City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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The third time was indeed the charm for Austin Williford. 

A 6-foot-4, 192-pound wing guard from Charlottesville (Va.), Williford took three trips north to visit Saint Joseph’s University, each one a different look at the City Ave school. The first time, last summer, was when class was out of session, just a chance to get a feel for the campus and meet the coaches. The second time, in February, was to take in a game in person, experiencing the atmosphere at Hagan Arena.

Both of those visits left Williford with a good impression. So when he saw the school for the third time earlier this month on his official visit — dinner at Billy Lange’s house, classes with the Hawks’ players, quality time with his potential future teammates — he was hooked. 

“I was with the players basically a whole day, a day in the life of a St. Joe’s student,” he said. “(To experience) the sense of community and camaraderie, I was like I want to feel that, I want to be part of that.”

Williford announced his commitment to Lange’s Hawks on social media on Wednesday afternoon, choosing St. Joe’s over UNC-Charlotte and George Washington out of more than a dozen Division I offers.

He’s the second commit in St. Joe’s incoming 2025 class, along with Mater Del (Cali.) shooting guard Owen Verna. 

“I just felt like there wasn’t any time to waste, I just had to get it done,” he said. “I didn’t want to drag it out or anything, I just wanted to commit and so I could put that behind me and be ready for this high school season.”

A two-sport athlete growing up, Williford stood out as a wide receiver on the football field, but eventually honed in on a sport that runs in his family. His father is Virginia alum and current UVa men’s basketball associate head coach Jason Williford, who’s been on the Cavaliers’ staff for 16 years, winning a national championship with them in 2019.

Austin Williford grew up around John Paul Jones Arena, mentioning some of the UVa greats over the last decade-plus — like Justin Anderson, Kyle Guy and Kihei Clark — as being like his “big brothers” when he was in elementary and middle school. Driving to and from St. Joe’s campus, he recognized passing Friends’ Central, where De’Andre Hunter starred before going to Virginia and then on to the NBA. 

All that time around the highest levels of college hoops he hopes will give him a leg up when he gets to Hawk Hill next fall, hoping to be the latest in a line of St. Joe’s guards who have made an impact as freshmen, like Xzayvier Brown, Erik Reynolds II and more. 

“I feel like the biggest difference between high school and college is the pace of the game, and the intensity that everybody plays with,” he said. “I just know how to get in the game, I know what to do when I’m in the game, how to stay in the game. Just being around that my whole life, I can just incorporate that into when I get to school.”

A wing guard with size, Williford has been a varsity player for St. Anne’s-Belfield (STAB) since his eighth grade season, a starter since his freshman year. It was the summer going into his sophomore season, he said, that he first started thinking about himself as a Division I recruit; the next year, he got his first offer, St. Joe’s one of the first handful to extend a scholarship as he prepared for his junior year. 

While some of those early offerees dropped off, as happens in the recruiting cycle, Lange and associate head coach Justin Scott kept their lines of communication strong with Williford all throughout his junior season and into his 17U summer with Team Takeover. Jason Williford, with all his recruiting knowledge, had imparted upon his son the importance of consistency and being wanted.

“I told him [...]  obviously every kid wants to be recruited and play at the Power 5 level, and I said to him, ‘Your process, your journey is your journey. Run your race, and go where you can play and where you’re wanted,’” he said. “Oftentimes in recruiting, I see it all the time, people wish and want for more, and they ignore the people that actually want (them) and value who they are, and I wasn’t going to let him do that.”

The Hawks have improved their record by five or six wins each of the last four years, going from 5-15 during the COVID season to 11-19, 16-17 and then something of a breakthrough last year at 21-14 (9-9 A-10), losing to VCU in the league semifinals and to Seton Hall in the NIT opening round. 

What the SJU roster looks like when Williford arrives on campus next fall is a long way from settled, with the new reality of college hoops and the transfer portal leading to a significant flow of players all over the country. But Brown, who’s already attracting pro attention, is only going into his sophomore year; more Hawks talent like Rasheer Fleming, Derek Simpson, Anthony Finkley and others all have several more years of eligibility, with more young talent joining the roster this year. 

The goal for the program is to make its first NCAA Tournament since 2016, this year’s roster certainly the most primed to do that of any to wear a Hawks uniform since that group. Williford should be joining a group either aiming to return to March Madness or coming off a season where it knocked at the door, aiming to make it back in 2026. 

There does exist an unlikely-but-not-impossible scenario where St. Joe’s goes dancing and plays Virginia in March Madness, an idea that wasn’t lost on either Williford. 

Would they even want to see each other as opponents at the next level?

“I don’t, because he’s going to want to kick my ass,” Jason Williford said. “But it would be fun. I’m pretty sure he does.”

The question wasn’t even finished before Austin confirmed.

“Of course,” he said. “I would love to play them.”