Rutgers basketball landed a big potential part of their team on Saturday with the commitment of Austin Williams out of the transfer portal. Williams comes to Rutgers from FIU.
And while Williams didn’t play at FIU (more on that down below), this is still a significant move for Rutgers. There is now serious depth in the backcourt, the kind of depth that a team with NCAA Tournament ambitions will desperately need to withstand the slugfest that is the Big Ten regular season.
Williams, from Roseland, N.J., played his high school basketball at Seton Hall Prep (West Orange, N.J.). He committed to Marist before transferring to Hartford, then FIU and now to Rutgers for his final season of college basketball.
At 6-foot-4 and 200 pounds, Williams is a very good scorer, a solid rebounder and sound defensively. He checks a lot of needs for the Scarlet Knights, who lost all three of their starting guards this offseason.
Scroll down and learn five things about new Rutgers guard Austin Williams.
1. Austin Williams didn’t play last season
Last season was a tough one for Williams, who missed the entirety of his season at FIU with a knee injury. Williams committed to FIU in May following two strong years at Hartford.
Last season, FIU went 14-18 (8-12 in conference).
2. Austin Williams brings an impressive resume to Rutgers basketball
Prior to his season-ending knee injury, Williams was considered quite the grab for FIU out of the transfer portal. He averaged 16.1 points and 3.4 assists per game during the 2021-22 season.
Primarily used as a shooting guard or as a combo guard, he shot 50.0 percent from the floor.
He can drive, create his own shoot and is steady for three-point range. He is a good, sound addition to Rutgers.
3. Against top-tier competition, Austin Williams showed up well
Not only is he clutch, but Williams was consistently strong against some of the better teams in a very solid America East Conference.
While the Big Ten is going to be a big step up for Williams, he comes to Rutgers with a pretty good resume from his last season at Hartford in the America East Conference.
Against Vermont, the regular season conference champions, Williams went for 34 points and was 13-of-21 from the floor in a 75-74 overtime win.
Two weeks earlier against UMBC, the team that won the tournament championship that year, he scored 24 points. In the conference tournament, he put up 12 points against UMBC in an 80-60 loss that ended Hartford’s season.
4. Don’t let the injury fool you, Austin Williams has played a lot of minutes in his career
Williams played in 27 games as a senior at Hartford, averaging 32.8 minutes per game. As a junior, he played in 24 games with an average of 32.0 minutes per game.
He didn’t come off the floor often for Hartford, a sign of his conditioning and importance to the team. At Rutgers, he might see his minutes drop a bit due to the depth of the backcourt, but that should he keep him fresh come the stretch run of the Big Ten regular season and potentially the postseason.
5. At Rutgers, Austin Williams joins a crowded backcourt
Despite the offseason losses of Paul Mulcahy and Cam Spencer, both huge parts of Rutgers success last season, the Scarlet Knights might have a deeper and better rotation at guard this season.
Derek Simpson showed flashes last year of his potential, especially late in the season and during the Big Ten Tournament. The additions of Jeremiah Williams, Noah Fernandes and now Austin Williams means that Rutgers can rotate in a lot of players. There is good, legitimate depth this year in the backcourt for Rutgers.
Story originally appeared on Rutgers Wire
