UCLA Men's Basketball Makes Class of 2023 Wing Cody Williams' Top 8
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The Bruins are officially still in the running for one of the West's top wings.
Class of 2023 small forward Cody Williams announced his top eight finalists on Thursday, including UCLA men's basketball among the contenders. USC, LSU, Georgia Tech, LMU, Santa Clara, Colorado and Arizona are the other programs still vying for the Perry (AZ) product's impending commitment.
Williams also had offers from Arizona State, Cal, Grand Canyon, Murray State, Nevada, Pepperdine, Portland State, Santa Clara, TCU, Tennessee, Texas, Texas Tech, UC Santa Barbara and Washington State.
UCLA gave Williams an in-home recruiting visit in April, and they offered him in June.
The Bruins had been watching Williams in person since the first evaluation periods of the year and, according to 247Sports' Bruin Report Online, coach Mick Cronin and his staff were at every one of his games at the Section 7 Team Camp in June. Earlier that month, Williams starred at the Pangos All-American Camp in Las Vegas.
LMU and Santa Clara have both already hosted Williams on visits, while Colorado has him scheduled for one starting Aug. 19, per On3.
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 on an even larger role in Perry's offense in Glendale, Arizona, that 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, slashing and ability to run an offense, in addition to his pesky defense on the wing. His brother, Jalen Williams, did well enough at Santa Clara to go No. 12 overall to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2022 NBA Draft, and the younger of the two has similar tools.
Williams is a consensus four-star prospect, according to 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. 38 overall player in the country.
A handful of 2023 prospects have UCLA on their respective lists of finalists, including five-star point guard Isaiah Collier, five-star forward Ron Holland, five-star center Aaron Bradshaw, four-star wing Andrej Stojakovic, four-star power forward Jalen Williams and three-star center Michael Nwoko.
Cody Williams is the latest to join their company, and Cronin will need to convert on several of them in order to fill out a critical 2023 class.
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