Granted I think all the players gutted out a very tough game and played well, but I have to give a shout out to Jaylin Williams. His vision and passing from the FT line made a huge difference on the offensive end and he just seemed to grab a RB on the defensive end every time we needed one.
Seriously, man. I usually agree with you. But if you watched Jaylin Williams in that second half and thought, ya, but he was the only Hog with a negative plus/minus, I mean, woof.
I think that’s because he seems to play a much different offensive game when he plays alongside Smith, i.e., when Smith’s not in the game Williams plays more of a true 5 on offense. So, his offensive rhythm was off. But, his defense was stellar, along with a couple nifty passes.
Jaylin was fantastic in this game. He gave us exactly what we needed to win this game. 10 boards and 4 assists in 28 minutes. Those assists were 40% of our total team assists. He also played great interior defense. He made a huge difference on both ends of the court.
We wouldn’t be here without him. I know we won without him, but we also lost because we didn’t have him. In the big scheme of things this last half of season and in post season JWill is as a valuable as any right now.
He had four assists, which was a lot more meaningful in the game than the fact he was 0-4 shooting. Tech’s defense is designed to keep people out of the middle, so the fact he got four assists while playing most of the game at either the foul line or down low was a nice plus, on top of the good rebounding.