Recruiting Report: Jihar Williams (2017)

T.J. Rushing

November 5, 2015 @ 08:00 PM

<h2>November 5, 2015</h2>Friends wing Jihar Williams had an eventful offseason playing with Maryland 3D, and played well enough to garner his first two Division I offers. The first school to offer was Loyola (MD) in late-July, followed by American in late-August. The cerebral and skilled junior has been hearing from a bevy of additional programs who may be next to follow American and Loyola’s lead. “I have a bunch of other interest from; Mount St. Mary’s, La Salle, Princeton, Dayton, William & Mary, Brown, USC, Towson, Robert Morris, Yale, and Davidson still,” said Williams, who mentioned which schools may be next to offer. “I’m not really sure, but I know Davidson was really strong on me, I think they want to see my grades before they get too far into my recruitment. And then William & Mary calls me about every week.” While he was honing his skills with Maryland 3D this spring and summer, the 6-foot-5 wing mentioned his versatility as a player was something he wanted to see improve. “Most of the spring and summer I worked on my ball-handling and switching my game up to being more than just a 3-point shooter and more of an all-around player. I’ve added the ability to drive to the basket and passing, and I can bring the ball up the court. I feel like all that will help me going into my junior season,” said Jihar. “Basically I want to be an all-around player. I want to make the 3 consistently, and I want to be able to get top the bucket and finish at a consistent rate. I also want to continue to work on my post game, a lot of times I have smaller guards defending me, and I want to be able to post them up.” As he heads into his junior season with junior season with the Quakers, Jihar says he’ll have to up his scoring. “I feel like this year my role will be a scoring role. I’ll probably have to score 20 or more a game, I’ll have to shoot 3s, I’ll have to drive, and also get my team involved,” he said. “Most likely I’ll play small forward and maybe power forward. I’m the second tallest guy on the team, so I’m OK with that.” <h2>May 19, 2015</h2>A sharpshooting 6-foot-5 wing for Friends, Jihar Williams recently finished his sophomore season, but is already receiving some Division I attention. “Right now I’ve got interest from Davidson and Boston U, so far that’s it. I’ve gotten some letters, and then Davidson has talked to my coaches.” The 6-foot-5 shooting guard averaged 16 points per game for Friends during his sophomore season. And after playing with Baltimore Supreme in year’s past, and a short stint with Team Melo, Williams has found a home with Maryland 3D, “With Baltimore Supreme I was playing very good but it didn’t really fit in well for me, and then I went to Team Melo, but they had a really deep team and I was really far down on the bench and not really playing that much,” said Williams. “So then I decided to switch to Maryland 3D, and I feel more comfortable with them. With Team Melo I was only playing like 6 minutes a game, but now I’m a player on Maryland 3D that can really help them win.” The talented shooting guard -- PHM’s 30th-ranked 2017 -- says he’d like to develop more as ball-handler this offseason. “This summer I’m trying to work on my ball-handling, during the season it wasn’t as strong as I wanted it to be, so that’s one thing I’m working on right now. And also my strength and explosiveness needs to get better, I’m working on that,” said Williams. “I would actually like to work on my point guard skills, I really think it would help me with my recruitment, so that’s what I’m really looking to improve this summer with Maryland 3D.