Jaylin Williams will be playing his final game as an Auburn Tiger at the Neville Arena on March 9 against Georgia, and as he tells 247Sports' Nathan King, the feeling of finality isn't going to hit until the clock is ticking down come Saturday night.
"For me, it hasn't really hit me as much," Williams said. "For me, it's like another game, then I'm gonna play here next week. It hasn't really hit me. I feel like Saturday, when the jump ball happens, it's gonna really hit. Towards the end of the game, with the clock winding down towards the wire, it's gonna really hit me. That's when I feel like everything's going to be more emotional with it being my last game here."
Williams will be hanging up his home jersey in the Neville Arena home locker room for the last time with a historic notch on his belt.
Jaylin Williams proud to be winningest Auburn basketball player of all time
On November 10, in an otherwise ho-hum non-spread covering victory for the Tigers, Williams became the winningest Auburn basketball player of all time.
In discussing the milestone with Locke, Williams showed enthusiasm about making his family proud to claim him as one of their own.
"I know I said this a couple interviews ago, but I'm not trying to let anyone break that record anytime soon," Williams said of the record. "Hopefully COVID doesn't come around again and give somebody another year. That'll be nice and help me out with that. It's amazing to have that with my last name on there, just for my family to be able to say their nephew or their cousin or their brother has that at a university that's so big in the SEC. With something we grew up watching, for me to be able to be the winningest player in Auburn history is amazing, knowing all the players that have come through this organization."
When he steps onto the floor against Georgia, Williams will be playing his fourth game since an injury that would've kept most out for much longer.
That spirit, one that is not afraid, is what drives a competitor like No. 2 to take the floor and make his family proud.