Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Reports: Former VCU signee, four-star shooting guard, trims list to two

Kenny_Williams_I_think_medium

Jon Lopez/Nike

Jonathan Lopez

It goes without saying that the coaching carousel impacts recruiting, and that’s been the case for former VCU signee Kenny Williams. One of the best shooters in the Class of 2015, Williams’ request to be released from his National Letter of Intent was granted by new VCU head coach Will Wade earlier this month.

Since then he’s been targeted by a number of programs, and on Wednesday the Chesterfield, Virginia native trimmed his list down to two schools.

North Carolina, which was a finalist for Williams when he originally committed to VCU, and Virginia remain in the running for the shooting guard as first reported by ESPN.com. Williams will officially visit Virginia, which lost Justin Anderson to the NBA Draft earlier this month, in the near future.

Both teams can use a shooter of Williams’ caliber even with the amount of perimeter talent they return in 2015-16. For North Carolina, Marcus Paige was their best perimeter shooter in 2014-15 and another player who can make those shots would relieve some of the pressure on him next season. As for Virginia, the Cavaliers lost their best perimeter shooter in Anderson and the addition of Williams would be a nice supplement alongside Malcolm Brogdon.

The two schools no longer in contention for Williams’ commitment are Florida and Michigan, and their departures make sense. Florida is now looking for a new head coach with Billy Donovan taking the Oklahoma City Thunder job. As for Michigan, while Austin Hatch’s move to a medical scholarship freed up an athletic scholarship (Hatch doesn’t count towards the 13-scholarship limit) they’re still in the running for five-star small forward Jaylen Brown.

Michigan showed interest in Williams but had yet to offer, likely due to the undetermined status of Brown.