Dwain Williams might be the definition of “red flag.”  

The sophomore combo guard—originally from nearby Vista Murietta High—played two years at Providence College before transferring out and deciding on Long Beach State a few weeks ago.  Head coach Dan Monson was understandably excited at the time, and with good reason—Dwain is the kind of big, scoring guard the 49ers need while Greg Plater matures and Maurice Clady remains 5’7.

But hold on, kids, seems that the act of signing a legally binding document such as a National Letter of Intent was nothing more than a “miscommunication”—according to his AAU coach—and Dwain is actually headed to Oregon State.  The same Oregon State that won nary a single game in Pac-10 play last season.  WTF, mate?

Well, a little bit of simple background checking reveals some interesting tidbits.  In two years of college ball, Williams has now been connected with four teams after originally declaring to sign and then backtracking on Miami of Ohio, skipping for Providence, leaving for Long Beach State and now heading to OSU.  That’s a whole lot of transferring (as this Oregon State fan warily points out), so much that a simple Google search of “dwain williams transfer” made my computer hang itself.

Now, I don’t know if Williams can’t stand to be in one place for too long or if he’s playing some weird college basketball version of Risk, but that’s pretty unusual.  If you go back to his high school days, where he played for three schools in four years—including one stop at a school in Florida—Williams has been affiliated with seven schools in six years, drawing him just even with Eddie House for Most Frequent Flier Miles in World History.

On June 1, Long Beach State announced that Williams had signed a National Letter of Intent with the 49ers.  The next day, William’s AAU coach—do these guys have way too much power these days, or what?—informed ESPN’s Andy Katz that the deal was off.  I am not sure how a binding legal document came to be known as a “miscommunication,” but apparently that’s how things work these days.  The blow is especially crushing to the 49ers because coach Monson has assembled a very impressive class of recruits that Williams would have topped off very nicely, and likely made the squad a frontrunner in next year’s Big West Conference race.  

You can never be too sure about a scoring guard that shoots at a .358 clip, but then again, Williams hit over 90% of his free throw attempts and had UNC, UCLA and Arizona drooling as a high school senior.  The Friars’ third-leading scorer at 11.0 per game last season, Williams upped his average to more than 13 in Big East play, which must have been particularly enticing to 49er coaches looking to add leadership to a very young team.

Still, I’m reluctant to mourn the loss of Williams.  Yes, I was as ecstatic as I was surprised when the news broke that he would become a 49er.  Yes, I was devastated to hear that those plans had been nixed.  Yes, Williams would have given a much-needed boost to the basketball team’s tattoo count.  But how am I supposed to miss a player that obviously had commitment issues, and ultimately chose the worst team in the history of Pac-10 basketball?  Either Williams is an extremely impulsive guy—who by the way, has fallen far short of his much-heralded potential—or he has the absolute wrong people making decisions for him.  If it’s the latter, then I genuinely feel bad for Dude and wonder if he realizes what he’s gotten himself into in Beaverton.  If it’s the former, then he’s probably looking for maximum exposure because he figures he got a raw deal in Providence.

In the end, the only people who ended up with a raw deal are those that dealt with Williams in the first place, so it is with great enthusiasm that I wish him well and celebrate the fact that Long Beach State lucked out of a potential disaster.