Darrion Williams Receives All-ACC Recognition
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RALEIGH — An up-and-down regular season ended with an All-ACC Honorable Mention for NC State senior forward Darrion Williams. After transferring from Texas Tech and opting to return to college after testing NBA draft waters, Williams arrived in the City of Oaks with incredibly high expectations as one of the highest-compensated and top-rated transfers in the sport.
The forward seemed poised to be the face of Will Wade's first NC State team, bringing a wealth of experience and some impressive numbers. Williams earned the preseason ACC Player of the Year award and impressed during the first two weeks, but cooled off quickly, beginning a trend of streaky play that lasted the entirety of the regular season. Even so, there were still dignified moments.
Looking back at Williams' season
The first two weeks of the season were remarkable for Williams. The forward looked to be everything NC State wanted and expected when he was brought aboard, as he averaged 23.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and 4 assists per game over four games against lesser competition. He started showing warts in the Maui Invitational and his play started to crater for an extended period.
Following the Hawaii trip, Wade revealed that Williams was dealing with a shoulder injury, but he described it as minor. The coach changed his description later in the season, indicating that the issue was far worse than he initially let on. Williams battled through the shoulder problem with a 17-point performance against Kansas and came close to winning the game for the Wolfpack, but failed to knock down a potential game-winner in overtime.
Williams regained some form during the ACC season, averaging 17.6 points for a little under a month, but there were ugly showings mixed in with strong ones. His most important shooting night came on the road against SMU, not far from Texas Tech, the school he spent the previous two seasons with. He unloaded with 25 points, making 6-of-12 shots from beyond the arc. The Pack held on to beat the Mustangs 84-83, in large part because of Williams.
His numbers dipped once again after that stretch and he struggled down the stretch, scoring fewer than 10 points in three of the final eight games. He looked like he was going to erupt early against North Carolina, but suffered a head injury on a hard fall. He did return to the game, but never had the same opportunities in the flow of the win.
The inefficiency of Williams throughout most of the season bothered many fans, but when he was on, the Wolfpack was very tough to stop. Wade and his staff need the version of the forward that helped carry Texas Tech to the Elite Eight in 2025 to show up in the postseason for the Wolfpack. There have been brief moments where that looked to be happening, but they were fleeting.
"We've got to find a way to get him back going. He's been struggling," Wade said after the Stanford loss. "I haven't done a good enough job of helping him out."
When Williams scores 20 or more points, the Wolfpack wins. The team is 7-0 when the forward reaches that benchmark. Wade knows better than anyone just how important his star player can be, but getting through to him has proven difficult over the last month.
"We need him. We need him to play better for our team," Wade said. "I need to do a better job of trying to reach him and getting him to play up to his capabilities, but certainly a tough day for him."
Williams finished the regular season averaging 14 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 2.8 assists, all while shooting 41.2% from the field and 38.8% from 3-point range. He joined senior guard Quadir Copeland as the other member of the Wolfpack to earn All-ACC honors, as Copeland walked away with Third-Team recognition.
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Tucker Sennett graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Sports Journalism from the esteemed Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. A former basketball player, he has gained valuable experience working at Cronkite News and brings a deep passion for sports and reporting to his role as the NC State Wolfpack Beat Writer On SI.
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