No more idle time
Growing up on the south side of Seattle, Kellen Williams sat through his share of timeouts – especially at home, where he shared space with his twin brother, Marc, and three sisters, including another set of twins, Robin and Sonelle.
“It got crazy around there, and I was in trouble most of the time,” said Williams, a fifth-year senior forward for Eastern Washington University and the Eagles’ only returning starter. “I was the one who usually had to stay inside and watch while my brothers and sisters played outside.”
These days, Williams spends precious few moments sitting and watching – not because of the disciplinary issues that plagued him as a child, but because of his value to Eastern’s young, short-handed men’s basketball team.
“Kellen is a guy we simply have to have on the floor,” said first-year coach Kirk Earlywine, whose Eagles (6-9 overall, 1-0 in the Big Sky Conference) will attempt to gain sole possession of first place in the conference standings tonight when they entertain co-leader Northern Arizona (9-5, 1-0) at 7:05 at Reese Court. “I’d like to rest him more, but he just means too much to our team.”
The numbers tend to support Earlywine’s assessment.
Through 15 games, Williams is averaging 12.7 points, 8.9 rebounds and 35.3 minutes for an Eastern team that was gutted during the off-season by player defections that included the early departure of sophomore standout Rodney Stuckey for the NBA.
In last Saturday’s 58-51 non-conference loss to UC Santa Barbara, the 6-foot-4, 205-pounder, who played only two years of high school basketball, finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds to post his seventh double-double of the season. He did it with the same no-flash, blue-collar effort that has come to characterize the one-time role player, who averaged just 8.4 points, 5.6 rebounds and 23.4 minutes as a junior.
“A friend of mine saw our most recent game (against UCSB) and said Kellen might be the most effective player without a game that he’s ever seen,” said Earlywine, who named Williams his team captain prior to the start of the season. “And he might be right.
“Kellen’s not a great driver, Kellen’s not a great post-up player, Kellen’s not a great ball-handler and he’s not a great shooter. He really doesn’t have a defined game, and yet is still very, very effective.”
According to Williams, he simply does what needs to get done.
“I’d rather dunk more, sure, but I don’t get too many opportunities for that,” he said.
Because of EWU’s shortage of experienced post players, Williams has been forced to play out of position at the power forward spot. In an ideal situation, he would probably be a third or fourth scoring option on the wing, but at Eastern he has become the Eagles’ main offensive threat, as well as the main focus of opposing defenses.
In the process, he has forced his own personality on an Eastern team that has already won more games than most thought it would.
“He’s made this his team,” Earlywine said of Williams, an admitted introvert, who continues to work on his social skills. “And I don’t think that’s something that comes simply as a directive from the coach.
“Those things evolve on their own, and Kellen has made this team his not only with his performance, but with his work ethic in practice, in the weight room and throughout the off-season.”
It wasn’t until his junior year at Franklin High School that Williams participated in basketball.
“It was something that came late, I guess,” he said. “I wanted to play in high school, but I never had the grades until my junior year.”
Williams split time as a junior and senior attending Franklin and Seattle Urban Academy, a nearby alternative school, in hopes of earning a basketball scholarship to Eastern. But he wasn’t able to make up for his earlier academic deficiencies and ended up playing one season at Highline Community College, where he averaged 20.5 points and 11.7 rebounds.
The following year, he enrolled at EWU but was not allowed to practice with the team because of NCAA academic requirements. He spent that winter working out with Stuckey, who was also a partial academic qualifier.
“I think I lost some of my bounce that winter – my jumping ability went the other way.” Williams said, “But it was probably good for me to sit out and work on my game and my grades.”
Now Williams is on target to graduate with a degree in communications – after he does everything in his power to get the Eagles into the Big Sky Conference tournament.
“I still feel I have to lead by example and show my teammates the right things to do, not only on the court, but it the classroom and weight room, too,” said Williams, who said he is not surprised by the Eagles’ better-than-expected record. “I had a couple of guys telling me we wouldn’t win more than five games this year, and we’ve already won six.
“And if we put in the work, we’ll come out with a lot more than that.”