It must’ve been a strong-ass offer.
Will Wade strengthened his first roster at North Carolina State immensely Thursday when he and his staff scored a commitment from former Texas Tech forward Darrion Williams, who picked the Wolfpack over Kansas.
Yep, that dude. That dude who nearly single handedly stopped Florida’s run to a national championship in the West Region finals.
Williams helped the Red Raiders build a 10-point lead over UF late in the second half by scoring 13 of his 23 points, but the Gators rallied in the last three minutes behind the 3-point shooting of Walter Clayton Jr. and Thomas Haugh to win an 84-79 decision.
In 34 games for Texas Tech, Williams averaged 15.1 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.3 steals per game. The 6-foot-6, 225-pound Sacramento product made 43.9 percent of his field-goal attempts, 34.0 percent of his 3-pointers and 83.6 percent of his free throws. He was a first-team All-Big 12 selection.
In a 77-64 win over Drake in the Round of 32, Williams drained 11-of-18 FGAs and scored a game-high 28 points against the Bulldogs. He also recorded six rebounds, two steals and five assists without a turnover.
Texas Tech trailed Arkansas 69-59 in the Sweet 16 at Chase Center in San Francisco until Williams scored a bucket in the lane with 3:21 remaining. After the Red Raiders got a defensive stop, Williams’ layup cut the Razorbacks’ lead to 69-63 with 2:40 left.
After both teams traded 3-pointers, Williams missed a 3-pointer with 1:19 remaining. However, he made up for it four seconds later with a steal. Next, Williams found Christian Anderson for a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to three with 1:07 left.
After a defensive stop for Texas Tech, Anderson was off on a potentially tying trey. The Red Raiders were forced to foul Arkansas with 27 seconds remaining, but Jonas Aidoo missed the front end of a one-and-one opportunity.
That’s when Williams buried a 3-pointer to tie the game at 72-72 with nine ticks left. Arkansas guard D.J. Wagner’s potential game winner was no good, forcing the game into overtime.
In the extra session, the Hogs and Red Raiders combined for only three missed shots and one missed free throw. There were five ties and six lead changes.
Texas Tech’s JT Toppin hit a jumper to give his team an 81-78 advantage with 1:41 left. However, Trevon Brazile knocked down a trying triple 17 seconds later. Next, Toppin made another jumper that Wagner answered with a layup to tie it up at 83-83 with 34 seconds remaining.
That’s when Williams responded with a go-ahead layup with seven ticks left that proved to be the game winner, sending the Red Raiders to the Elite Eight for just the third time in program history and the first time since 2019.
Williams spent his freshman season at Nevada, where he started 30 of 33 games and played an average of 30.5 minutes per contest. He averaged 7.6 points, 7.3 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.4 SPG, earning Mountain West Freshman of the Year honors.
After transferring to Texas Tech for the 2023-24 campaign, Williams averaged 11.4 points, 7.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.2 SPG. He hit 49.4 percent of his FGAs, 45.8 percent of his 3-pointers and 87.5 percent of his free throws. Williams was named to the Big 12 All-Newcomer Team and was a third-team All-Big 12 choice.
Evan Miya, a college hoops analytics guru, had Williams as the #1 player in the portal on his website. According to the 247Sports Composite, the five-star transfer was the #6 overall player in the portal and the #2 power forward.
The 247Sports Composite now has NC St. with the #14 overall recruiting class, with Wade’s seven transfer-specific imports ranked #12. Williams joins six others from out of the portal, including four-star transfers Terrance Arceneaux (Houston), Jerry Deng (FSU), Tre Holloman (Michigan St.), Quadir Copeland (Michigan) and Alyn Breed (Michigan).
Wade also has four incoming freshmen, including a pair of four-star prospects in guard Matt Able and power forward Zymicah Wilkins. The 247Sports Composite has the 6-foot-5 Able ranked as the nation’s #28 overall player in the 2025 class, while the 6-foot-8 Wilkins is ranked #96.
FanDuel has NC St. with 60/1 odds to win the 2026 NCAA Tournament. Those are tied for the 25th-shortest odds on the board, and they’re the fourth shortest among ACC teams. Duke is the 10/1 ‘chalk,’ while Louisville and UNC are at 16/1 and 40/1, respectively.
In this week’s Bets & Ballgames podcast for Southeastern 16, my co-host Jay Greeson and I discussed Williams to NC St. and Boogie Fland to Florida among other transfer portal items in the opening minutes of the show.
I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day Weekend! If you wish, you can follow me on Twitter right here.