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Friday, March 30
Duke's pivotal player: Jason Williams
By Jay Bilas
Special to ESPN.com
Juan Dixon | Richard Jefferson | Jason Richardson
Jason Williams is the best player in the country. He is
strong, quick and has explosive speed.
|  | | Not many -- if any -- defenders can keep up with Jason Williams. |
Over the course of the season, Williams has become more and more difficult to guard, and few
teams have had success in slowing him down. USC tried
to get the ball out of his hands, but when a trap was thrown at him,
Williams was able to split it and exploit it.
With his strength and
explosiveness, Williams needs just a crack of daylight to get to the basket,
and he can elevate and finish at the rim.He has become a deadly
perimeter shooter, whether off of the pass or the bounce, and his range is
beyond NBA. He is best off of a ballscreen, turning the corner on defenders
who try to go over the top, and pulling the trigger on those who go
underneath.
There is really no way to stop Williams, only to slow him down a bit. While
he is capable of dominating a game from inside the arc, that is really the
only way to limit his 3-point prowess. In the NCAA Tournament, he
has already hit 20 threes heading into the Final Four, accounting for more than 50 perecnt of his points.
Defensively, Williams is vastly improved, and has become the catalyst of Duke's defense.
He puts very good pressure on the ball, and will spend a great deal of time
guarding Juan Dixon against Maryland.
Should he stick around for four
years, Williams is on pace to break Duke's all-time scoring record set by Johnny Dawkins. And, if he keeps improving, he could become the ACC's top point guard of
all-time.
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