Deron Williams was dribbling too much. Now he scores too much. For opponents, that is.
By BRIAN LANDMAN
Published March 26, 2004
ATLANTA - For a moment the other day, Illinois coach Bruce Weber had to remind his point guard, Deron Williams, exactly what he wanted him to do. And not do.
"He called me over and said I was dribbling too much," Williams said.
Weber insists that his Fighting Illini move the basketball with quick, pinpoint passes, spread the floor and create open shots for one another.
"The one game (of late) we didn't have success was the Wisconsin game in the tournament championship," he said. "We had eight assists and 12 turnovers, and that's because we were dribbling the ball too much and not making it tough on defenses."
It's been a different story in the NCAA Tournament.
In wins against Murray State and Cincinnati, Williams has 15 assists and no turnovers. He also followed an eight-point performance with 31, matching his career high and setting a school record for an NCAA game on 10-of-13 shooting.
"I think he's really good," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "He just knows how to play. He's probably one of the main reasons they won the (regular-season) Big Ten (title)."
And one of the main reasons the Illini, winners of 14 of their past 15, play top-seeded Duke tonight in the region semifinals at the Georgia Dome. Texas meets Xavier in the other Sweet 16 game.
Although Williams was a first-team All-Big Ten pick, leading his team in scoring (14.2 points) and the league in assists (6.2), he doesn't have the name recognition of other point guards still playing. That includes two of the point guards here, Duke's Chris Duhon and Xavier's Lionel Chalmers. But they're seniors. Williams, a sophomore, spent last season as a follower, deferring to standout Brian Cook.
"He was a little bit shy coming into last year being that we had Cook and how great Cook was," said junior center Nick Smith, the former Bloomingdale High star.
Williams averaged just 6.3 points and 4.5 assists.
"I knew my time would come," he said, pointing out that he had similar numbers as a sophomore in high school and then improved dramatically as a junior and senior.
Despite a coaching change - Bill Self left for Kansas - and missing three games in December with a broken jaw, Williams' time has come.
"He hasn't improved, he's just shown people what he could do," said fellow sophomore Dee Brown, who gives Illinois a unique two-point-guard lineup. "Last year, he just layed back and played his role."
He's still playing his role, it's just a far more substantial one. During the past seven games, he's averaging nearly 16 points with 48 assists and just six turnovers.
A 3:1 assist-to-turnover ratio is All-American-like. An 8:1 ratio is off-the-charts ridiculous. "It's a crucial time, and you've got to take care of the ball," he said.
"He's not very flashy, just very consistent, very stable," Weber said. "He understands how to play. I'd like to take a lot of credit for it, I hope I can get a little credit, but I think his high school coach did a tremendous job with him; he picks up things. He's just a student of the game. That's kind of old-school.
