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VCU lands a commitment from talented local guard

Kenny Williams

Nike/Jon Lopez

Shaka Smart has made his first foray into the 2015 recruiting class as he landed Kenny Williams, a talented, 6-foot-2 guard from southern Virginia.

“Extremely blessed and excited to announce that I have committed to play my college basketball at VCU,” Williams tweeted. He’s currently listed as a three-star recruit and the No. 124 player in the class of 2015, but that ranking is expected to go up once it gets updated.

Williams played very well this July, collecting offers from the likes of North Carolina, Virginia Tech, Minnesota and Indiana, but he decided to stay local. The Rams had made him a priority early on in his high school career.

“It just felt like the right thing to do,” Williams told Rivals.com. “The situation couldn’t get any better than VCU.”

Williams is a perfect fit for Smart’s ‘Havoc’ system at VCU. He’s not an elite defender or a next-level athlete, but he’s a good enough defender that he won’t be a liability defensively in a system that prioritizes full court pressure and forcing turnovers. His biggest strength is his ability to shoot the ball from deep, which is something that the Rams lacked last season, but he’s more of a combo-guard than a pure off-guard.

Put that all together and you see why Williams was such an important recruit for the Rams. He’s talented enough to be coveted by the big boys, local enough to have been spotted early by VCU, he’s a very good fit for their system and he fills a need that the team has.

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