1-on-1 with Auburn PF Sebastian Williams-Adams
The Observer sits down with Auburn's freshman phenom to talk his fast start, NBA comps, why he chose the Tigers and a lot more.
AUBURN — Sebastian Williams-Adams is doing it all right now.
Ten games into his freshman season at Auburn, Williams-Adams is fifth on the Tigers in minutes, sixth in points, sixth in rebounds, second in assists, second in steals and third in blocks. He also leads Auburn’s regular rotation in field goal percentage.
The 6-foot-8 power forward from Houston is also finishing up his first semester of college. When he sat down with The Observer courtside at Neville Arena before practice Wednesday afternoon, he still had two finals left on his schedule — including a Friday morning one in psychology, his major.
It’s been a whirlwind few months for Williams-Adams, who has quickly become a fan favorite on the Plains. He’s been a fixture in Auburn’s closing lineups, playing long stretches of the second half in several important wins. From his play on the court to his press conference answers, SWA has been far from the average freshman.
Williams-Adams talked with The Observer for a wide-ranging 1-on-1 interview, discussing everything from Auburn’s response after the loss at Arizona and his role on this team to the NBA players he grew up wanting to emulate and why women’s basketball has been so influential in his life. Here’s everything SWA had to say.
What has the response been like inside the team after y’all went out to Arizona and took another tough loss like that?
It’s been good. I think we realize that we probably went through one of the roughest stretches that any team in college basketball is going to face this season: Going to Vegas, playing three games in three days, coming back, playing NC State and turning around to Arizona in two days. All that travel.
And you still have to be mindful that we still have nagging injuries with people like Murph and even Key Hall, whose foot is still not 100%. He’s mostly recovered, yes. But we’re trying to be mindful of those things and not overworking everybody.
Just having that tough stretch — being in Auburn one day, then traveling the next day, coming back to Auburn the next day, having practice right after a travel day, all that — it’s a lot on the body.
So these past few days, we’re making sure our bodies are feeling right. We’re focusing on things mentally and academically, since it’s finals week. But it’s been a good few days since we got back from Arizona.
It probably helps that this team already went through a lopsided loss like that one and then turned around to beat a team like St. John’s less than 24 hours later, right? What was the key to bouncing back after the way that Michigan game went down?