Cody Williams Earns Another Pac-12 Offer From UCLA Men’s Basketball
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After keeping an eye on him for months, the Bruins have sent an offer to one of the top prospects in the West.
UCLA men's basketball offered a scholarship to class of 2023 small forward Cody Williams on Monday night, he announced on his Instagram story. The Perry High School (AZ) wing was at the Pangos All-American Camp earlier in June and the Section 7 Team Camp this past weekend, so the Bruins' staff has seen plenty of Williams just this month.
Williams picked up an offer from Arizona a few hours before UCLA sent theirs. Texas, Santa Clara, Portland State, Pepperdine, Murray State, USC, Loyola Marymount, Texas Tech, Nevada, Arizona State and Grand Canyon all sent Williams offers last June, while Washington State, LSU, Cal and Colorado joined the fray over the past few weeks.
The Bruins have been watching Williams in person since the evaluation periods in April and, according to 247Sports' Bruin Report Online, coach Mick Cronin and his staff were at every one of his games at Section 7.
UCLA gave Williams an in-home recruiting visit in April, so the staff had been in on him for much longer than just this weekend.
Williams is typically high school teammates with top-ranked class of 2025 small forward Koa Peat, who UCLA has also offered, but Peat was not at Section 7 due to his presence at the Team USA U17 tryouts. As a result, Williams took even more command of Perry's offense in Glendale, Arizona, over the weekend, and he solidified himself as a No. 1 option.
At 6-foot-8 and 180 pounds, Williams brings plenty of length and athleticism to the table. Most scouting reports have highlighted his handles, his slashing and his ability to run an offense, in addition to his pesky defense on the wing.
Williams is a consensus four-star prospect from 247Sports, Rivals, ESPN and On3. In the 247Sports Composite, Williams is the No. 3 recruit in Arizona, the No. 8 small forward in his class and the No. 45 overall player in the country.
UCLA does not have a class of 2023 commit, but it is making progress on several wings and forwards with the early signing period less than five months away. Five-star forward Ron Holland, five-star forward KJ Evans, five-star shooting guard Ja'Kobe Walter, five-star point guard Isaiah Collier, five-star center Aaron Bradshaw, four-star forward Milan Momcilovic and four-star forward Andrej Stojakovic all have the blue and gold listed as a finalist or are seriously considering coming to Westwood.
Given the fact that the Bruins could have as many as eight scholarship spots open up next offseason, Cronin will have to build out a relatively large class. With so many prospects listing UCLA as a finalist, plus several more like Williams with fresh offers, that class should start to take shape in the coming weeks and months.
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