FAYETTEVILLE — Over the last six weeks, Jaylin Williams has grown into one of the more valuable players in the Southeastern Conference.
Williams, a 6-10 sophomore, has impacted Arkansas’ success in that stretch in essentially every way. He has recorded eight double-doubles since Jan. 8 and scored in double figures in 12 consecutive games.
In the first 40 games of his Razorbacks career, he scored 10-plus points only three times.
Then there is his knack for being in the right position defensively and drawing charges. Entering Saturday’s home game against No. 16 Tennessee, Williams has taken 37 charges, and that aspect of his play has even spawned a "charges taken" graphic that is displayed on the video board inside Bud Walton Arena. It is consistently met with applause.
But at his size, perhaps the most intriguing part of his game is his influence on Arkansas’ perimeter shooting.
In the Razorbacks’ last 11 games, of which they have won 10, they have hit 14 of 29 three-point attempts immediately following a Williams pass. He has assisted on at least 1 three-pointer in 9 of those games, and 2 or more 4 times.
"I just try to make the right pass when I have the ball, not try to do too much, but not be passive,” Williams said. “I feel like I find (Stanley Umude) a lot on the three-point line. Me and him talk about that all the time how I always find him on skip passes or kick-out passes.
“I just try to make the right plays for the team. Whatever the team needs. If that's how it plays out, then I guess that's how it's playing out."
Since Arkansas’ first meeting against Missouri on Jan. 12, lineups that include Williams have shot 35.7% from three-point range, according to Hoop Lens analytics. That figure plummets to 23.4% in his 178 possessions off the floor.
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And when he has shared the floor with JD Notae and Umude, Arkansas’ leaders in three-pointers made, the Razorbacks have knocked down perimeter looks at a 39.3% clip.
Arkansas coach Eric Musselman said there are simple reasons why teammates have found success beyond the arc on Williams’ finds. His passes are routinely on the money, and they have the proper backspin.
“If I had to paraphrase it: on time, on target. He doesn’t throw balls,” Musselman said. “He throws strikes. Some players throw balls. I mean, they’re out of the strike zone, they’re out of the shooting pocket. He does not do that.
“A lot of guys throw a knuckleball. It’s really freaking hard to shoot a knuckleball that’s thrown at your knees. I mean, Ray Allen can’t knock down those three-balls that are knuckleballs that are thrown to the side, at the ear or at the kneecaps.
“(He puts them) shoulders to hip, right in that shooting pocket, which I think is really, really important.”
According to CBB Analytics, the Razorbacks’ three-point percentage on above-the-break threes and corner threes rise with Williams on the floor in SEC games. Arkansas hits 39.6% of its corner threes and 35.5% of all other triples when he plays.
Those numbers fall by 14.6% and 10.6%, respectively, when Williams sits.
In addition to hitting at least 1 three-point shot of his own in 8 of the last 9 games, the pressure applied to defenses by Williams as a rim roller helps create open shots for others, as well.
“We made a real conscious effort (at Missouri) to have him slip screens more and have him roll more, because we are – and he is — really comfortable with him picking and popping and then being a distributor,” Musselman said. “But he had some really big-time rolls and big-time slips to the rim that I thought opened up a lot of stuff for Stanley’s three-balls in the corners and even one of Devo’s threes.
“His game just keeps evolving in so many different ways.”