Eric Williams

11/15/01: "Wake Forest-Rolesville's Eric Williams may be the most underrated ACC basketball recruit, recruiting analyst Bob Gibbons says. The 6-foot-10 Williams, who Wednesday signed his national letter with Wake Forest University, was not seen much over the summer, but Gibbons remembers his play last season during the Glaxo Wellcome Holiday Invitational in Raleigh. "He was quick enough to stop Rick Rickert, who was a McDonald's All-America," Gibbons said. "Wake Forest is going to need someone like Eric to play inside next year. "A lot of people are overlooking Eric, but he is going to have a chance to get some serious minutes next year." - Raleigh N-O

7/11: "Wake Forest has nabbed another of the state's top rising senior basketball players by receiving a commitment from Eric Williams, a powerful forward from the small town the university once called home. Williams, 6-8 and 280 pounds, committed yesterday. He recently returned from one of the national summer basketball camps and said he wanted to get his college decision out of the way before his senior season begins. "I'm glad to have this done," Williams said. "It seemed like the right time to do it." - Winston Salem Journal

7/2: "is down to three schools. Williams is contemplating committing to either NC State, Clemson or Wake Forest. He says that he’ll make a decision following his appearance at the Nike All-American Camp. Williams has made unofficial visits to each of the schools. He’s said all along that he wishes to remain close to home. “Each school allows me to stay close to my family,” Williams said. The big man averaged 26 points a game last year. He’s enrolled in summer school classes. The 285-pounder is an aggressive rebounder who has a tremendous value in being able to score around the bucket. He’s trimmed down in recent months and it has increased his athleticism." - Blue Chip Hoops

6/27: "One publication has him 31. He stands around and watches a lot. He's a big body -- passes the look test -- but he's not that good. I don't think I'll have him in my top 100." - Clark Francis on Sporting News (3 to 2)

6/12: "Center Eric Williams was born in Germany. He’s lived in New York and Chicago. Now, he resides in the tiny town of Wake Forest, N.C., and it looks like he’s thinking about staying close to home. Should he move, his mother says she’s going with him, but looking at his options, there’s a strong chance she won’t have relocate. Right now two schools have emerged as the favorites. “Wake Forest and N.C. State,” Williams said. “I guess it’s because they are close to home and I told [the coaches] I want to be close to home.” However, Williams said that while he has offers from both the Deacons and the Pack, he also possesses OFFERS from Kentucky, Clemson and CINCINNATI. He’s going to make an unofficial visit to N.C. State on June 19. From there, he’s going to visit Clemson later in the same week and plans on making a drive to Cincinnati sometime in July. Two weeks ago, he visited the campus of Wake Forest. In other words, he’s making the rounds. Williams plans on playing at the Nike All-American Camp and with the Raleigh Heat in some selected events. However, he’s not going to be everywhere this July because he has work to do in summer school. The 6-9 Williams is a monster of a prospect. His mother says he’s down to 290 from 311 and he looks good. He’s moving better and was also a strong catch and score guy in the paint.

Williams on Wake Forest: Basically, that’s a good school because it’s small. It has a good facility and the class sizes are small. On N.C. State: The good thing about State is you get a tutor for every freshman class you have. (Note: He’s less than 20 miles from the N.C. State campus)." - BlueChip Hoops (4 to 3)

6/6: "Trimmed down Eric Williams is a priority for NC State. He lives about 20 minutes from the Pack's campus. Wake Forest was the first school, under Odom, to offer Williams a scholarship. Staying close to home is a priority and NC State was the second school to come in and offer a grant (unless Clemson snuck in and offered just before the Pack). The Pack is working him extremely hard and they could be tough to beat in this one." - BlueChip Hoops

5/30: "The 6-9 C/BF is an understated warrior around the basket. He battles for offensive rebounds. On multiple occasions this weekend he came up with multiple-self-tip O-boards. Scores on post moves here and there, but that's not his bread and butter. Nice free throw stoke indicates presence. Just a huge presence who rebounds and blocks shots and gets a lot of things done." - PrepStars

5/28: "Props to Eric for shedding all kinds of weight; he looks great and isn’t done yet. He didn’t receive the kind of touches he’s used to, but when he did he was effective and efficient." - BlueChip Hoops

5/28: "The big guy has trimmed some fat off of his body and is a force to be reckoned with in the paint. He's strong as an ox down low and has very soft and relaible hands. He rebounds very well and is more mobile than I remembered him to be. His shot needs work, and if he can hit the 12-15 footers with consistency -- look out." - ACC Today

5/25: "Confidence was all that stood in the way of Wake Forest Rolesville High (N.C.) junior Eric Williams. The 6-foot-9, 290-pound forward/center never had it — until one day last season. Williams went up against future McDonald’s All-American Rick Rickert and scored 29 points while holding the Duluth East High (Minn.) and Minnesota-bound forward to 12 points. “In the first half, I was nervous,” says Williams. “But in the second half, I realized I had a bigger body and got him fouled out. I just went to the basket every time.” Ever since then, Williams’ confidence and his game have soared. He held his own against N.C. State-bound power forward Levi Watkins and thinks he can play with anyone in the nation — including his Raleigh Heat AAU teammate, Shavlik Randolph. “Shavlik’s a really good player,” says Williams. “But on the inside, I think I’m just as good as he is.” Williams is tough — no, make that virtually impossible — to stop under the hoop, and he is working on his shot from 12 to 15 feet. He shot an astounding 85 percent from the field last season while averaging 22 points, 15 rebounds and three blocks per contest. He’s looking at Wake Forest, N.C. State, Cincinnati, Clemson, Virginia and Kentucky. “I’ve been coaching for 30 years and have never had a kid like this,” says Rolesville coach Chuck Hess. “I feel like I’m 25 years old again. Eric is just a specimen. He’s got no body fat on him and already has the body to play in the NBA. And he can run the floor like a deer.” - School Sports

5/17: "Eric Williams is not just a big man in terms of the position he plays on a basketball court. He is really a BIG man. The 6-9 center at Wake Forest (N.C.) Rolesville High School tips the scales at about 295 pounds and has been up to 311. When he posts up, no one moves him. When he sets a pick, it's like a brick wall. Williams is one big guy who will not end up on the perimeter. He is, however, quite agile. He can move. He is not a blob. He is an athlete. "Eric has the body right now to be able to play after college," Rolesville coach Chuck Hess said in projecting Williams' NBA future. "He has really firmed up and matured physically. He has transformed into a man the last three months. He is a bigger version of Elton Brand." Williams has been a varsity starter since his first game as a ninth-grader. He averaged 10 points and five rebounds as a 6-5, 250-pound freshman. The numbers shot up to 18 and 11, respectively, as a sophomore. This past season, he scored 22 points and grabbed 15 rebounds per game, adding three assists, two blocked shots and two steals. He made an astounding 85 percent of his field goal attempts and sank 75 percent of his free throws. "He was close enough to dunk for most of his shots," Hess said. "He stayed down low where we wanted him. Eric had games where he didn't miss a shot. When he did, he was usually fouled." Williams began the season by throwing down a career-high 41 points and snatching 19 rebounds in 28 minutes at Raleigh Millbrook. He went on to be a unanimous choice as Tri-8 4-A Conference player or the year after leading WF-R to its third straight league championship and a 23-4 record. He was runner-up for that honor as a sophomore. "Eric has a jump hook with his right and left hand," Hess said. "He has nice moves around the basket including a Kevin McHale up-and-under, and he can hit a jump shot from 15-17 feet. He is very quick. As strong as he is, Eric leans on a defender and freezes him. Only someone with his strength and size can defend him. At this level, he can't be stopped." Williams has a nine and three-fourths inch hand -- he can palm one of those over-sized basketballs off the dribble -- and a 46-inch sleeve. He bench presses 350 pounds. "He is a very good passer," Hess said. "He is as good as Bill Walton was at finding cutters from the high post. Eric is a tremendous outlet passer. He can take the ball off the dribble and throw a baseball pass the length of the court and hit a teammate in stride for a layup. He can catch a rebound while in the air, turn and make a good, strong outlet before he comes down. "He really runs well, coming down the court like a wide-open race car. And his endurance is fine. He played 32 minutes in most of our games that were close. Many times, he came out early because we had big leads, or his stats could have really been something." Against Raleigh Leesville Road and Florida State signee Anthony Richardson, Williams scored 29 points and grabbed 15 rebounds. Richardson had 15 points and nine boards. Williams has played second fiddle in the Raleigh area to super prospect Shavlik Randolph of Broughton High School. "They are joining our conference next year," Hess said, "so Eric and Shavlik will go head-to-head twice, maybe three times counting the league tournament. That should be something to see." Clemson, NC State and Wake Forest are the ACC schools "going crazy for him," according to Hess, who said every school in the conference has shown interest. Connecticut, Louisville, Kentucky, Tennessee and CINCINNATI are also recruiting him hard. Williams has a 2.3 grade-point average and is awaiting results of his first SAT attempt." - ACC Today

5/10/01: 48th best junior in the USA. - School Sports.com

5/10: #31 ranking. - PrepStars

5/9: #49 Junior. "No fuzzy math here, get him the ball near the basket and he punches it in. He doesn't have a lot of lift, but he's a true space eater with big hands." - Sporting News

5/3: "Remember Robert "Tractor" Traylor from Michigan? You know who I'm referring to -- that big, strong and relentless ox of a center that owned the low post for the Wolverines? Well, the state of North Carolina has a similar prospect in the junior class, he's Eric Williams from Wake Forest-Rolesville High School in Wake Forest. And he's a 6-9 low-post beast. This big guy is a nightmare to guard when he's within 10 feet of the basket. Why? Because he's a big, heavy and strong kid -- probably 300 pounds or more. And he uses all of those 300 pounds to score inside, secure rebounds and push folks around like the playground bully. Williams recently told Michael Kruse from Prepstars.com and ACCToday.com that he's received SCHOLARSHIP OFFERs from NC State, Wake Forest, Clemson, CINCINNATI and Kentucky. And while he's planning to play in the ACC or close to home, we think his stock could rise some this summer, because he's improved his agility a bit and is reportedly working on his footwork in the paint -- which are his two most glaring weaknesses at this point. He'll play alongside Shavlik Randolph with the Raleigh Heat this summer." - ACC Today

4/24: "Eric Williams of the Raleigh Heat, a hefty 6-9 C from Wake Forest (NC) Wake Forest-Rolesville, said Saturday morning that he's gotten scholarship offers from N.C. State, Wake Forest, Clemson, Cincinnati and Kentucky. South Carolina, he added, has shown a lot of interest since Dave Odom left Wake for Columbia. Williams' dad lives in the South Carolinian town of Georgetown. "I want to play in the ACC or stay close to home," the big guy said. Williams took the SAT for the second time earlier this month." - Prepstars (with help from Lance)

- the PrepStar article doesnt say >when< the scholly was offered. It could have been offered in the Fall of 2000.

4/12: "Shavlik Randolph will play most of the time with the Raleigh Heat club team. The squad, which also includes 6-9, 300-pound Wake Forest-Rolesville junior Eric Williams and 6-3 Leesville Road junior Shawan Robinson, already has qualified for the AAU national U-17 tournament at Disney's Wide World of Sports near Orlando, Fl" - Raleigh News & Observer

2/24/01: "Wake Forest-Rolesville got a huge game from 6-foot-10, 311-pound junior center Eric Williams. Williams scored 10 points in the first period and finished with 29. He helped the Cougars take a 52-43 lead with 2:34 left on consecutive three-point plays. - Raleigh News & Observer

1/6/01: "Wake Forest-Rolesville and Garner each battled foul trouble, but the Cougars got enough minutes out of big man Eric Williams down the stretch to hold off the hard-charging Trojans, 61-58, in a Tri-Eight 4-A Conference showdown. Wake Forest is 10-3 and 3-1, while Garner is 8-1 and 3-1. "It was a war," said WF-R coach Chuck Hess. "You've got to give it to Garner. They played well and played tough. They got Eric in foul trouble early, and I pulled him because I knew it was going to be close, and we'd need his high-percentage shots in the fourth quarter, and he made them." - Raleigh News & Observer

1/3: "Eric Williams, Wake Forest-Rolesville's humongous center, may be the only one who wasn't surprised by his dominant play in the Glaxo Wellcome Holiday Invitational last week. Quite frankly, he expected to play a little better. Williams, a 6-foot-9, 300-pound junior, was named the most outstanding player in the U.S. Challenge portion of the tournament. Williams squared off against 6-10 center Rick Rickert of Duluth (Minn.) East in Wake Forest's first game in the tournament. Rickert is ranked among the top dozen prospects in the country, but was outscored 23-17 by Williams and fouled out trying to defend him as Wake Forest won, 68-37. Each of the centers had 12 rebounds. In the Challenge final, Williams had 27 points and 11 rebounds in a 62-53 loss to Rockville (Md.) Montrose Christian, one of the country's top 20 teams. "I think I played well, but not any better than I thought I would," Williams said. "I think I could have played better. I tried to come out and show my real potential. I needed to catch the eye of the recruiters." He played well enough that recruiting analysts such as Brick Oettinger and Bob Gibbons were praising him in their national forums. "I think the colleges knew about Eric, but this was a big tournament for him for the exposure," said Wake Forest-Rolesville coach Chuck Hess. "He showed that he could play well against the national teams, and he showed that he could go the entire game playing hard." Williams, who has 42-inch sleeves and huge hands, has been known nationally, but with a figurative asterisk. His evaluation often has been great hands, good feet, runs all right, strong, surprising quickness for a man his size, could be great if he'd lose 50 pounds, needs more endurance. "I have lost five pounds," Williams said. "I want to lose some more to be quick on my feet, but I'm just a big guy." During the Glaxo tournament, Williams played hard throughout, something he didn't always do while playing beside Broughton's 6-10 junior Shavlik Randolph this summer on the Raleigh Heat AAU team. The club was state runner-up and finished sixth in the national tournament in Detroit. Williams, a junior, had received some preliminary inquiries from several schools before the tournament and is most interested in N.C. State, Clemson, Cincinnati, North Carolina, Massachusetts and Kentucky, although he understands it's too soon to know how serious any of them are about recruiting him.
Hess said he believes Williams is just scratching the surface of his potential. "Eric is 16 years old, and he'll only be 17 when he graduates," the Wake Forest coach said. "He is still maturing physically." Williams is a native of New York and moved to this area from Chicago. He made the Wake Forest varsity as a freshman and sparkled at times last year. Williams scored 40 points in his first game this season, but had battled custom defenses much of the year before the Glaxo. "People are doubling down on me, sometimes tripling down," he said. "I'm trying to find the open man and hit him. We've got a good team and we're getting good guard play. We're going to need to play well in the conference." The Cougars face a key Tri-Eight game Friday when undefeated Garner visits Wake Forest-Rolesville. Williams plans to play with the Heat again this summer and to attend the ABCD camp in Teaneck, N.J., but he has more immediate goals. "We need to win all of our conference games, because the league looks really tough," he said. - Charlotte N&O

1/2/01: "WF Rolesville (1-1): Lead by 6’7 behemoth PF/C Eric Williams (26ppg, 9rpg), this squad gets excellent play from their guards and gets the big guy his touches inside. 6’3 SR WG Nathan Davis provides a good outside touch to open things up inside and compliments Williams very well." - High Major Hoops

12/31/00: "Wake Forest-Rolesville's 6-foot-9, 300-pound junior Eric Williams likely will shoot up on the recruiting charts after his 23-point, 12-rebound performance in a 68-37 victory over Duluth (Minn.) East and its 6-10 Rick Rickert. Williams used his strength and size to get Rickert (14 points, 12 rebounds) into foul trouble. Williams has soft hands, a huge body and long arms. Some recruiters were questioning his stamina, but he played progressively better during the game. Williams had 27 points and 11 rebounds in a 62-53 loss to Rockville (Md.) Montrose Christian in the final of the U.S. Challenge portion of the Glaxo Wellcome Holiday Invitational." - Raleigh News & Observer

12/30/00: "Montrose Christian star Levi Watkins, a polished 6-foot-7 N.C. State recruit, did not know much about Wake Forest-Rolesville's 6-9 junior center Eric Williams before the tipoff of the U.S, Challenge championship game Friday night. But Watkins and his Mustangs teammates found out Williams and the Cougars were very worthy opponents after Montrose took a hard-fought 62-53 win. Watkins, the tourney's Most Valuable Player, scored 26 points and had 11 rebounds. But Williams, the Most Outstanding Player award winner, proved just about unstoppable under the basket. He scored 27 points and pulled 11 rebounds." - Raleigh News & Observer