Luke O’Brien has found a new place to live. And Cody Williams has officially declared that his short period residing in Boulder is over.
As anticipated, Williams announced on Monday his decision to enter the NBA draft, formally concluding an injury-plagued, one-year tenure with the Colorado men’s basketball program. O’Brien has chosen to utilize his extra season of eligibility given by the NCAA for the 2020-21 COVID season as a fifth-year player at Georgia Tech.
Williams participated in 24 games, sitting out 13 due to various injuries throughout the season. He ranked third on the team with 11.9 points per game, shooting .552 overall and .415 on 3-pointers (17-for-41). He averaged 3.0 rebounds and ended with 38 assists and 48 turnovers.
Williams was sidelined by injuries on four different occasions, particularly with a wrist injury that kept him out for seven games from early December through the first four Pac-12 Conference games. He also experienced an ankle injury that sidelined him for the final four games of the regular season.
The 6-foot-8 wing achieved a season-high of 23 points in a home victory against Oregon on Jan. 18, and he averaged 17.4 points in his first five conference games before the injuries took a toll. After starting in his first 18 appearances, Williams came off the bench for CU’s six games in the Pac-12 and NCAA tournaments, averaging 6.7 points with a .395 field goal percentage (15-for-38).
Despite the injury problems, Williams is still projected to be a top pick in the NBA draft when the event kicks off on June 26. It's expected that Williams could become CU’s highest-selected player in 14 seasons under head coach Tad Boyle, an achievement currently held by Alec Burks (12th overall in 2011).
O’Brien played in 111 games over four seasons with the Buffs, averaging 6.7 points with a .456 field goal percentage (both career highs) as a senior this past season. He is following the path taken by other previous four-year players at CU who used their additional COVID seasons elsewhere, like D’Shawn Schwartz (George Mason), Eli Parquet (UNLV), and Dallas Walton (Wake Forest).
With Williams’ departure now official, along with recent commitments from Colorado Mesa’s Trevor Baskin and former Washington State forward Andrej Jakimovski, Boyle and his staff still have two available scholarships to utilize in the upcoming spring.
