On every team, seniors are usually expected to lead the team and serve as mentors for the younger members. For Wolfpack men’s basketball, forward C.J . Williams, the only scholarship senior on the team, is that leader and mentor.
Williams, who averages 12.2 points and 3.9 rebounds for State, said he believes the knowledge he’s gained over the past four years fits in well with the younger lineup.
“On the court, I have a little more knowledge about the game because I’ve been through so much for four years now,” Williams said. “We’ve got a lot of smart guys on our team, so it kind of fits in.”
Williams’ clout as a leader is also high with first-year head coach Mark Gottfried . According to sophomore forward C.J . Leslie, Williams, along with sophomore point guard Lorenzo Brown, serves as a coach on the floor.
“I would say it’s both of their jobs,” Leslie said. “He knows that C.J . is older than the rest of us and he’s a very experienced player.”
A key quality for any leader is their ability to perform off the court and beyond the statistics – to do the intangibles necessary for any team to succeed, such as encouraging a teammate or providing reinforcement to push his teammates to the next level. Leslie said he believes Williams has done well in that department.
“Whenever he sees a player down he always comes over and tells them to pick it up, or gives them some advice or just tries to be a great teammate, which he is,” Leslie said.
According to Williams, he approaches each teammate with a different perspective on what type of reinforcement they will respond to.
“Different guys have different personalities,” Williams said. “I know there are some guys on our team that I can just [say] ‘come on man, we can’t afford that,’ but another guy will respond differently to that.
“I kind of learned that from my high school coach. He kind of talked me down a little bit; he handled us differently. He could yell at me, but he couldn’t yell at certain guys. Certain guys you just encourage them like ‘all right, you can get the next one,’ and there are some guys you just don’t say anything to the first time because they’re going to correct the mistake themselves.”
Another key role of a leader is to set an example off the court because, as an athlete, eyes are always watching. According to Leslie, Williams is a responsible man on and off the court, which helps him guide the younger players on the team.
“He’s a great leader,” Leslie said. “He’s a very responsible dude, and he gets along with everybody.
“With him being a senior this year, just having all of those years behind him as being a college player and a college student, he brings a great amount of responsibility to the team, and he helps other freshmen and the upcoming people.”
