With the game on the line of Texas Tech’s contest against No. 3 Iowa State on Saturday, the ball was in the hands of Darrion Williams.

Williams should be familiar to Nevada fans as he was the Mountain West freshman of the year in 2021-22 as a rookie for the Wolf Pack, averaging 7.6 points, 7.3 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.4 steals per game.

The 6-foot-6, 210-pound Williams transferred to Texas Tech after that standout season and is now getting buzz as a potential first-round pick in this year’s NBA draft. A junior for the Red Raiders, Williams scored five points in overtime of Texas Tech’s thrilling game against Iowa State last Saturday. He needed seven. Williams missed a left-handed runner as time expired in the 85-84 loss. But Williams has still emerged as one of the best players in one of the best conferences.

The fact he had the ball in his hands with the game on the line between two Top 25-caliber teams shows how valuable he’s become. Last season in a win against Kansas, Williams had 30 points, 11 rebounds, three assists and two steals while making 12-of-12 shots from the field, 4-of-4 threes and 2-of-2 free throws. Games like that will put NBA scouts on notice.

This season, Williams is averaging career highs in points (16.3) and assists (5.0) while splitting time between point guard and power forward. He’s added 5.7 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game while shooting an efficient 48.6/36.5/82.8 from the field for an excellent Texas Tech team (19 NET; 17 KenPom). That’s earned him considerable buzz in this year’s draft. In ESPN’s mock draft last week, Williams was listed as an early second-round draft pick (No. 35 overall).

ESPN’s Jonathan Givony summed up Williams’ draft stock in the tweet below.

The Athletic’s John Hollinger, a former NBA executive, also wrote about Williams last week, labeling him one of the draft’s underrated prospects worth watching. Hollinger writes:

“Williams established himself as a draft candidate with a strong sophomore season in Lubbock after transferring from Nevada, but his breakout junior year could have him getting first-round consideration. Essentially operating as a point forward, he’s handing out 11.0 dimes per 100 possessions — heady stuff for a muscly forward — and nearly three assists per turnover. Additionally, he’s a good pull-up shooter who has made 55.1 percent of his 2s this season; while he has never been a high-volume 3-point shooter, the fact he’s a career 85 percent foul shooter bodes well for his ability to stretch out.

“Williams already graded out well in other phases of the game, with a three-year history as an elite positional rebounder and a plus steal rate. But pouring in 33.7 points per 100 possessions on top of it, and doing it efficiently, is the icing on the cake. If he can maintain this level of play through the Big 12 season, he could be a big riser by June.”

While it’s nice to see Williams’ star rising, Wolf Pack fans would have loved for that to happen in Reno. Nevada coach Steve Alford and his staff found Williams as a diamond-in-the-rough prospect in the 2022 recruiting class. When Williams committed to the Wolf Pack, he was an unrated prospect on 247Sports. He chose Nevada over scholarship offers from Montana, Eastern Washington, Weber State and Long Beach State.

By the time Williams hit campus, he was upgraded to a four-star recruit, per ESPN, while 247Sports moved him to a three-star rating. Williams had played for Capital Christian High in Sacramento as a sophomore before transferring to Las Vegas’ Bishop Gorman High, whose 2020-21 season was canceled due to COVID-19. That helped push him under the recruiting radar despite a spectacular senior season for the Gaels, a national powerhouse. Williams was the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year in 2022.

During his one season at Nevada, Williams showed a lot of early production and long-term potential. While not an uber-athlete, his feel for the game and natural instincts were elite. Coupled with above-average defense and rebounding on a strongly built body, Williams was fourth on the team in scoring and sixth in effective field-goal shooting, although there seemed like a lot more offensive game to come.

In a Wolf Pack All Access feature on Williams during that 2021-22 season, Alford said: “Four years down the line, he has the chance to be one of the best that’s played here. I truly believe that just because of his body, makeup. He’s got a great strength. He’s got a great basketball IQ and really a great feel on how to play this game.” Alas, most of that development toward a pro career has come at Texas Tech. And if he is drafted, he’d become the first Wolf Pack player to transfer out of the program and eventually be selected in the NBA draft.