ECU’s Shawn Williams named AAC Rookie of the Year

The redshirt freshman averages 12.2 points per game and made 36.7 percent of his 3-point attempts while leading the AAC in free throw shooting

Shawn Williams, one of ECU's few bright spots this season,. was named the AAC's Rookie of the Year on Wednesday (ECU athletic communications photo)

  East Carolina’s forgettable basketball season is one game from is merciful end. But there is one thing — other than the hiring of a new coach — that has Pirates fans looking forward to the future.

  It’s been the play of Shawn Williams, who was named the American Athletic Conference’s Rookie of the Year on Wednesday in a vote of the league’s 12 head coaches. He was also a unanimous choice for the league’s All-Rookie team.

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  Williams averages 12.2 points per game and made 36.7 percent of his 3-point attempts. He leads the AAC in free throw shooting at 87.0 percent, ranks fourth in treys per game and has been the conference’s Rookie of the Week a record-tying four times.

  A redshirt freshman guard who had to sit out last season for academic reasons, Williams is the only AAC freshman to score 30 or more points in a game, doing so on Feb. 3 against Memphis on a night in which he set a school freshman record with seven 3-pointers.

  Williams is the Pirates’ first AAC Rookie of the Year and the fourth to win a conference freshman honor, joining Gus Hill in 1988, Lester Lyons in 1991 and Gabriel Mikaulas in 2001 while a member of the Colonial Athletic Association.

  ECU will play what figures to be its final game on Thursday at 9 p.m. against Central Florida in the first round of the AAC tournament.