Washington Huskies Basketball: Nigel Williams-Goss Will Be A Star
The headline is a bit sensationalist. I get that. It’s the sort of headline people wrote about Abdul Gaddy when he came in, and it’s the kind of headline that created the inflated expectations that haunted him throughout his mediocre career. If people had just written “Abdul Gaddy Should Contribute Solidly” we might all have been alright with his four years on campus.
And yet there it is, on purpose. I don’t mean to put extra weight on the shoulders of Washington’s most high-profile 2013 recruit. I don’t mean to say that he’ll be a star from Day 1, or even that he’ll be a star in Year 1. I’m simply stating an opinion that I’m confident in: Nigel Williams-Goss will be considered a star by the time he leaves the University of Washington.
One of the biggest reasons for my confidence? The path NWG chose for himself in high school has prepared him extremely well for the life of a college basketball player. From Portland originally, he went off to uber basketball academy Findlay Prep as a freshman. By his sophomore year, he was starting on a team composed almost entirely of D1-bound athletes playing against the finest basketball schools in the country. As far as strength of competition, level of coaching experience and intensity, and travel schedule, Williams-Goss has been prepared for the college game in the best way possible. Oh, and while at Findlay Prep, he put together a 4.0 GPA and earned a scholarship offer from Harvard, which he seriously considered accepting. Instead, he intends to double major in psychology and communications at Washington.
During his senior year he averaged 18 points, 7 assists, and 5 rebounds a game. His team went undefeated and finished the year as the best prep team in the nation. In their marquee win over then-#1 Montverdge, NWG scored 18 of his 26 points in the 4th quarter and finished with a game-winning buzzer-beating three. He is a floor general focused on creating plays for his teammates up until the moment his teammates need him to take over and finish.
The stellar season earned him a spot in the McDonald’s All-American game, where his team won and he played very well alongside the best players in the country. Next he earned a spot on the USA U-19 team. He started at point guard and his team won a world championship. Starting to see a pattern? NWG has been at every turn prepared to play against and win with high-level college talent.
Why should his time at Washington be any different? While I obviously can’t be certain, I believe that NWG will earn the starting point guard spot as a true freshman. I believe he will play very efficiently despite fairly low scoring, as his largest contribution will be running the offense and making crisp passes to setup teammates. Let’s say 10 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds. As the season goes on, he will improve and he will be more and more comfortable stepping up to score in clutch time. By his sophomore or junior year (I don’t see him as a one and done) he will be one of the best point guards in the conference and in the country, and that fact will be most clearly reflected in the success of the team relative to the talent level of NWG’s teammates.
I could be wrong, and if NWG goes the way of Gaddy, I’m sure this article will be thrown back at me. But honestly, I’m not too worried.