Da'Monte Williams (born November 2, 1998) is an American former

professional basketball In professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, participants receive payment for their performance. Professionalism in sport has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larg ...

player. Williams previously played professionally for

U.D. Oliveirense União Desportiva Oliveirense (UDO), commonly known as Oliveirense, is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Oliveira de Azeméis, in Aveiro District. The club was founded on 25 October 1922. The main football team currently plays at the Est ...

. Williams played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

for the

Illinois Fighting Illini The Illinois Fighting Illini () are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The university offers 10 men's and 11 women's varsity sports. The University operates a number of athletic faci ...

of the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

High school career

Williams played his high school career at Manual High School, playing on varsity all four years. As a junior, Williams averaged 15.3 points, 5.9 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 2.1 steals a game as he helped lead Manual into third-place at the IHSA Class 3A State Championship. Individually, Williams was awarded the

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3A All-State First-Team, the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Class 3A/4A All-State First-team, the

Champaign News-Gazette Champaign ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 88,302 at the 2020 census. It is the tenth-most populous municipality in Illinois and the fourth most populous city in Illinois outside the Chicago metropo ...

Second-team All-State, and the

Peoria Journal-Star The ''Journal Star'' is the major daily newspaper for Peoria, Illinois, and surrounding area. First owned locally, then employee-owned, it became a Copley Press entity in 1996. In 2007, the paper was sold to Fairport, New York-based GateHouse ...

All-Area Co-Player of the Year. However, William's high school career came to an abrupt end after he tore his ACL in the fourth game of season. Williams signed his

National Letter of Intent National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

on November 9, 2016.

Recruiting

On February 28, 2016, Williams verbally committed to play

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

and

John Groce John Gordon Groce (; born September 7, 1971) is an American college basketball coach, currently the head coach for the Akron Zips men's basketball team. Prior to coaching for Akron, he was the head coach at Illinois and Ohio. Coaching career P ...

over offers from high-major schools like

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

and

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

. In March 2017, Williams remained committed to playing for Illinois after

Brad Underwood Bradley Cole Underwood (born December 14, 1963) is the current head coach for the Illinois men's basketball team. Previously, he served as head coach at Oklahoma State, Stephen F. Austin, Dodge City Community College, and Daytona Beach Community ...

was hired to replace Groce as head coach.

College career

In his freshman year, Williams played in every game but one and started three times, averaging 3.5 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 1.1 assists a game. In his sophomore year, he played in every game and made 18 starts, averaging 3.4 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 1.2 assists per game. In his junior year, Williams established himself more as a defender even though his average points were down to 2.8 points a game, he guarded players from the one to four position. In his senior year, he was unanimously voted as captain of the Illini along with

Ayo Dosunmu Quamdeen Ayopo Dosunmu (born January 17, 2000) is an American professional basketball player for the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball at Illinois, where he was named a consensus first-team A ...

. In this season, Williams averaged 5.5 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 1.7 assists a game, all career highs. Moreover, his advanced stats were up as he set career highs in 15.1 PER and 10.0 box plus/minus. This was mostly likely due to his defensive contributions and his efficiency from three-point range as he shot 54.7%, which lead the nation for players that attempted at least two shots a games. With the NCAA granting an extra year of eligibility due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in the United States The COVID-19 pandemic in the United States is a part of the COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide pandemic of COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In the Uni ...

, Williams returned to play for Illinois for a fifth year. He played in all 33 games, starting 30, and averaged 3.9 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 2.5 assists a game. Moreover, with 159 games, Williams set the school record for the most career games.

Professional career

U.D. Oliveirense

After graduating, Williams joined

. He appeared in two games in their 22-23 season.

Post-playing career

On August 28, 2023, Williams was sworn in as a police officer in his hometown of Peoria.

Personal life

Williams is the son of former

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

and Illinois basketball player Frank Williams. Williams majored in sociology.

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;",

, 31 , , 3 , , 16.9 , , .337 , , .225 , , .705 , , 2.9 , , 1.1 , , .7 , , .1 , , 3.5 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;",

, 33 , , 18 , , 21.5 , , .344 , , .317 , , .700 , , 3.5 , , 1.2 , , .8 , , .2 , , 3.4 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;",

, 31 , , 22 , , 21.6 , , .347 , , .283 , , .700 , , 3.6 , , 1.3 , , .7 , , .4 , , 2.8 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 31 , , 17 , , 24.9 , , .515 , , .547 , , .681 , , 5.3 , , 1.7 , , .8 , , .3 , , 5.5 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2021–22 , style="text-align:left;",

, 33 , , 30 , , 28.8 , , .307 , , .325 , , .531 , , 5.0 , , 2.5 , , .8 , , .3 , , 3.9 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 159 , , 90 , , 22.8 , , .366 , , .354 , , .670 , , 4.1 , , 1.6 , , .8 , , .3 , , 3.8

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Da'Monte Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball players 1998 births Living people Basketball players from Peoria, Illinois