Ziaire Williams has officially committed to the Stanford Cardinal.
The 5-star small forward made it official with his decision on Easter Sunday, declaring his “1000% confident and committed” status on Twitter.
Williams is the nation’s No. 1 ranked small forward and consensus fifth-best player overall for the 2020 recruiting cycle. He stands 6’7 and 175 pounds, with plenty of room for strength and growth while at Stanford.
According to his 247Sports evaluation, he stands to be a high NBA draft lottery pick and has significant professional potential.
Significant physical upside with plenty of room to gain strength. Athletic wing with good size and decent length. Easily should be able to play both big three and small-ball four at college level. Smooth stroke with ability to hit threes off the catch and pull. More of a one- and two-dribble pull-up shooter than slasher, but has quick first step and good touch around basket. Has multi-positional defensive upside. Adding strength and improving ball skills/aggressiveness will take game to the next level. Easy high major talent with significant NBA upside.
He’s a member of the McDonald’s All-American Game and plays his high school ball at Sierra Canyon High School in Chatsworth. Williams narrowed his list to a top seven and set a commitment date of Easter Sunday, April 12. True to his word, Williams’ commitment came at 1:30 p.m. local time, choosing the Cardinal over Arizona, North Carolina, USC, UCLA among others.
He becomes the highest-rated player on the Stanford recruiting class of 2020 that now includes four players including the No. 1 player in Nebraska and the No. 4 player in Nevada. Head coach Jerod Haase is building quite a class so far.
More to come on this developing story and future member of the Stanford basketball team but for now, bask in the glory of this incredible highlight tape he teased with his commitment date.
Go Card!
Comments
Pieces are in place, now get to work
Unlike football, there will likely be a college basketball season. Shortened, for sure, but a season nonetheless. Assuming Terry pulls out of the draft (which is likely), Haase has assembled a solid group. So what can be done to insure an NCAA tourney bid (finally)?
1. Hasse has to rework the offense. In ten of the losses this year, the team scored under 70 points (under 60 in 4 of these). This stemmed from many things: the inability of the players to set good screens, sloppy turnovers, weak post play, and the absence of dependable three point shooters. But the main reason was that Haase’s offense was totally predictable by the time the PAC 12 season rolled around. You knew where everyone was going, making it very easy to defend. Add in some avenues for spontaneity (with and without the ball). Add in effective outside ball screens.
2. Add discipline on offense. Stanford played excellent man to man defense last year and you can’t do that without players committing to it and hustling at all times. But on offense, the same players would lose their concentration repeatedly. Davis, 84 turnovers, De Silva, 80, Willis, 57, Delaire, 36, Kisunas 39, Terry 43. Those are terrible numbers, caused often by ill-advised, forced passes and inattention to defenders.
3. Learn how to shoot free throws. Davis: .633 , Willis, .606, Jones, .696%, Keefe, .375%!, Kisunas, .417%. On a well-coached team, no players with substantial minutes should shoot less than 70%. And it is not enough just to tell them to shoot more in practice. Coaches need to diagnose why each player is missing (it is one or more of three things: trajectory, direction, or distance), then fix it.
4. Work on 3 point shots. Stanford is weak in the post, but has forwards who can score inside. So you have to open the middle up by being a good 3 point shooting team. And good means at least 40%. Right now Davis is at .322 , Willis, .147!, Delaire, .286%, De Silva, .317%. Coaches, same as with free throws: diagnose why they miss, then fix it.
5. Teach them how to rebound. Dennis Rodman (yes, that guy) wrote a great article years ago for Sports Illustrated about how to rebound, particularly when you can’t simply out jump the other players. Anticipation, positioning, boxing out, charting where opposing players usually miss. {Oh, and Haase, keeping you team in place when you are shooting free throws.) Right now, Terry averages more rebounds per game (4.5) than 6’9" Delaire (2.4), 6’7" Jones (3.2), 6’9" Keefe (2.0), and 6’10" Kisunas (2.8). Clearly the bigs don’t know how to rebound.
6. And last, but not least, DEVISE AN OUT OF BOUNDS PLAY. It’s not that hard. John Wooden has an excellent one in his book: two lined up in line with the player taking it out of bounds and the other two perpendicular a few yards back. It is simply impossible to keep the ball from being inbounded, as there are dozens of options. But do something. That SC game was a nightmare.
The addition of Zaire will help a lot; he is that good. But he is not enough to put this team into the NCAA’s. That will take a total team and coaching effort.
By SU74 on 04.12.20 2:47pm
Great comment...
It’s time for Haase (and his staff) to show he can coach.
By Ed Halicki on 04.12.20 6:22pm
Agreed
His recruiting is great, but the results on the court have been sub-par. You look at what Pikiell did at Rutgers with a far less talented team in a far better conference, and you start getting impatient…
By JYTLM on 04.12.20 6:48pm