Samford's Tim Williams tranferring to New Mexico

Former Samford Bulldogs star Tim Williams will transfer to join the New Mexico Lobos, reports Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports. He will retain two years of NCAA eligibility after sitting out the 2014-15 season due to restrictions on transferring players.

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Williams, a 6’8 forward out of Chicago, emerged as a star for Samford during his first two years with the program. After leading the team in scoring as a freshman with 14.2 points per game, he stepped up his production significantly as a sophomore, leading the team in points (17.3), rebounds (7.3), steals (1.3), blocks (1.4), field goal percentage (.603) and three-point percentage (.500).

In other words, Williams was by far the best player Samford had, and now he’s looking to prove himself against stronger competition. While the Lobos don’t play in, say, the Big Ten or ACC, the Mountain West has consistently been among the better basketball conferences in recent years.

Williams, a first-team All-Southern Conference member last season, joins former Butler guard Elijah Brown as New Mexico’s two major transfers for this year. Both players should give a significant boost to the program once they’re eligible.

As College Basketball Talk notes, the Lobos’ training camp will be full of new faces this year as the program reloads. Along with Williams and Brown, there will be a pair of junior college transfers — Jordan Goodman and J.J. N’Ganga — as well as a trio of freshmen: Xavier Adams, Joe Furstinger and Tohiraukura Smith-Milner.

Last season, New Mexico won 27 games before being knocked out by Stanford (not Samford!) in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Samford’s Tim Williams tranferring to New Mexico

By Satchel Price | Jun 22, 2014