In what came as a surprise to many SMU basketball fans, the Mustangs have added another high-profile guard to their 2017 class.
Congrats to @youngkid_will who after much thought has committed to SMU! Thanks to all that recruited William! @johnvarlas #GoBrothers pic.twitter.com/jjpUdLWKmN
— CBHS Basketball (@CBHSbasketball) October 7, 2016
William Douglas, a 6-5 guard from Memphis, Tennessee, verbally committed to SMU on Friday, Oct. 7. Douglas’ high school (Christian Brothers) tweeted out an announcement on his behalf.
Douglas is a four-star prospect in 247Sports.com’s composite rankings. He currently sits just outside the top 100 on the website’s list of top basketball recruits at 115. According to Scout.com, Douglas chose SMU over offers from Michigan, Oregon, Memphis, Ole Miss, Alabama, Florida State, TCU, Marquette, UNLV and Saint Louis. He played AAU ball with Memphis-based M33M and took an unofficial visit to SMU last summer.
Douglas’ commitment comes less than 24 hours after SMU began to trend online with national basketball writers and analysts.
Before Thursday, Oct. 6th, writers who had made predictions in Douglas’ 247Sports’ Crystal Ball had unanimously chosen Ole Miss as the guard’s future landing spot. Predictions began to switch Thursday night around 10 p.m. when two writers from GoTigers247, 247Sports’ Memphis affiliate, changed their predictions to SMU. Jerry Meyer, 247Sports’ Director of Basketball Scouting, quickly followed suit.
Douglas is the highest rated guard recruited by SMU since Shake Milton committed in 2015. Douglas joins point guard Elijah Landrum and power forwards Ethan Chargois and Everett Ray in the Mustangs’ 2017 recruiting class. All four are expected to sign their letters of intent in November.
