B.J. Williams was one of the best defenders of the Roy Williams era, considered a defensive stopper off the bench. He had very quick feet and could play great post defense and also guard impressively on the perimeter. Roy Williams often had B.J. sub for superstar Raef LaFrentz late in games for his defense since he had much quicker feet than the future No. 3 pick in the 1998 NBA Draft.
Williams starred at Wichita South High School, leading South to the state title his senior year in 1993 (25-0 and outscored foes by an average of 37 points per game) while also named the Kansas 6A Player of the Year and Gatorade Player of the Year in Kansas. A two-time consensus all-state selection, Williams averaged 16.4 points and 6.5 rebounds per game his senior year while shooting a scorching 69 percent from the field.
Williams’ high school teams combined for a 90-6 record during his four-year career, while the 6-8 forward finished his prep career with 1,163 points, the No. 3 all-time scorer behind Ricky Ross (former Jayhawk) and Val Barnes.
Blessed with a 32-inch vertical leap, Williams overcame asthma as a youth.
From the 1995-96 KU Media Guide
Favorite Book: “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.”
Favorite KU class: “Sociology.”
Person in history I would like to converse with: “My first ancestor.”
Favorite sports hero: “Magic Johnson.”
Best player I have played against: “Richard Scott.”
If I were president of the NCAA for a day, I would: “Allow players to get paid.”
If I had one million dollars, I would: “Buy my family a new house.”
My advice to kids is: “Keep your priorities straight.”
To get psyched up for a game, I: “Listen to music and think about where I come from.”
My biggest thrill in sports was: “Beating UConn by 29 points last season.”
Years from now, I’ll still laugh about the time: “Greg Ostertag ran over his foot with his own van.”
From the 1996-97 Media Guide
Best movie I’ve ever seen: “The Color Purple.”
Best book I’ve ever read: “Pride and Prejudice.”
Favorite class at KU: “Colonial Latin American History.”
Person in history I would like to converse with: “Frederick Douglass.”
When I played basketball as a kid, I pretended to be: “Julius Erving.”
The best athlete I’ve played against: “Ray Allen.”
Ten years from now, I hope to be: “Celebrating the 10th anniversary of KU’s NCAA title.”
My biggest thrill in sports was: “Beating Oklahoma State for the conference title.”
The toughest thing about being an athlete is: “Determining who your real friends are.”
If were the head coach for a a day, I would: “Start all the walk-ons.”
If had one million dollars, I would: “Give one million people one dollar.”
Years from now, I’ll still laugh about the time: “I had to run sprints because I laughed at a teammate.”
My prized possession is: “My daughter Jaiden.”
The impressive thing about coach Williams is: “His willingness to stand behind you.”
Williams spoke to me in 2003 about his early childhood basketball memories and his recruitment to Kansas.
“I think I started playing on my first team when I was 5. I wasn’t very good. Not at all. I didn’t even make the all-star team. I remember that. It was with the Salvation Army Biddy Basketball. When I was 7, my next-door neighbor was always playing. He wasn’t very good, but he was older than me. He had a basketball goal, so I’d go over there and shoot and play at his house. I was always playing with the older kids. When you play with older kids, they beat you up and you get better. I noticed when I got up there, I wasn’t tall by any means. I was still short. I was a short kid. Just playing, just continuously playing. He was always trying to make his junior high team and high school team. He never made the team, but he was always outside practicing playing, so I’d go over there with him. His name was Jeff Cunningham, and he was about five years older than me.
“I was recruited by UCLA, University of Cal Santa Barbara, Stanford, Oklahoma State, KU, K-State. There was Nebraska. There were quite a few. There was Alabama, who I liked. I only took one visit. I visited KU and that was it. I chose KU over Alabama and St. Louis. I just knew Steve (Woodberry, fellow Wichita South High graduate) went there (KU), and he enjoyed it a lot. He talked about it quite a bit. With Steve talking, I had more of an insight on a coach than I would if I had visited someplace else. I knew Steve growing up as a kid and everything, and I respected his opinion I think more than I would any of these other coaches telling me what you want to hear. I rather hear from a friend how a coach really is. He had some good things to say about the coaching staff, and he had some bad things to say about them. I respected him. That was a deciding factor, just the atmosphere and the players. I met Richard (Scott) through Steve, and they told me a lot about the school. Steve was three years older than me. He played Biddy Basketball, too, as a kid. I was always in the lower age bracket. Coach (Steve, longtime coach at Wichita South) Eck was a big part of me knowing him, I think.”
Here is the Where Are They Now? story I wrote on Williams in 2003 for Jayhawk Insider.
By David Garfield
B.J. Williams admits he was a little overwhelmed and shocked when he first arrived at Kansas for his freshman basketball season in 1993.
A heralded product from Wichita South High School, Williams quickly found out how much more athletic and physical the college game was. It was here in Allen Fieldhouse where the skinny 6-8, 200-pound Williams got a hands-on Basketball 101 lesson from rugged 6-7, 235 pound senior forward Richard Scott every day in practice.
“I’ve never faced a player tougher than him since I played against him,” Williams said. “He probably helped me out the most. That helped me concentrate on my defense, because I never wanted Richard to score. He was a good friend of mine, and we always hung out. But I hated for him him to score. He would always talk a little trash, especially at the first of the year, he and Steve Woodberry would. That motivated me, I guess, to focus more of my attention on stopping Richard.”
With Scott’s and, of course, coach Roy Williams’ teachings, Williams eventually blossomed into a defensive standout for Kansas. He now ranks No. 11 all time at KU in career blocked shots (112). Not too bad for a player who averaged just 15.5 minutes per game during his Jayhawk career (1993-97). With great scorers on board like Scott, Raef LaFrentz, Paul Pierce and Billy Thomas, Williams looked for other ways to make a name for himself.
“I took it upon myself to mold myself into a defensive player, where I could impact a game without making a basket or making a great assist,” Williams said. “I got a high after blocking a shot or playing good defense. ... We all took pride in our defense more so than our offense. One of our rules was always defense takes care of your offense.”
And Williams loved his supporting role coming off the bench and backing up stars Scott and LaFrentz at power forward. An athletic player, Williams also had the quickness to guard opposing team’s small forwards.
“I think I actually had it better than them (Scott and LaFrentz),” Williams said. “We always had a scouting report on a player, but you never really know what they can do and what their abilities are until you actually see them. I actually had more of an advantage than Richard and Raef did because I got to see the players go up and down a couple of times before I would come in and see how they’re moving and how they’re posting up, or how they’re getting the ball or what kinds of screens they’re setting. So when I would come in, I always had a mindset knowing how he’s going to try and get open. I enjoyed it.”
Indeed, he did. Williams also relished playing on winning teams. KU went an astounding 115-21 during Williams’ career, including three conference championships, three Sweet 16 appearances, and one trip to the Elite Eight. The 1996-97 team was extremely talented. With LaFrentz and Pierce leading the way during Williams’ senior campaign, KU went 34-2. The quest for a national championship, though, fell short with a loss to Arizona in the Sweet 16.
“I really thought, especially my senior year, that we had the team that was good enough to win it all,” Williams said. “I still think that we let coach Williams down a little bit. ... I watched them Monday (NCAA championship between KU and Syracuse) and I wanted so bad for him to get his first one (title). I still think in the back of my mind that we were the team that should have done it.”
The former Jayhawk (career averages of 3.7 ppg and 3.4 rpg) felt blessed with the opportunity to play for coach Williams.
“He’s a great guy,” Williams said. “He’s very much like a father figure while you’re at school and sometimes even when you’re out of school. He’s easy to talk to. He’s very personable.”
Williams also cherished teaming up with guys like Vaughn, Pierce, LaFrentz and Pollard — names which now adorn NBA rosters.
“It’s a family,” Williams said. “People look at them as superstars making lots of money — celebrities. But I still see them as people that I can talk to. Just friends.”
Within this prized family, each player had their own niche off the court. So what was Williams’ specialty?
“I was always the guy that was talking,” he said, “and it didn’t matter who you were or what you did, I was going to say something about what you were wearing, what you were doing, or how you were acting or what you looked like. That was just what I did. Sometimes it got me in trouble. Sometimes, I didn’t choose the best times to make a smart-aleck comment.”
Like the time he made fun of Pollard when the 6-11 center shot an air ball during practice. Williams
laughs now when recalling the scene.
“I said, ‘That’s zero percent right here.’ Then coach Williams blows the whistle and has someone get the stats on me and checks my shooting percentage. He says a few comments, and then I’m on the line running. He could never tire me out. I could run sprints forever.”
After his storybook collegiate career ended in 1997, Williams continued playing basketball overseas (Finland, Taiwan, China and France) until 2001, when he returned home to Wichita to spend more time with his children — daughter Jaiden, now 7, and son Jarrin, 4. He had a good experience with professional basketball, although Williams said it was an adjustment of sorts.
“It’s just a business,” said Williams, who averaged over 20 points per game. “There’s not very much fun to it. You win games, they played you. You lose them, they might not say a word to you. ... Over here, it’s so much more of team game. Over there, it’s more of, ‘You’re an American. You have to do this (score) or you go home.’”
Upon coming back to Wichita in 2001,Williams first was employed nine months with a law firm doing administrative work. He then changed jobs and worked in the pharmacy department for St. Francis Regional Medical Center for six months before accepting a job this past month with the Mental Health Association of south central Kansas. Williams monitors special education children with behavioral disorders. The Wichita native reaps the rewards and satisfaction of seeing a lonely kid light up a room with a smile.
“They’re all fun,” Williams said. “They’re always happy. It’s just in some cases, they don’t get enough attention from their parents. Or they don’t look the same as other kids in school, so other kids make fun of them It just sets them apart from other kids and makes them feel alone. I go into the school and I’ll just sit with him while they’re in class, maybe help them with their homework. ... It’s more about being a friend to the kid and making him feel that he’s not alone.”
While it’s been about one year since he last picked up a basketball, Williams said he’s ready to move on with life. He doesn’t miss playing that much, just the camaraderie with his teammates.
“I just want to fit in for once,” Williams said. “I don’t want to be the tall guy, I don’t want to be the basketball player who used to go to KU. I just want to fit in. I don’t want people to look at me any different than they would somebody else. I want them to want to hang around me because I’m a nice person, not because of where I went to school at.”
Williams, though, is certainly proud to be a Jayhawk. He knows how far he’s come since first landing at Mount Oread and battling against Scott in practice.
“I wouldn’t change one thing about it,” Williams said. “I wish I could go back and do it again. I had such a great time.”
A Closer look at B.J. Williams:
Years at KU: 1993-97
Career Notables: Played in all 136 games for KU... 1996 Big Eight All-Bench team...’96 Clyde Lovellette Most Improved Player Award...Career-High 18 points vs. Arizona on March 22, 1996 in the Sweet 16...Career-best 4.8 ppg in 1996...No. 11 all time at KU in career blocks with 112...Member of three conference championship squads (1995-97)...CBS Player of the Game vs. Indiana on Dec. 10, 1994...CBS Player of the Game vs. Tennessee-Chattanooga on March 17, 1994...CBS Player of the Game vs. Arizona on March 22, 1996.
Family: Williams, who is divorced, has a daughter, Jaiden, 7, and son, Jarrin, 4.
Education: 1997. B.A. Sociology.
Since Leaving KU: Williams played professional basketball overseas until 2001, when he returned home to Wichita. He then worked in a law office, was employed in the pharmacy department for St. Francis Regional Medical Center, and just this past month, accepted a job with the Mental Health Center of south central Kansas.
Currently: Williams is a children’s attendant care worker for the Mental Health Center of south central Kansas.
Hobbies: Watching TV.
Favorite Memories: “I miss mostly the camaraderie and friendship that we had, just the whole family atmosphere. It was great. I miss that probably the most, the kidding around in the locker room, the kidding around in practice, and of course, the games and fans.”...The wrestling matches during road trips. “The best one I think we ever had was C.B. (McGrath) and Jerod (Haase). They were roommates. We moved the bed (in hotel room) out of the way, and they just wrestled. It was hilarious. There were head locks. People getting slammed on the bed and everything. Just everything that was fake in wrestling, they were trying to do. It was funny.” ...Beating UCLA at Lawrence on Dec. 1, 1995 (85-70) and defeating the Bruins at Los Angeles on Dec. 7, 1996 (96-83). “We were down (in Lawrence), and we all rallied together. Just the whole arena rallied behind us. It was one of the greatest things I’ve ever been in, as far as fanfare and us coming together as a team, everyone working for a common bond. We wanted to win. And the game at UCLA was when we actually had their fans booing at them at halftime.”...Beating Oklahoma State at home for the conference championship on March 5, 1995. “It was kind of a frenzied atmosphere. I remember Greg Gurley hitting a three-point shot and getting fouled. Just seeing his facial expression. That game, the atmosphere was unbelievable. It was senior day on top of that. It made it worthwhile just seeing our seniors go out and seeing Greg Gurley’s face after he hit that shot and got fouled.”
On the Jayhawks today: “They get up and down the court a lot faster than we did. I don’t think they play as good as defense as we did. They score a lot more points than we did, and they score in a lot of different ways, too.”
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