‘RobLob’ goes over well with Aggies
Sophomore forward turning alley-oops into entertaining art
COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M guard Duane Wilson lobbed a ball in the general direction of Robert Williams and the basketball goal and immediately cringed late in a tight game against Mississippi this week.
“Really bad pass,” Wilson said.
It didn’t matter. Williams, already a couple of feet in the air and near the rim, arched his back and snagged the wayward lob high and behind his head with the tips of his long fingers. Williams adjusted accordingly and slammed the ball, prompting one more roar from the Reed Arena crowd in what later became a 7169 A&M victory.
High five against Ole Miss
The high-flying Williams had six dunks on the night, including five via the alley-oop.
“Rob is so athletic, you can throw it anywhere around the rim or backboard, and he’ll catch it,” Wilson said of one of his unfailing duties as point guard.
Williams, a 6-10 sophomore forward and projected firstround selection in this summer’s NBA draft, has made an art of the alley-oop — when a ball is lobbed toward the goal and a player dunks it before either touches the hardwood again.
And Williams isn’t picky about the passer.
“Whoever gets it by the rim, I’m good with it,” he said with a smile of being the recipient of alley-oop passes from Wilson (three), D.J. Hogg and J.J. Caldwell against Mississippi alone.
The Aggies (12-6, 1-5) are aiming for their second consecutive Southeastern Conference victory when they play host to Missouri (13-5, 3-2) at 3 p.m. Saturday.
The Tigers are quite aware of Williams’ leaping ability in the paint — it’s hard not to be when he turns in a highlight-reel offering like he did against the Rebels, when he slipped behind their zone defense time and again.
“With his timing and being able to reach back at different angles — you don’t see that very often,” A&M coach Billy Kennedy said. “We’re being spoiled just watching it. He dunked one (against Mississippi) and our bench didn’t even jump up and down like we would have normally, because he does that all of the time.”
Wilson, a graduate transfer from Marquette, has played with Williams less than a year, but the duo’s timing has been impeccable on the alley-oop, a moniker apparently derived from the French “allez hop,” a prompt used by trapeze artists to exclaim, “Let’s go.”
“I’ve already made eye contact with Robert ahead of the play,” Wilson explained of what goes into executing the alleyoop against unsuspecting (and even suspecting) defenders. “I’ll glance at him, it’s quick eye contact, and then I’ll look away and just throw it. A lot of times he’s already anticipated the lob and he’s just there ready and waiting for it.”
Tools for the task
It helps that Williams owns a 40-inch vertical, massive hands and a 7-4 wing span. While a poorly-executed alley-oop attempt — with the ball flying out bounds, to a defender or harmlessly off a player’s hands — looks like the result of an undisciplined offense, Kennedy encourages what’s become known as the “RobLob.”
“He has an advantage athletically, and we’d rather throw it to the rim than throw it to his knees and make him go down and get it,” Kennedy said. “That’s one thing we’ve emphasized more than we have in the past, since we’ve got that kind of weapon.”
Isiah Thomas, the NBA Hall of Famer and former point guard for the Detroit Pistons, once told the Miami Herald the best alleyoops arise from players familiar with each other’s habits.
“It’s like when people have been together so long that they finish each other’s sentences,’’ Thomas said. “Alley-oop partners finish each other’s plays. It’s unspoken communication, instinct, a quick glance. One guy is completely in tune with the other.”
That likely is the case for the most succinct and efficient alleyoops, but with a leaper the caliber of Williams, the whole goal is get the ball somewhere around the goal. No matter the passer.
“It’s just something where they see me and they throw it up there,” Williams said with a shrug. “It’s a God-given talent.”