Chaz Williams: UMass legend

Growing up in western Massachusetts there wasn’t a whole lot going on unless you drive 90 minutes over to Boston. However, we did have one thing that brought us excitement on a weekly basis.

Nearby there was the campus of UMass Amherst where my Dad and I would go to watch the Minutemen play almost every weekend during the season.

Too young to see the likes of Julius Erving and Marcus Camby, my Dr. J was none other than Chaz Williams, a 5-foot-9 point guard who could throw down some of the meanest dunks you’d ever seen.

Williams spent his freshman year at Hofstra where he averaged 10 points, four rebounds and four assists.

He would transfer to UMass for the 2011-2012 season, where his abilities would flourish under head coach Derek Kellogg.

In his first year, Williams would help bring the team from a 15-15 record to 25-12, falling short in the NIT semifinal.

The next two years would see more success, with the team making the NCAA tournament for the first time in 16 years after the team would go 24-9 in the 2013-2014 season. They would fall short to Tennessee in the first round.

That same year, Williams was named a finalist for the Naismith Award.

The team’s success brought thousands more fans back to the Mullins Center for the first time since the Calipari era.

Williams was monstrously athletic for his size, as mentioned he was able to dunk at just 5-foot-9 and did so in the game, when he did the crowd would erupt, it didn’t matter if it was the first minute or 40th of the game.

More than just his athleticism, he could shoot too. A career 38% 3pt shooter allowed him to be a proficient two-level scorer, rare for a point guard of normal stature never mind on top of the difficulties he faced at his height.

Being smaller came with the advantage of picking other players’ pockets easily, he averaged 2.0 steals in his three seasons with the Minutemen.

He was able to make anything happen on the fast break for either a pull-up, or dishing it to one of his teammates, which he did quite frequently, with a career 6.2 assists per game on top of his scoring.

He’s also the all-time leader in assists at UMass with 702.

Nowadays, Williams is still playing overseas and is currently with Njarðvík in Iceland for the Úrvalsdeild karla league.

Thank you Chaz Williams for all that you did for UMass, and for being a huge part of my childhood, forever a legend in my heart.

Chris Vadnais is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, please email cmv5562@psu.edu.