ENGELKE: A big payday is still far away for Williams

With the Terrapin men's basketball team not set to play another meaningful game until November, all attention from fans and media alike has turned to one thing: Jordan Williams' looming decision on whether he will forgo his junior and senior seasons to pursue a professional playing career in the NBA.

Williams has given no clear indication of what his decision will be, and following the Terps' ACC Tournament-ending loss to Duke last Friday, the 6-foot-10 sophomore forward dismissed questions about the NBA. Instead, Williams said he was focused on preparing for the Terps' next game that ultimately never came.

"I haven't even considered it, honestly," Williams said. "I'm just trying to focus on my teammates right now, and I'll worry about that after the season's over with."

But now that there are no more games and the Terps' season is finished, Williams is left to make a decision that should be a no-brainer. After weighing his options, Williams should see that what benefits the Terps most next season is also what will help his own playing prospects significantly: staying in College Park for at least one more year.

If Williams departs, he'll leave behind unfinished business. During the big man's freshman season, the Terps made the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year behind the play of now-departed star Greivis Vasquez, and Williams ended up becoming a big part of that team by providing an inside presence the Terps desperately needed.

But that season will be remembered more for the work of Vasquez and his fellow seniors, Eric Hayes and Landon Milbourne. Williams was more of an auxiliary piece.

This season, with the trio of Vasquez, Hayes and Milbourne gone, Williams came in as the Terps' go-to player and de facto leader — and the Terps ended up missing the postseason completely. If Williams wants to be remembered as one of the best players to ever don a Terp uniform, he can't leave after one of the program's worst seasons in recent history.

He should also consider the Terps' far-greater potential for next year. With the emergence of freshman guards Pe'Shon Howard and Terrell Stoglin, and to a lesser extent forward Haukur Palsson, next year's Terps are poised to do great things. But that's if — and only if — Williams comes back for his junior year.

"It was frustrating," Williams said of the team's growing pains this season after the Terps lost to Duke in the ACC Tournament last Friday. "But I think at times this year we showed signs of being a great team for the future at Maryland. That's definitely exciting."

Add in a talented recruiting class that features possible early-impact players in guards Sterling Gibbs and Nick Faust and forward Martin Breunig, and the Terps have a legitimate chance to go from one of the program's lowest points back to prominence in just one short year.

But perhaps most importantly, another year in the college ranks would allow Williams to round out his game and, subsequently, boost his NBA draft stock. We've already seen how hard Williams works in the offseason; he lost 25 pounds after his freshman year and vastly improved his conditioning this season.

But opponents picked up on Williams' game as the season went on, and after posting 20 double-doubles in the Terps' first 23 games, Williams picked up only five in the team's final 10 outings. Bigger, faster and stronger opponents started to wear on him in ACC play, and it showed.

In the coming weeks, as Williams debates his decision, he should look to Vasquez's path to the NBA as a model.

Williams and Vasquez are clearly different players with different circumstances surrounding their ascent to the big leagues. But Vasquez dealt with the same sort of decision that Williams must now face.

After his junior year, Vasquez declared for the NBA Draft before ultimately deciding that another year of college was indeed the best way for him to better his game and improve his draft stock. Vasquez's journey shows how, in some cases, there are benefits in delaying an NBA paycheck for a year.

"I would tell him just to care about your time and keep playing hard," Vasquez said earlier this year. "More than that, he should enjoy college and enjoy every second of it. He's got to work on being a better leader. He's got to be a better leader and understand that he can score 20-and-20, but that's not important because you're trying to win.

"Sometimes the challenge is, ‘How can I get my teammates better? How can I get everybody else better?' I figured that out, and that's why he's got to figure it out. We all know he can play, but it's all about, ‘How can I get everybody together to understand that I need all of them to win?'"

One more season might be all it takes for Williams to figure it out and become one of the NBA's top prospects and, perhaps, one of the best Terps of all time.

But it hasn't happened yet, and Williams would be to wise to continuing wearing red and white before he chases green, at least a littler longer.

jengelke@umdbk.com