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Jason Williams Becomes The Man
By Johnny Moore
Blue Devil Weekly
It has been a lot of fun to watch the maturation process of Jason Williams as a basketball player. In less than one year, Williams has gone from being a young Blue Devil point guard to being "The Man."
Everywhere you turn you see Williams listed as one of the "hot" college players in the nation, with television commentators and newspaper writers across the country touting the Blue Devil sophomore as college basketball's player of the year.
And why shouldn't they?
Williams is playing as well at both ends of the floor as any player in the country. A midseason top 30 finalist for the Wooden Award, he is making a solid case for player of the year honors. The Plainfield, N.J., native currently leads Duke and is in the top 20 in the nation in scoring at 21.3 points per game, while also leading his team and being ranked in the top 25 in assists with 6.2 per contest.
And being "The Man" is exactly where Williams wanted to be at this point in his career as a Blue Devil.
"It is definitely where I wanted it to be," said Williams. "I was kind of scared by it because I knew this would be the best decision for me, but I was also thinking about going to Rutgers. I knew that if I went to Rutgers I would be the man as soon as I walked in the door. But I sat down and really thought about it, and my mother and father said something to me that really stuck with me as I was making my decision.
"Would you rather be the king of paupers or would you rather be the king of the kings?" You always want to put yourself in the position to be the best of the best. Not saying that I am the best on the team, but when you play against competition - and it's not just basketball-wise but school-wise as well - when you are in an environment where everybody excels on an exceptional level, it makes you want to do better and it makes you compete. It makes you try to excel and work harder, which makes you a better person and a better basketball player."
What Williams has been able to do this year compared to last year is take control of the game, something he worked very hard on this summer both on the court and with Blue Devil associate head coach Johnny Dawkins.
"I have definitely felt like I have taken control out on the court where people are now listening to me," Williams explained. "Last year I think I was in a role where I kind of knew what I was talking about, and even this year I don't know it as well as I will know it in the future. But last year I was in the role of a rookie, a freshman, and there were guys telling me where to go and what to do and give me the ball here. If I suggested another way, they said, 'No, we are going to do it this way.' It has been a matter of time for me, growing up as a freshman. They had been around the league longer and they knew what was best and I learned from that.
"This year I'm in a position where I can tell them what we are going to do and the guys listen to me and it makes you feel like you have a sense of control. And when things work, you feel like you set up a good play and it gives you a sense of confidence."
That confidence factor has come at a great time for the Blue Devils as Williams has really shone as a true star right in the middle of the tough ACC season, giving the Blue Devils another needed offensive weapon to go along with the consistent scoring of senior Shane Battier. Over his last 14 games Williams is averaging 23.9 points, and he has scored at least 20 points in 12 of his last 15 games. In Duke's seven games vs. nationally-ranked opponents, Williams is averaging 25.9 points and 5.3 assists per contest.
One of the more noticeable things about Williams' game this year is the difference in his shot selection.
"I think last year I predetermined my shot, whereas this year if I don't get a shot when I come down the court then that's fine with me," he explained. "I let the game take control of itself instead of trying to take control of the game. Offensively, last year, I would start walking the ball down and think this guy did this last time, so this time I'll have the shot and he wouldn't do the same thing, but I would still take the shot, which would end up being a bad shot.
"This year, as I bring the ball downcourt, I'm thinking if he does this thing I am going to be able to shoot and if he doesn't I can always drive by him and hit Shane or Mike for a basket, or we could set up a play and set one of them up in the post. It's just a process of growing up and reading the game differently than I did last year." One other very noticeable thing about his game is his ability to step up and hit the big shot when the game is on the line. In the Wake Forest game, when the Deacons cut the Devils' lead to just nine points three times in the second half, Williams answered all three times with a bucket to put the lead back to double digits. At Maryland, when it came time to win the game, it was Williams who hit the big three-point baskets.
"I want to respond in those situations, but the great thing is that anybody on our team could respond and has responded in those situations this year," said Williams, who was selected as the MVP of the ACC Tournament last year.
"I just happened to be in a position where I had my shot that I feel comfortable taking. Coach tells us all the time that if you feel comfortable taking a shot and it's a good shot then take your shots, because when you don't take your shot then you hurt the team."
But along with all that great play comes another other part of the business that nobody likes - the rumors.
"Rumors have been a part of my life since I got here freshman year," said Williams. "Rumors about basketball and rumors about my personal life that have made it very tough to have a relationship with somebody. It's just hard because nobody knows the truth about it, but then everybody thinks they know the truth. It seems to put you in a position where you have to always be proving yourself to everybody."
Williams came face-to-face with one of those rumors on Wednesday prior to the Wake Forest game. The internet, which has become a bastion of gossip and mis-information, was full of speculation about Williams being out of the Wake game with a foot injury.
"Before the Wake Forest game, even as I got out of my car, someone came up to me and said 'Hey, I heard you had a stress fracture," said Williams.
"I had tests done the night before and it scared me for a little while that I might actually have a stress fracture and be out for six weeks. It was really weird that in a period of six or seven hours, it was all over the internet that I was going to be out for the season. It's really weird on where people get their information and know more about me than I know."
Of course, Williams did not have a stress fracture and helped to lead the Blue Devils to victory over the nationally-ranked Deacons with 27 points. The other hot rumor concerning Williams is that he will be leaving college for the NBA following this season. Everybody from Michael Jordan to Joe Fan on the street seems to know for a fact that Williams will be turning to the professional ranks this spring - a fact that doesn't sit well with Duke fans who are still stinging from the three defections back in 1999. "I'm not thinking about the NBA," said Williams. "At the end of the year, I will sit down and weigh it all out. But right now I love school. School is so much fun, and I'm the type of kid that I don't know if I want to grow up yet. I still love sending my bills home to my mom and letting her scream at me about it.
"I feel like there is so much fun involved in college, especially when you get a chance to play for a great program like this and be around your peers and just be a kid still. I feel like I will never get this camaraderie again, especially around a team where a team is going to be so together.
"The other thing that I'm scared about is that I'm not sure I'm ready to make this a job. Even though I love playing basketball and I would love playing it every day, I don't know if I'm ready to get into it for myself yet, where I am looking at it from my financial standpoint and it is just about me and it's not really about team. When you get to that level, that's where it's really at. You look at your team, but you know you have to take care of yourself personally. It's more of a personal goal at that level than a team goal. Here it is a collective goal, which I don't know if I'm ready to give up yet."
Going to the NBA and not finishing or even going to college have always been topics that Williams has had to consider, from friends telling him in high school how much money he could make playing pro ball to the recent rumors. One of the factors that always stays at the forefront of his decision is education.
"If I break my knee tomorrow and can't ever play basketball again, you know what I will be next year? A junior at Duke University," said Williams.
"Getting a great education from a school like Duke is pretty good." Another reason we may continue to see Williams in a Duke uniform is his long desire to play on the same team with Rutgers transfer Dahntay Jones, who will be playing for the Devils next year after sitting out this season.
"Dahntay committed to Rutgers the year before me and that was one of the main reasons that I wanted to go to Rutgers," explained Williams, a New Jersey native. "I always wanted to play with Dahntay since I was a little kid. He played for an AAU team that had a lot of big names on it and I used to go down and see them play and say, "Whoa, this guy is really good."
"Dahntay went to Rutgers and was one of the first names to really stay home, and I really wanted to go there, but when I came here for my visit I really got swept away. When he gave me a call last year, I got really excited that we might get to play together after all. When Coach asked me about him, I told Coach he was a great player and the best kid ever. I am really looking forward to playing with him and it will definitely be something that will weight my decision to come back next year."
A decision Duke fans hope will be an easy one - a return for another season as a Blue Devil - but one that opponents hope will put Williams playing on professional courts and off their college court.
