Riyan Williams

[FrazierFanatic]

When you lead the team in assists (even if it's only 3) in a Big East game at the Garden, you deserve your own thread. A pretty solid game, clearly been working hard, and we needed the minutes with a short bench.

But work on those free throws!

[HoyaFanNY]

great seeing him out there contributing. he is going to get time given how much our guards foul.

[seaweed]

Got to the gym late and came in while Riyan was pn the court. Frankly, i was confused who he was and what he was doing on the floor of the Garden as i surely did not expect to see him in this game so early. He played very well tho, active on defense and aggressive on O. Mourning also. The SJU fans around me seemed blown away when i explained that Alonzo and Reggie's kids were playing. Curiously, Mourning wss among the more vocal on D, seemingly frustrsted with the positioning of Campbell mostly but a few of the guys. Somebody wasnt on the right page and i dont know which plsyer it was, but Trey may know the schemes better than he can play the schemes.

I also sat with the sculptor who casts the large bronze statues for the BBall Hall of Fame. He showed me pictures of the life size bronze statue of Pops that he has created for the entrance to the Thompson Center aka Pop's House. He also said the school asked him to do a bulldog as well, hooefully not the same size as the Pops sculpture. Finally, he relsyed some stories from his ling relationship with the program and the hoops community in general. Smart guy, very nice and knowledgeable and a welcome distraction from the 50something Johnnies fans who, as others have noted, are alresdy starting to turn on Mullin.

[hoyalove4ever]

Very solid role player for limited minutes here and there. Lots of hustle and energy. Can he channel his dad for maybe, five minutes during the critical stretch of a key game? Maybe???

[tashoya]

From his limited minutes, it seemed to me that Riyan is the most agile guard on the roster in terms of his lateral movement. He knows his rotations far better than Tre. That, depending on the lineup, has value and warrants minutes against quicker opposing guards.

In a similar vein, at one point during the game, Govan literally pushed Isaac from behind to get out on his man on a blown assignment.

[Hoyas4Ever]

I think defensively, he looked very good especially laterally like Tas said. He looked much better defensively against St. John's then Tre really has all year. Their could be an emerging role Riyan to get a few minutes in terms of being an added defender. He is long, quick and agile. I know it was only 9 minutes and it was against St. John's but he did the best job of any Hoya so far this year in getting over the top and fighting through screens and recovering to his man in pick n roll situations.

I have a separate question regarding Riyan. Does anyone know if JT3 gave Riyan the open scholarship that we have like he did for John Caprio a couple season's ago?

[lurkerhoya]

Agree with the above, because I think depth is key for the ability to different looks. That said, the one knock was that terrible cross-court pass TO on an SJU press. One play, sure, but if you're going to get minutes, it can't be a whistle to the other team to switch up and target a weakness until you have to be pulled.

[hoyasaxa2003]

I know Riyan is a senior but this is only his third season playing. So, that means he could play another year as a graduate student, correct?

[Thomas]

I was looking at the verbal commits website earlier today/yesterday and saw that Riyan Williams will play for Goldey-Beacom College in Delaware as a gradate student. hoyasaxa2003 was correct. It wouldn't surprise me if he was one of the leading scorers for them. He was very good as a JR and SR at Carroll playing for his father, and probably could've got a lot of playing time at a lower level, but obviously he wanted to play at the same college that his father did.

www.gbcathletics.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=1474&path=mbball

[FrazierFanatic]

Riyan showed some definite ability last season, hope he has a great year!