Meet the young basketball star who is Coast’s first major D1 prospect since Devin Booker
When Harrison Central basketball coach Boo Hardy first got a glimpse of Carlous Williams, he saw a lanky 6-1 seventh-grader competing against players a year ahead of him in school.
“He took off and dunked one in eighth-grade basketball,” Hardy said. “You knew then that this kid has a chance to be special.”
Williams was then attending North Gulfport Middle School, and it wasn’t clear at the time whether he would end up at West Harrison or Harrison Central.
When Williams showed up at Harrison Central as a 6-5 freshman, it was no secret that Hardy had landed one of the best young prospects the Coast has seen since Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker was throwing up 3-pointers at Moss Point.
Now a 6-6, 240-pound junior forward, Williams is beginning to fulfill the potential that Hardy and so many others saw in him when he was in middle school. He’s averaging 15.1 points and 12 rebounds a game for a Red Rebels team that is on a 10-game winning streak entering Friday’s home game against Hancock.
“He’ll be a D1 player one day,” Biloxi coach Seber Windham, whose team lost 55-46 to Harrison Central on Nov. 30, told the Sun Herald. “He can jump out of the gym. You don’t see many guys like that. He’s gotten better, bigger. He’s gotten stronger. He’s playing with a little more attitude, a little more physicality. He’s just a hand load.”
Colleges have gradually lined up to show interest in Williams with Kelvin Sampson’s Houston program becoming the first major school to offer a scholarship back in November.
“It felt good, but at the same time I didn’t want to get too happy about it,” Williams told the Sun Herald. “I had to stay focused because this is what I’ve been waiting on. It felt good, but I was expecting it because I’ve been working so hard to get it.”
Williams, who visited Houston to watch the Oklahoma State game on Dec. 15, has Baylor, Southern Miss, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Southeastern Louisiana all showing significant interest.
Southern Miss is the program that has been most determined in its recruitment of Williams, who moved to the Coast from Hattiesburg as a fifth-grader, with first-year head coach Jay Ladner and assistant Kyle Roane staying in frequent touch.
“USM has almost contacted me every day,” Williams said. “They’re telling me I might as well play for my hometown. They bring that up a lot. They’re not trying to pressure me, but they’re saying, ‘Why not put your hometown on the map and have more people want to come back and make Mississippi another basketball state.’ People really sleep on Mississippi as a basketball state. I’ll say USM and Baylor are the closest with Houston.”
The list of offers will increase with time for Williams, making him likely the biggest recruiting target on the Coast since Booker signed with Kentucky in 2014. There have been other Coast players who have signed with Division I teams out of high school like St. Martin’s Ed Simpson (Middle Tennessee) and Jahshire Hardnett (Fordham) and Picayune’s Marvun Arnold (Jacksonville), but few have generated the early interest that Williams has.
Carlous Williams’ development
Williams, who claims a 36-inch vertical, was often the biggest kid on the court growing up and he developed the reputation of being a bruiser in the paint. After putting in work on his outside shot and ball handling, he has developed a more refined game.
Williams’ top moment on the court this season came when he showed off his much-improved outside shot in the Red Rebels’ 57-56 win over then-No. 1 Meridian on Nov. 28 in the Adidas Holiday Classic. As Harrison Central’s top option in the clutch, the ball went to Williams as time ran off the clock at Gulfport’s Bert Jenkins Gymnasium.
“When I shot (the 3-pointer), it felt good,” he said. “I knew it was going in, but then it hit the backboard. I thought I missed and I turned and put my head down. Then, I heard everybody screaming and running toward me. I was like, ‘I just won the game.’ I just took off running.”
At 6-6, it’s unlikely Williams will have a chance to play in the post on the Division I level. He’s played on the wing and at the four this season, but he wants to also be able to play the two in college.
“Analysts say I already have the body and size for the two or three,” he said. “Nine times out of 10, that’s the positions they say I’ll be playing.”
While he’s working on improving his perimeter game, Williams’ ability to get to the rim with force will likely always be a strength that he can take with him at any level.
“He’s a special kid who is very, very athletic,” Hardy told the Sun Herald. “His work ethic in the gym is great.”
Harrison Central stands out as Coast’s best
As far as where he’s made his main strides as a junior, Williams and Hardy both point to his leadership skills.
“Before I got into the leadership role, I thought being a leader was scoring points for your team and getting the win,” he said. “That’s what I focused on last year. It’s more than scoring points. Now, you’ve got to be a verbal leader. I’m making sure every everybody comes together as one so we can do what we’ve got to do to win. So far, it’s working. We’re on a 10-game winning streak.”
Coast teams have fizzled in the postseason in recent years with the 2013-14 Gulfport squad serving as the last area team to win a state championship. With a record of 17-3 and a 3-0 mark in Region 8-6A, Harrison Central appears to be the Coast’s best shot at another state championship.
“If we beat (Meridian), we can beat anybody,” Williams said. “That means we have a shot at winning a state title this year and for years to come. We’re just trying to focus on winning the last game of the year.”
Williams is far from the lone threat on the Harrison Central roster with 6-7 sophomore Sam Murray II, senior point guard Mikel King and sophomore guard Demarius Coleman also capable of making plays. Murray will likely soon join Williams in receiving major college interest.
“We’ve got a deep connection and we’ve been knowing each other since we were little,” Williams said. “We have a chemistry that a lot of teams don’t have as far as people coming in from different middle schools. We’ve already got that chemistry and we’re working hard to go out and take it all.”
This story was originally published January 15, 2020 at 5:30 AM.
