Fort Smith Northside's Williams continues sprouting up

Ft. Smith Northside sophomore big man Jaylin Williams.

— There are a lot of great young high school basketball players in Arkansas, but not a wealth of post players.

One of the few is Fort Smith Northside sophomore Jaylin Williams (6-9, 215 pounds), who is playing at the Real Deal in the Rock this weekend with the Arkansas Hawks’ 15-and-under team.

“Last year went really well for me,” Williams said. “To start with, I grew 3 inches and I think I really progressed a lot. I picked up how I needed to play on the high school level and what I needed to do to help the team.”

Williams was 6-2 in the eighth grade, 6-6 in the ninth and grew to 6-9 this season.

“I wasn’t too sure about being taller than everybody else at first, but I know it helps me in basketball so that’s a good thing,” Williams said.

Williams averaged 7.4 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.4 blocked shots (including 8 in one outing) per game as a sophomore for the Grizzlies, which finished runner-up in Arkansas' largest classification, 7A.

“I think my biggest strengths are my post game and especially my defense,” Williams said. “Defense is one of my best things and I think I have a good mid-range game and I’m smart. There’s a lot that I continue to work on and I will.”

Northside was led by Arkansas signee Isaiah Joe (6-4, 180), who averaged 22.8 points per game this season.

“Isaiah is a great player, a great scorer and a great leader,” Williams said. “We played great as a team and got to the championship game, which nobody thought we would do, nobody thought we would get back there.”

Arkansas, Oklahoma State and Lamar are among teams showing interest in Williams.

“Arkansas is a great school and they are getting better as you can see," Williams said.

The Hawks raced to a 26-0 lead en route to a 62-18 win over Life Changers in their first Real Deal in the Rock game Friday.

They followed that with a 90-21 win of Oklahoma Youth Group on Saturday.

“We are a really good team with a lot of talent,” Williams said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we bring home all the trophies.”