It’s not necessarily his worst nightmare, but being trotted out to center court all by his lonesome is not Donte’ Williams’ idea of a good time.
But, that scenario awaits Williams on Wednesday night. He’ll be the lone senior honored by the Georgia Bulldogs in Senior Night ceremonies before the Mississippi State game.
“My prevailing thought is that he is the most unselfish, unassuming player and that he won’t want the attention,” Georgia coach Mark Fox said Tuesday. “I’d imagine he’d prefer the attention be on our team and he not be the lone senior.”
“Unselfish” was the most common description given for the 6-foot-9 forward from Atlanta, who will play his final regular-season home game at Stegeman Coliseum. Known as “Tay” to coaches and teammates, the three-year starter has played in 119 games. He has averaged 5.2 points and 5.3 rebounds this season, and 4.8 points and 4.1 rebounds for his career.
“There’s a little bit of emotion,” said Williams, who started 27 of the Bulldogs’ previous 28 games this season. “But at the same time, I’m just trying to get the win. That’s the most important thing, trying to get the win.”
It’s an important game for Georgia (16-12, 10-6 SEC), which remains in sole possession of third place in the conference. With two games remaining before the SEC tournament, the Bulldogs are one game ahead of Arkansas and Tennessee. The top four seeds get a double-bye into the quarterfinal round of the SEC tournament next week at the Georgia Dome.
The problem is both the fourth-place teams hold a tiebreaker over Georgia. So the Bulldogs may have to win Wednesday and again Saturday at LSU to be secure a double-bye. Georgia will be favored against Mississippi State (13-16, 3-13), which it took down 75-55 in Starkville three weeks ago. But it will be an underdog in Baton Rouge.
So you’ll have to forgive Williams if he’s not exactly feeling nostalgic. He did his best Tuesday to be reflective.
“It’s like I just got here yesterday and now I’m leaving,” said Williams, who graduates with a degree in consumer economics in May. “So it just goes by so fast. … I’ve been feeling the time coming basically since SEC (play) started. I knew we had a certain amount of home games until I’d be done. So I kind of knew it was coming. But it’s not that big of a pressure.”
Williams being the lone senior is a matter of circumstance. He signed in 2010 in a class that included Sherrard Brantley, Cady Lalanne and Marcus Thornton. Brantley was a sopohomore transfer and graduated last year. Lalanne was denied admission and now is a productive senior on a pretty good team at UMass. And Thornton has endured three knee surgeries the past three years and was granted a sixth year of eligibility after the last one sidelined him for all but six games last season.
“These last four years have been great, and I really enjoyed playing with Tay,” said Thornton, who has known Williams since they were 13 and playing against each other in AAU ball. “That will probably be the hardest thing about next year, not playing with Tay. It’ll be tough. But it’s been nice to be in school with him and play with him for four years. Hopefully we’ll send him out with a win.”
The biggest adjustment Williams has had to make at Georgia is not winning championships. He came to UGA from Miller Grove High, where his team won consecutive state championships and hasn’t stopped winning them since. The Wolverines are going for their sixth consecutive title this weekend when they face Warner Robins in the state finals.
“I’d say Donte’ has had a pretty solid career at Georgia,” said Miller Grove coach Sharman White, who went 53-9 with him at center. “I think he’d probably like to do a lot more and have a little more success than he’s had winning games. But overall I think he’s satisfied with his time there.”
Said Williams: “Everything happened the way I expected. I mean, I just wanted to play basketball and have fun and wherever it takes me, it takes me. That was my whole thing.”
There have been high-water marks. He scored a career-high 17 points in a win over Kentucky last year, had 12 rebounds against Nebraska earlier this season and has narrowly missed several double-doubles the past month. He also has 132 career blocks and invariably leads the team on defense.
“He’s just always functioned in a very unselfish way,” Fox said. “He doesn’t mind doing the dirty work. He doesn’t mind not getting as many shots as other people. He’s been an unbelievable teammate.”
For Williams, his career highlight predictably was a team one. He spoke of Selection Sunday his freshman season in 2011, when the Bulldogs learned they would play in the NCAA tournament.
“I really appreciated that chance,” he said. “I just want the guys on this team to experience the same thing, to get the opportunity to advance and keep playing in March.”
A win over Mississippi State will be a step in the right direction.
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