Michigan basketball: Terrance Williams II focused on four areas this offseason

Michigan Wolverines basketball underachieved last season, missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2015. Senior forward Terrance Williams II struggled in his first season as a full-time starter and battled a knee injury at the end of the year. He’s spent time in the DMV-area training this offseason — doing ‘three-a-days,’ with treatment, weights and on-court work — having pinpointed four areas in which he wants to grow heading into the 2023-24 campaign.

Williams shot 38.5 percent on 52 three-point attempts as a sophomore, but his clip from beyond the arc dipped all the way down to 25 percent last season (17-of-68). Per Synergy, he shot just 28.4 percent on catch-and-shoot jumpers, including 29 percent (9-of-32) on those deemed ‘unguarded.’

“I’d definitely say my biggest one is shooting,” Williams said of what he’s working on in an interview on ‘Defend The Block’ with host Brian Boesch. “I’ve cleaned up my shooting form, making it quicker and more efficient, because I get a lot of catch-and-shoot opportunities in this offense and I didn’t hit at the high percentage that I hoped for last year.

“But there’s always room for improvement. I got into film a lot, I saw where I was getting a lot of my catch-and-shoots at, a lot of movement shots. So just cleaning up my form, so I’m doing that with Alex Harris, who’s a great shooting coach for me in the DMV area.”

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As a result of Williams missing open jumpers, defenses helped off of him more than others. His confidence appeared to dwindle, and even his two-point shooting numbers went from 51.7 percent as a sophomore to 47.2 percent his junior year.

“When you’re shooting the ball at a great clip, there’s a lot more you can do, because now the defense is going to close out harder, so you can attack the close-outs now, you get in your spots more,” Williams continued. “I wasn’t able to do that as much last year because I wasn’t hitting at a high rate.

“I know that, and now I know where I’m going to get those shots at. That’s something I’ve been focused on, just being more consistent with it, not being 25 percent or 30 percent — whatever I shot — from three. Just be more consistent, raise that number up.”

Williams has played both wing spots for Michigan during his career, and has also seen time in the backcourt when needed. From a defensive standpoint, he wants to be able to check any player on the court when a switch arises.

“I’m also working on lateral movement, just to be able to guard that 1-5 and be able to switch, because in our [defense] we do a lot of switching,” Williams said. “I’ve been working on a lot of lateral movement and mobility that I do in the morning with my treatment person.”

Next on his check list is ball-handling, which goes along with him playing multiple positions for Michigan. Williams had a negative assist-to-turnover ratio (27:28) last season, and had 3 costly turnovers in the final game of the year at Vanderbilt.

“I just work on ball-handling every day,” Williams revealed. “You can never have enough ball-handling, so working on that. But I would say those three things are the biggest things I’ve been focusing on.”

Williams was one of Michigan’s captains a year ago, and while he wasn’t the most vocal of the bunch, he led by example. He revealed that head coach Juwan Howard was pleased by that, but wants him to take another step in the leadership department.

“From my perspective, and Coach Howard did attest to this in our end-of-the-year meeting, I feel like I did a great job because I lead through actions,” the Michigan forward said. “That’s one thing I always hang my hat on, is just the way I come in each day, just get better, stay in the gym. I just want other people to see that hard work that I put in. Hopefully, everybody can do it. I just like a lot of action.

“But one thing I can improve on is the vocal part. I’m still growing in that area. Coach Howard knows I’m still growing in that area. I’ve not really always been outspoken, I’ve been kind of an introvert most of my life, but gotta get out of that comfort zone if we want to take it to the next level. I didn’t do that last year, and we didn’t achieve any of our goals.

“That’s one of the things I’m going to focus on this summer and this season, being more vocal, because I have respect in this locker room. A lot of people tell me that in the locker room, so I’ve got to use my voice. People want to see it from me, so I’m going to try to work on that this summer.”

The Michigan team reports back to campus in July. The roster is not yet finalized even after adding three transfers, with two scholarship spots remaining.