Keith Williams Jr. (born July 25, 1998) is an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player for VfL AstroStars Bochum of the

ProA The ProA is the German basketball league system, second-tier Sports league, league of professional club basketball in Germany. The league comprises 16 teams. Officially the ProA is part of the ''2. Basketball Bundesliga'', which consists of the t ...

. He 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

Cincinnati Bearcats The Cincinnati Bearcats are the college sports, athletic teams that represent the University of Cincinnati. The teams compete in the NCAA's Division I and the Football Bowl Subdivision as members of the Big 12 Conference. The Bearcats were pr ...

High school career

Williams played basketball for

Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School is a private, Roman Catholic, co-educational, college-preparatory high school located at 357 Clermont Avenue in the Ft. Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. The school serves students in grades 9 ...

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

. As a junior, he averaged 15 points and 4.3 rebounds per game. In his senior season, Williams averaged 24.2 points and 12.6 rebounds per game, earning All-New York City Player of the Year and

Catholic High School Athletic Association The Catholic High School Athletic Association or CHSAA is a high school athletic association made up of Catholic high schools based in New York City, Long Island, Westchester and Buffalo. It is the largest Catholic high school athletic league ...

Class AA

Most Valuable Player In team sports, a most valuable player (MVP) award is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particular competition, or ...

honors. He competed for New Heights on the

Amateur Athletic Union The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It h ...

circuit alongside Moses Brown and

Isaiah Washington Isaiah Washington IV (born August 3, 1963) is an American actor. Following a series of film appearances, he came to prominence as Dr. Preston Burke in ''Grey's Anatomy'' (2005-2007; 2014) Washington began his career collaborating with directo ...

. He committed to playing college basketball for

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 ...

over offers from

Dayton Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...

and

Oklahoma State Oklahoma State University (informally Oklahoma State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States. The university was established in 1890 under the legislation of the Morrill Act. Originally known ...

College career

Williams came off the bench during his freshman season at Cincinnati, and averaged 3.1 points per game. In his sophomore season, he became a regular starter, averaging 9.9 points, 3.2 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 1.1 steals per game. On March 3, 2020, Williams posted a career-high 30 points and four steals in a 79–67 win against

South Florida South Florida, sometimes colloquially shortened to SoFlo, is the Regions of the United States#Florida, southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the two others are ...

. As a junior, he averaged 12.6 points and 4.6 rebounds per game. Williams declared for the

2020 NBA draft The 2020 NBA draft was held on November 18, 2020. The draft was originally scheduled to be held at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on June 25, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was instead conducted at ESPN's facilities in Bristol, Connecticut, wi ...

before withdrawing and returning to college. For his senior season, he assumed a leading role with the departure of Jarron Cumberland. On December 9, 2020, he scored a season-high 27 points in a 78–73 win over Furman. As a senior, Williams averaged 14.3 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game, and was named to the Second Team All-

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (AAC), also known as The American, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States, featuring 13 full member universities and 6 affiliate member universities that compete in t ...

. Williams finished his Bearcat career with 1,156 points, good for 35th all–time in program history as of 2020. He declared for the

2021 NBA draft The 2021 NBA draft, the 75th edition of the National Basketball Association's annual NBA draft, draft, was held on July 29, 2021, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. The NBA draft returned to Brooklyn after 2020 NBA draft, the pre ...

but decided to withdraw and enter the transfer portal. Williams transferred to Western Kentucky for his fifth season of eligibility, granted due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. However, he was ruled out for the season on January 18, 2022, before playing a game, as his appeal for immediate eligibility was denied by the NCAA.

Professional career

On April 20, 2022, Williams signed with the

Otago Nuggets The Otago Nuggets are a New Zealand professional men's basketball team based in Dunedin. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at the Edgar Centre. For sponsorship reasons, they are known as the ...

for the 2022 New Zealand NBL season. He helped the Nuggets win the

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

with an 81–73 win over the

Auckland Tuatara Auckland Tuatara may refer to: * Auckland Tuatara (baseball) * Auckland Tuatara (basketball) {{Disambiguation ...

in the grand final. He earned grand final MVP honors after scoring 34 points.

Raptors 905 (2023)

On February 18, 2023, Williams was acquired by the

Raptors 905 The Raptors 905 are a Canadian professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in Mississauga, and are affiliated with the Toronto Raptors. Raptors 905 began play in the 2015–16 season and play their home games at Paramount Fine Foods ...

, but was waived on November 22.

VfL AstroStars Bochum (2024–present)

On January 7, 2024, Williams signed with VfL AstroStars Bochum of the German

Career statistics

College

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

, 33 , , 0 , , 9.9 , , .385 , , .148 , , .531 , , 1.2 , , .4 , , .5 , , .2 , , 3.1 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;",

, 35 , , 32 , , 25.8 , , .451 , , .276 , , .707 , , 3.2 , , 1.1 , , 1.1 , , .9 , , 9.9 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;",

, 30 , , 29 , , 28.8 , , .435 , , .342 , , .792 , , 4.6 , , 1.6 , , 1.2 , , .9 , , 12.6 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2020–21 , style="text-align:left;",

, 23 , , 22 , , 27.3 , , .398 , , .313 , , .653 , , 4.1 , , 2.5 , , 1.2 , , .7 , , 14.3 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 121 , , 83 , , 22.5 , , .424 , , .294 , , .697 , , 3.2 , , 1.3 , , 1.0 , , .7 , , 9.6

References

External links

Cincinnati Bearcats bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Keith 1998 births Living people American expatriate basketball people in Canada American expatriate basketball people in Germany American expatriate basketball people in New Zealand American men's basketball players Basketball players from Brooklyn Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School alumni Cincinnati Bearcats men's basketball players Otago Nuggets players Raptors 905 players VfL AstroStars Bochum players Shooting guards 21st-century American sportsmen