By Eric Butler
MaxPreps.com
As is the case for many prep athletes looking to make an impression at a summer camp, Marcus Williams of Rio Rancho was set to wow coach Bobby Knight and the rest of the Texas Tech basketball staff back in June.
Ten games, or so, and - who knows? - maybe Williams would draw enough interest from the Red Raiders to gain himself a scholarship.
But in his first opportunity to showcase himself in front of the venerable and temperamental coach, Williams was fouled while headed for the bucket and, poof, a wrist injury obliterated his chance to show off for the remainder of the basketball camp.
Don't shed too many tears for the Rio Rancho senior, however. If he doesn't get a call from this Big XII school, others will come along. With athletes of Williams' caliber, if the opportunity doesn't even arise in basketball, there's indeed always other sports.
Marcus Williams is a lithe, 5-foot-10, 145-pounder, who has excelled in football, basketball and track in his four years with the Rams.
Last March, he led the school to its first-ever Class 5A basketball championship with a rousing victory over defending champ Manzano at The Pit in Albuquerque. Two months later, Williams' leap of 6-feet, 7-inches gave him the 5A title for the high jump at the state track and field meet.
"I know if I play football, I'm going to New Mexico State for sure. But I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to play football or basketball," Williams says.
The reason for attending NMSU, if that happens, would be fairly simple. Williams' older brother Chris, the Albuquerque Journal's male prep athlete of the year in 2004-05, went to become an Aggie after he was done at Rio Rancho High.
Last year, Chris Williams led the nation in receiving yardage per game (117.9) and catches per game (7.66) for head coach Hal Mumme's Aggies. Marcus, although a couple of inches taller than Chris, has the same kind of quickness and evasiveness on the football field and could well find himself part of a potent one-two Williams' receiving punch in Las Cruces.
"I like the system and I know I could be similar to him if I played in that system," says Marcus Williams, who adds that inevitable comparisons between him and his older brother no longer bother him.
"It used to. Everybody called me 'Little Chris' and stuff like that. I was like, 'Well, that's not my name, but whatever,'" he says. "It used to bug me, but now it doesn't."
If, however, Marcus decides to go the route of basketball, he would be following the path of a different family member. Williams' father, Wallace, was a standout on prolific Hobbs' squads in the late 1970s and early 1980s before he briefly played at the University of New Mexico before ending his hardwood days at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales.
Brian Smith, boys basketball coach at Rio Rancho, certainly thinks that Marcus Williams has Division I ability in his sport.
"I told Marcus the other day that he's a freak athletically. It's just not right a guy his size can do what he can do," Smith says. "He plays a lot bigger than he is."
On the court, Williams can handle the ball as a point guard or can provide instant offense from the two-spot - either through outside shooting or by slashing to the goal.
"Last year, he was a big defensive guy for us too," Smith says. "I've seen a lot of maturity out of Marcus the last two years. He wants to put the team on his back."
Weber State and Texas Tech, according to Williams, are two schools who have been talking to him about the potential of playing basketball on the next level.
"They (the Red Raiders) say they're looking for a guard just like me. But then I went up there to the camp to play and broke my wrist in the first game," Williams says. "So I didn't get the playing time I was hoping for, but they say they're going to keep watching me."
In football, Williams was mostly used at running back although he anticipates moving to receiver - a la Chris Williams - in college.
For the Rams, who open their season August 31 against Albuquerque Highland, expect to see Marcus in the backfield where he can get as many touches as possible.
"We've got a new coach (Mike Worley), so I don't even know what he's going to have me doing," he says. "It doesn't really matter to me. I think that (running back) is where he's going to put me anyway, but I could be at wide receiver a lot because we'll be running the spread."
Williams plans on competing in all three sports again during his senior year. As for the future, aside for where and which sport he'll be playing, Marcus Williams is at least pretty sure he won't be doing football, basketball and track full-time.
"If I go somewhere and play basketball, or play football, wherever that is, I might just try to high jump too," he says. "It's a possibility, but I won't run track."
With the example of his brother right before his eyes, Marcus Williams isn't overly concerned about the relatively thin frame he currently carries around.
"For football, you always want to be stronger. I mean, I'm a skinny five-ten," Williams said. "Even for basketball, I'm real skinny. But that'll come. When my brother left for college, he was like 135 pounds and now he's around 160."
Oh, there's one more thing - the thing that has made the Williams brothers so difficult for opposition to deal with over the years.
"He's still real fast," says Marcus of Chris.