Other articles by Bruce Pascoe:

Cats hope to prove previews are wrong Lopez gets angry, beats Miller to retain WBC Latino belt Analyst Kelley to step back into ring Budinger: No regrets on return to Cats Emphasis on defense dominates scrimmage Another sought-after recruit spurns Cats in favor of UCLA Arizona Wildcats basketball: Post player chooses UCLA Shaq's in shape, determined to have a strong season in Phoenix Olson publicly announces engagement at fundraiser Coaches, prospects now less trustful

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LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Marcus Williams' pre-draft experience effectively starts early this week when he will visit the Houston Rockets.

He might want to consider hitting the ground running.

By declining an invitation to the NBA's official pre-draft camp this week, Williams did not necessarily hurt himself. He would have been playing almost exclusively against players rated lower than he is.

But the questions that surround his personality and game were not answered.

Now they will be.

"The workouts are going to be a big thing for him," said Jonathan Givony, president of DraftExpress.com. "People want to get to know him because there's a lot of question marks about what happened this year (with Arizona) and what kind of kid he is. I think he will impress in the interviews, because he seemed like a very nice kid to us. He's not a stupid kid."

Except for those who work out and interview Williams privately, teams can only judge Williams on his college season, NBA scout Ryan Blake noted. Williams was last seen publicly in a first-round NCAA tournament loss to Purdue, capping a lackluster Wildcat finish.

"He's got an NBA body. He's got talent," Blake said. "He can be a go-to guy, a selfish player. He can be very inconsistent at times. Is he NBA ready? Don't know. How does he compete against stronger and more physical players? Can he get his shot off, make other players better? Those are some questions that might have been answered here."

The NBA even changed its pre-draft rules, banning all individual workouts before this week's camp. It was an effort to get players such as Williams to show up because they would conceivably have less time to prove themselves as first-rounders if they didn't.

Williams chose to stay away.

"I'd really like to see everybody here," New Jersey Nets GM Ed Stefanski said. "But that doesn't seem to be the case right now. We're always trying to tweak to get the projected better players here."

Former UA manager and administrative aide Jack Murphy, who left to become the Nuggets' video coordinator last September, has been taking a ribbing within the Nuggets organization because of his roots at both UNLV and Arizona, which had a heated rivalry in the 1980s and early 1990s.

"We call him 'The Chameleon,'" said Mark Warkentien, Denver's vice president of basketball operations and a former UNLV aide under Jerry Tarkanian.

It's all in good fun for Murphy, a Las Vegas native who is also a longtime protégé of Nuggets assistant coach Tim Grgurich, once Tarkanian's top assistant coach.

"They totally respect coach (Lute) Olson, but they give me a hard time about the Arizona thing," Murphy said, adding that "Going from a Hall of Famer in coach Olson to a future Hall of Famer in coach (George) Karl is unbelievable. Not many people can put that on their résumé."

Both Ivan Radenovic and Mustafa Shakur finished up the pre-draft camp games on a strong note Friday.

While helping lead their Team One to a 93-89 win over Team Six, Shakur had eight points on 3-for-8 shooting, five assists, one turnover and three rebounds while Radenovic had 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting, three rebounds, four assists and a block.