Ex-Arizona guard Brandon Williams enters NBA G League Draft pool

After leaving the Arizona Wildcats after two seasons, Brandon Williams is hoping to begin his pro career in the G League.

According to this tweet from Professional Basketball Combine scouting director Jon Chepkevich, which was retweeted by Williams himself, the former UA guard is one of the 194 players who have entered the NBA G League Draft pool.

The draft is scheduled for Monday at 11 a.m. MST. The G League season is tentatively scheduled to begin Feb. 8 in a bubble at Walt Disney World, just like the end of the 2019-20 NBA season.

It’s expected to be a 12-to-15 game schedule, with playoffs beginning in early March.

Only 18 teams are participating, so earning playing time—or even a roster spot—could be difficult for an unproven player like Williams, especially since NBA veterans like Lance Stephenson, Michael Beasley, Terrance Jones, Jeremy Lin and even former UA guard Allonzo Trier will be in the league trying to parlay it into an NBA roster spot.

A former four-star recruit, Williams was productive in his lone healthy season at Arizona, averaging 11.4 points and 3.4 assists per game as a freshman in 2018-19 despite battling knee pain. He then sat out the 2019-20 season after having knee surgery to correct a congenital condition, his second surgery in four years.

Williams announced in September that he was leaving the UA to pursue his goal of being a professional player.

While his time at Arizona was brief, his commitment to the UA in 2018 was a seminal moment for a program that was embroiled in the FBI investigation into college basketball at the time.

Williams decommitted during the investigation, but re-upped with Arizona over Oregon and Gonzaga after reopening his recruitment, signaling to other recruits that it was OK to be a Wildcat.

Arizona’s class the following year, which featured Nico Mannion and Josh Green, wound up being one of the best in the country. Its 2020 class was ranked in the top 10 as well.