Indiana's Troy Williams has never stopped running
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BLOOMINGTON -- Patty Williams' only son learned to walk at an early age, but what came just weeks later surprised her even more.
Troy Williams started running. And he didn't stop.
When he was five, after several errant swings in his first tee-ball at-bat, he finally connected, and Williams took off — to third base. Patty shouted that he needed to run to first, so Williams did as he was told, taking the straightest path he could find by cutting across the pitcher's mound.
Now a sophomore forward at Indiana, Williams has always moved at whatever was his fastest speed, even if it meant making a few mistakes along the way. It's come to define him on the basketball court.
"He's always played with that type of energy," Patty said.
Sometimes that's a problem, and sometimes it's a blessing, turnovers and thunderous dunks going hand-in-hand for one of the Big Ten's most electrifying players. One opposing coach described him by saying "he almost doesn't have a conscience," before adding "that's a good thing sometimes."
Sometimes, he's out of control. And sometimes, he's uncontrollable. He walks this line, because for Williams, there's never been another way.
"I told Troy a long time ago, 'That's what separates you,' " said James Daniel, Williams' coach for three varsity seasons at Phoebus High School. " 'Don't take your gift and take it to the norm, with everybody else. That's your gift. Keep it for you.' "
LOVING THE GAME
At Virginia's southeastern corner, where the York and James rivers meet at Chesapeake Bay, is an area known as Hampton Roads. Several smaller towns form a rambling municipality that has produced elite athletes in nearly every major sport.
Allen Iverson was born in Hampton, Michael Vick in Newport News. Alonzo Mourning grew up in the area. So did Justin and Melvin Upton.
"Good ain't good enough in this area," said Boo Williams, Troy's uncle and one of the most well-known men in grassroots basketball, said. "We have so many great players."
Troy Williams' family didn't push him into basketball. He didn't even love it at first, but it eventually grabbed him.
He lived in Hampton with his grandmother and his mother. Boo provided a strong male influence, with Troy's father absent.
Together, they guided him.
"Around here, we have a lot of kids who have great potential," Daniel said. " What separates the ones that make it and the ones that don't is their support system. With Troy working as hard as he did, and with Boo Williams supporting him, his grandmother and his mother, you just know he was gonna have success."
Except that wasn't always guaranteed.
Williams' athleticism was natural, and he sprouted from 5-11 to 6-7 in a span of four years. Skill did not automatically accompany the growth spurt.
"Troy wasn't always the best player," said Terri Williams-Flournoy, his aunt. "But he always played hard."
Williams-Flournoy, now the head women's basketball coach at Auburn, remembers her nephew stealing a few minutes on the court between halves at a girls AAU tournament. Once bitten by the basketball bug, Williams would work wherever he could.
After spending his eighth-grade season on Phoebus' JV team, Williams moved up to varsity the next year, but he barely played.
Exclusion drove him. When he returned to Phoebus as a 10th-grader, his game had changed. He was more refined, more polished and ready to play far more than he watched.
"He really blossomed," Daniel said.
On a team with five future Division I players, Williams was the leading scorer.
A HEAVY NAME
Troy wasn't pushed into the family sport, but once he jumped into basketball, the attachment to Boo was inevitable.
Boo Williams played at Phoebus, and then at St. Joseph's in Philadelphia. After a professional career, he began the Boo Williams Summer League, a precursor to a grassroots basketball program that now counts more than 165 teams under its umbrella.
His AAU program's alumni list would make an NBA playoff team; Iverson, Mourning, J.J. Redick, Jarrett Jack, Joe Smith and more. Boo Williams' name is attached to 135,000-square-foot sports complex in Hampton. It hosts an annual Nike-sponsored tournament every spring, featuring some of the country's best prospects.
"(Troy) got labeled," Williams-Flournoy said. "That's Boo's nephew. If you're Boo's nephew, you have to be good."
Recruiting analysts took notice, and Troy took off. Soon, he was ranked one of the best players in his class.
Schools started calling — North Carolina, Kentucky, Villanova, Louisville — but it wasn't their attention that got into Troy's head. It was the famous last name he carried.
Troy tried too hard. Made mistakes. Let them compound. Slipped in the rankings. Programs backed off.
"You can't continue to try and be this player that you're not, just because of the name that you're carrying," Williams-Flournoy said.
Troy realized that. He doubled his work ethic, and began to shed himself of self-made pressure.
At the same time, his family made a decision he didn't like.
His grades weren't bad, but as Patty put it, "Troy considered making a C as good." His family did not.
Boo spoke with Steve Smith, the head coach at Oak Hill Academy, a prestigious prep school in rural southern Virginia — six hours from home.
Family-centric Troy didn't like it, and his mother knew sending him away would be hard on her. But the family understood: At Oak Hill, Troy would have to work hard in the classroom, and being surrounded by other elite players would sharpen him on the court.
It worked. Those Cs became As and Bs. The recruiting attention returned in earnest. And he stepped out of his famous uncle's long shadow.
"I used to be known as Boo's nephew. Now I'm finally known as Troy," he said.
SCOTTIE TRIPPEN
John Lucas has another name for him.
Lucas, a former NBA player and coach, has worked with Troy since his junior year at Phoebus.
"My nickname for him is Scottie Trippen," Lucas said, chuckling. "Almost Scottie Pippen. He has that kind of feel to me. He's going to be able to get rebounds, make plays."
That's the billing Williams lived up to at Oak Hill, where in one season, he averaged 16.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, four assists and two blocks per game. On a team of stars, he did a little bit of everything.
"He was one of our best players, obviously, if not our best player," Smith said.
Oak Hill challenged Williams. Away from his friends and family, would his gregarious personality persist?
As he did at Phoebus — and as he would later do at Indiana — Williams lit up games with his highlight-reel athleticism, but also with his passing, his shot-blocking ability and that indefatigable motor.
"He made the same plays, bringing energy to the team," said Sindarius Thornwell, now a sophomore guard at South Carolina.
Indiana entered Williams' recruitment late, so coach Tom Crean did whatever was needed to make up ground.
During a tournament in North Carolina, Crean called Boo from a Big Ten coaches meeting. When did Troy's game start, Crean asked? Boo told him, knowing it would conflict with Crean's schedule. That was usually when coaches told Boo they would be sure to catch his player next time.
Instead, Crean got on a plane. Things got serious. Troy visited Bloomington for Hoosier Hysteria.
"I think what really changed Troy's mind about Indiana, to make him feel good about going there, was when he went to Hoosier Hysteria," Patty said. "I said, 'How did you like the school?' He said, 'Mom, I felt like a superstar. They were chanting my name.' "
Williams started every game his freshman season. He jumped and rebounded and blocked and dunked and won freshman of the week once. He also turned the ball over, made 6-of-29 3-pointers, struggled with consistency.
But he never stopped running.
'OWNERSHIP'
Williams hadn't been glued to the bench since the ninth-grade season that so motivated him. But he needed a different kind of growth last November.
He was suspended for the first four games of Indiana's season — two exhibition and two regular-season — after failing a drug test. Crean made him and two other suspended teammates watch from the locker room. Even the bench was off limits.
"It made me take ownership of my mistakes," he said of his suspension. "I've just learned more of what it means to be an Indiana basketball player."
Just as the benching had done in ninth grade, Williams returned to become indispensable. He scored in double figures in the first nine games of his sophomore season, including a 22-point, 11-rebound outing in IU's win over Butler in Indianapolis in December. He had another double-double in IU's win over Ohio State on Jan. 10, and 21 and nine in a victory at Illinois eight days later.
Indiana is 19-10 and on course for the NCAA tournament. Williams turns the ball over less and scores it more. He's become pivotal. The Hoosiers have won just once in league play without him scoring in double figures.
Williams' easy-going personality makes him a popular teammate, yet in the last year, he's become more serious, more demanding.
During a pregame shootaround in January, he caught the eye of Big Ten Network analyst Stephen Bardo. Williams was shouting, instructing, teaching.
"When," Bardo asked Crean, "did Troy start leading like that?"
NEVER STOPPED RUNNING
An unfortunate casualty of Williams' on-court exuberance is balance. Put simply, he falls down a lot.
When Patty's scared he has hurt himself, she grabs her ears. She doesn't know why. Her son will call her after games and tell her he knows the exact moments she grabbed her ears, and not to worry.
Family has always been important to Williams. Someday, he'd like to provide for his mother and grandmother through basketball, and that day might be soon. His name is starting to appear in mock drafts, some even pegging him as a potential first-round pick this summer.
He says he's unconcerned about anything other than Indiana's next game (Tuesday, against Iowa), but Lucas sees what scouts do.
"Athletically, he's already a pro," Lucas said. "Defensively, he's got pro capabilities. He's got to continue to improve his shot and he's got to continue to get the slow down a little bit more. That comes with maturity."
A degree will come first, if grandmother has any say.
"Grandma is from the old school," Boo said. "That degree is more important to her than anything."
Like her son, though, Patty is just focused on his next game.
She won't talk on the phone while Williams is playing. Her attention doesn't break from the pinwheeling, careening, high-flying human momentum changer she raised. From Hampton, to Oak Hill, to Indiana, she's watched him grow, as a basketball player and as a person.
"He's matured a lot," she said.
One thing hasn't changed.
Williams took a hard fall after a mid-air collision during the first half of Indiana's win over Minnesota on Feb. 15. Patty grabbed her ears. Her son sat out the last four minutes of the half.
But he came back in the second. Hit a 3-pointer. Grabbed a rebound. Committed a turnover, then a foul. With 51/2 minutes left, some poor soul left the back side of the rim open, an opening Williams split through to slam home a jaw-dropping dunk.
Mostly, he never stopped running.
Follow Star reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.
Troy Williams
Sophomore forward
6-7, 215 pounds
Hampton, Va.
Sophomore stats: 13.7 ppg, 7 rpg, 1.9 apg, 57.7 FG percent
Best game: 22 points, 11 rebounds in 82-73 win over Butler
Not just a hoops family: It's easy to identify the Williams family with basketball, because of Boo, Troy and Terri. But Troy says it's not all hoops. He has an uncle, in fact, who works at the Pentagon.
Road not taken: When he was young, Troy Williams' family introduced him to football. Long and athletic, even before a high school growth spurt, he looked like a future wide receiver. There was one problem. He hated it. "I don't like to hit people," he told his mother, "and I don't like people hitting me."