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 larger a ...

player. Williams previously played professionally for

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

. Williams played

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

for the

Illinois Fighting Illini The Illinois Fighting Illini () are the College athletics, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The university offers 10 men's and 11 women's Varsity team, varsity sports. The university op ...

of the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...

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

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

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 the state outside the Chicago metr ...

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 is currently owned by Gannett. History The oldest ancestor of the ''Journal Star'', the ''Peoria Daily Tra ...

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 The National Letter of Intent (NLI) is a document used to indicate a student athlete's commitment to participating in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) colleges and universities in the United States. The NCAA Eligibility Center manag ...

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. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

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 ...

over offers from high-major schools like

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

and

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

. 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 Fighting Illini men's basketball team. Previously, he served as head coach at Oklahoma State Cowgirls basketball, Oklahoma State, Stephen F. Austin Lumber ...

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. 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 On December 31, 2019, China announced the discovery of a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan. The first American case was reported on January 20, and United States Department of Health and Human Services, Health and Human Services Secreta ...

, 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 composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

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 ...

, 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

External Links

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