College Basketball

Iowa Basketball: Hawkeyes Need More From Christian Williams

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 11:13 p.m. ET

Fansided, Jeremy Karll/FanSided via Dear Old Gold

Jordan Bohannon is looking great as a starter, but Iowa needs more from Christian Williams

Despite a 5-5 start to the 2016-17 season, Iowa basketball should be thrilled by the play of their younger players. Three freshmen and a sophomore are starting for the Hawkeyes alongside Peter Jok, and Iowa expects Tyler Cook back in less than a week.

6-6 point guard Christian Williams, who started Iowa’s first six games, continues to struggle, though. Williams showed flashes of potential at the end of last season, but he’s been unable to build on it and looks overwhelmed at times this season.

Fran McCaffery opted towards moving him to the bench, and his playing times has decreased to just 10 minutes in close games after evenly splitting time with Jordan Bohannon to start the season.

Part of it is due to Jordan Bohannon looking great as Iowa’s starting point guard. Despite Bohannon still only shooting 30.2 percent from the field and 36.5 percent from three, his ability to run the offense and play tough defense buys his struggling shot time.

Besides, it’s not like Bohannon hasn’t shown any potential on offense. In his first two games as a starter, against Notre Dame and Stetson, he combined to shoot 13-of-27 from three (48.1 percent) and recorded at least 20 points and six assists in back-to-back games.

Bohannon has returned to Earth and only made 2-of-9 threes in Iowa’s past two games, but his defense and passing is still there. Plus, he still managed to score eight points against Iowa State, which is more than Williams has recorded all season.

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Barring an injury or massive improvement by Williams, the starting job is safely Bohannon’s this season. Williams’ couple games of extra experience from last season didn’t prove to help him, and he doesn’t even look like a rotational player at times, let alone starting caliber player.

Due to Iowa’s lack of options at point guard, Williams is safely locked in as Bohannon’s backup, but he has to improve for Iowa to be competitive in the Big Ten. The Hawkeyes don’t need him to be a star and stuff the stat sheet, but they do need him to be effective during his small stretches on the court.

Per 40 minutes this season, Williams ranks last on the team in points at and in the bottom-five of rebounds, too.

Point guards don’t need to be great rebounders, but at 6-6 on a poor rebounding team, Iowa expects more from Williams on the glass. He showed his potential as a rebounder in 24 minutes against Seton Hall as a starter when he grabbed five boards, but it has yet to surface again since.

The real issue comes on the offensive end. Williams came into the year known for his defense, but his defense hasn’t been good enough to help people ignore his ineffectiveness on offense.

Sure, he’s third on the team with 1.9 steals per 40 minutes, but he’s averaging less than a steal per game and hasn’t recorded one since moving to the bench. He hasn’t been bad, but let’s not act like he’s playing his way onto any All-Defensive Teams at the end of the year.

With solid but not great defense and lackluster offense, it makes sense why people question McCaffery whenever he puts him in. Of course, Bohannon has to rest and McCaffery hasn’t shown signs that he wants Peter Jok running the point for an extended period of time, which leaves Williams as the only option.

Williams doesn’t have turnover problems like Bohannon, but his 6.4 assists per 40 minutes, which ranks second on the team, can be deceiving. Whether on the perimeter or in the paint, Bohannon sets his teammates up for easy scores. The same can not be said about Williams.

He has flashes, just like last year, but not enough to warrant even 10 minutes of playing time. Besides his looseness with the ball when dribbling, Williams simply has a hard time being the floor general and running the offense. He looks overwhelmed against good defensive teams, which hopefully will go away with more experience.

It can also be traced back to his inability to find himself shots. Only Ahmad Wagner attempts fewer shots than Williams’ three per game this season. Even though Williams doesn’t have the same reputation as an outside shooter like Bohannon or Jok, he still has to be aggressive and force the defense to take him seriously.

It’s nearly impossible to be an effective point guard in basketball today without an offensive game, or at least being aggressive. It forces teams to pay more attention to him on defense and not be able to help as much onto a shooter like Jok or Cordell Pemsl in the paint.

It’s not to say Williams should jack up 15 threes like Bohannon did against Notre Dame, but right now he’s searching to pass too often and teams see that.

In 11 minutes against Iowa State, he attempted just one shot — a missed three-pointer. It was too quick of a shot where Williams noticed the defense sagging off, so he raced back to the three-point line for an open jumper.

Later in the game, he attempted two free-throws, but he ignored finding an open look the rest of the game otherwise. It’s telling of his offensive arsenal that mirrors a one-dimensional offensive player.

Also, owning the worst offensive rating and offensive plus-minus at 92.5 and minus-2.6, respectively, shows Iowa’s struggles on that end with Williams at the point.

Christian Williams has just 30 games and 269 minutes under his belt, so it’s not time to give up on him. Although, right now, it’s hard to take Bohannon out of the game for more than two-to-three minute stretches without the offense going stagnant with Williams at the point.

His athleticism, rebounding and potential as a passer are all reasons Iowa believes Williams has potential, but they need to see at least a glimmer of it this season. He doesn’t need to record double-doubles or even score in double-digits, but Iowa will struggle in conference play if they don’t have a reliable backup point guard.