LSU Basketball Guard Justice Williams to Return to Program

Williams becomes second player to return to Tigers under new coach Matt McMahon

LSU guard Justice Williams has pulled his name out of the NCAA transfer portal. On Wednesday night, the Tigers announced on social media that Williams will be returning to the program under first-year coach Matt McMahon.

Poetic Justice

Justice Williams will be coming back for his sophomore season 🙌 pic.twitter.com/dhWq5VOcmQ

— LSU Basketball (@LSUBasketball) April 14, 2022

Williams is the second player to pull his name out of the portal, joining forward Mwani Wilkinson, who announced his return to the program just a day ago. In 20 games for the Tigers during the 2021-22 season, Williams averaged 1.7 points per game after reclassifying to the 2021 class.

In what should've been his senior year of high school, Williams earned valuable playing time and experience at the college level, preparing him for a potential giant year two leap with the program. He does join a now much fuller backcourt with NC State transfer Cam Hayes as well as Murray State transfers Justice Hill and Trae Hannibal now with the team. 

What the addition of Williams really does for McMahon is build back a little bit of what LSU lost when 11 players from last year's NCAA tournament roster entered the portal. Having that kind of experience under their belts will be huge for this team that will be trying to build a new foundation in year one of a new coaching staff. 

Known as a pure scoring guard in high school, there's no doubt Williams has plenty to work on now that he's back at LSU and McMahon being known as a great developer of talent will only help in Williams' offseason growth. 

“We're gonna invest a lot of time with our players. I want people who want to be here, want people who want to be a part of something special because that's what we're gonna build here," McMahon said at his introductory press conference. "My favorite part of the job is not only seeing the best player they can be but the best man they can be. It's my responsibility to grow leaders here at LSU and that's what we're gonna work to do."