmon he averaged that when he was a starter at the beginning of the season. When big ten play came he got less than 2 mins a game. I bet if he played a whole game he could've scored 10 a game this year. 13 againist OSU. didnt start. 8 points 6 rebounds againist Illinois. Didn't start.
Click to expand...
 

once he learns to drive he will be good, once tubby learns to set him up with screens and back cuts he will be better.
 



It was obvious Tubby did not give RW the green light last year offensively. He looked scared to make a mistake.

We need our athletic guys playing free and using their talent on the offensive end. Tubby does not allow this for everyone.

Perhaps this is one reason why C. Joseph thought he would fit better at Texas.
 

As a young kid, I got to believe that the feedback Rodney got from all those highlight vids fed his ego and encouraged him to, maybe, work harder on his dunking form to the exclusion of developing other skills. But as far as being an effective D-1 player (with a chance at the NBA), highlight slams are nowhere near as important as ball-handling and shooting.

Ball-handling & shooting Rodney ... practice, practice, practice.
 

josh087 said:
It was obvious Tubby did not give RW the green light last year offensively. He looked scared to make a mistake.
Click to expand...

He will definitely be getting a green light this year though with Johnson and Carter gone. We will be relying on him a lot more and I think he'll pick up his game as the season goes on since he'll be getting more playing time. I think he'll start relaxing into his game and he won't be as scared to make mistakes since he won't be fighting for his minutes as much.
 

He is freakishly quick off the floor. As twitchy as anybody we've ever had.
 



josh087 said:
It was obvious Tubby did not give RW the green light last year offensively. He looked scared to make a mistake.

We need our athletic guys playing free and using their talent on the offensive end. Tubby does not allow this for everyone.

Perhaps this is one reason why C. Joseph thought he would fit better at Texas.
Click to expand...

Or perhaps Findlay Prep coach Peck wanted him to go there for some reason. We'll see.

Tubby let freshmen at Tulsa, Georgia, and Kentucky start and have plenty of freedom to use their talent. He has started freshmen at Minnesota, too.

Certainly Texas coach Barnes has been quoted as saying Getting Kids Ready For NBA Is More Important Than Team W-L Record.
 

Tubby's modus operandi is to put players in a position to succeed. RW wasn't entirely ready (emotionally and skill wise) last season but Tubby put him on the floor to give him valuable experience, just like he did Cobbs. RW like everyone else will have to prove himself capable of gaining more minutes and/or starter status.
 

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