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Former central Illinois prep standout, Williams, heads to Europe to continue basketball career
Last season, as a redshirt senior for Indiana State, Christian Williams was named to the MVC All-Defense Team. (Courtesy: Christian Williams)

Former central Illinois prep standout, Williams, heads to Europe to continue basketball career

DECATUR, Ill. (BVM) — Former St. Teresa basketball star Christian Williams is following his passion and continuing his basketball career at the pro ranks as a point guard in Luxembourg.

During his senior year of high school, Williams helped lead St. Teresa to its furthest tournament showing in 2015 with a Class 2A state runner-up finish. In a heartbreaking defeat, the Bulldogs lost the championship by only six points. At 6-foot-6, Williams was a dominant force on the court and played a crucial role on the team, averaging 19.1 points and 8.7 rebounds for St. Teresa that season and became the Bulldogs’ all-time leading scorer (1,587 points) in the process.

Christian Williams is the all-time leading scorer for St. Teresa boys basketball with 1,587 career points. (Courtesy: Christian Williams)

Williams’ play in high school led to him being heavily recruited with numerous universities offering him a basketball scholarship, such as Saint Louis, UW-Green Bay and Bradley. Illinois and Minnesota had also expressed interest in recruiting St. Teresa’s leading scorer. Ultimately, Williams decided to play in the Big Ten at the University of Iowa. Williams said that the Hawkeyes had been his first choice since he had visited the campus as a high school junior.

“Right away it felt like that’s where I needed to be,” said Williams, who has attended an Iowa football game and a couple of basketball games in the last two years. “The organization felt like a family.”

However, after completing two seasons at Iowa, Williams went through a difficult decision-making process. He chose to transfer to Indiana State due to a lack of playing time his freshman and sophomore year. Despite this, Williams stated that he doesn’t regret anything about his time at Iowa and his decision to transfer certainly wasn’t a simple one.

“I’m not the one to kind of give up and quit on anything,” Williams said. “I always try to push through. My mom has always been that way and she’s always harping on me that once you commit to something you’ve got to finish it off. That was the biggest decision there.”

Williams’ former high school basketball coach, Tom Noonan, even drove to Iowa City to discuss the decision with Williams and help him plan out his next steps.

“I just wanted to have a bigger role — a role that I had at St. T where I could be the guy on both ends of the score,” Williams said. “Be that defensive stopper, then also go down on the offensive end and do what I do best and score the ball and make plays for my teammates.”

Another crucial factor that played a part in Williams’ decision was a major hip surgery he had just days before making the announcement to transfer to Indiana State. Per NCAA rules, Williams was required to miss the 2017-18 season due to his transfer. Unfortunately, this meant that Williams had to wait 21 months for his opportunity to play in another college basketball game. During that time, he took six months to focus on rehab for his hip while also learning about his new teammates’ chemistry on the court in addition to watching vast amounts of game tape on himself from high school and his time at Iowa.

Although he wasn’t able to travel with the Sycamore squad during his waiting period, once Williams was released to practice again, he utilized every minute with the team to get back to being the basketball player he was pre-surgery.

Even during college breaks when Williams was back visiting his hometown of Decatur, he could be found shooting hoops at St. Teresa’s gym in the early morning hours before classes began.

At Indiana State, Williams found success in his first game as a Sycamore against TCU and recorded a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds. The next year, his final college season, Williams was named to the Missouri Valley Conference’s All-Defense Team.

While Williams’ college career was an unconventional one, his time off the court during his rehab and transfer period left him hungry to continue his career outside of the college realm.

“I got an agent in early June and he started advertising me and putting out film to teams,” Williams said. “Luxembourg was the only team that was willing to let me play the position that I wanted to play at the next level. They told me they would play me at 35-plus minutes at point guard and that’s exactly what I wanted.”

Williams commented that he expects the style of play to be vastly different from what he has experienced on his former high school, club or college teams. The European style will involve more “team ball” instead of working the ball to one specific individual.

Williams said that the opportunity to play in Luxembourg is taking him one step closer to his ultimate dream: playing in the NBA.

“My dream ever since I was little was to play in the NBA,” Williams said. “I won’t stop working towards that dream until I do so.”