UNC's forgotten Williams has game to remember
ST. LOUIS -- It's hard to pity a team that had lost its fourth scoring option. But at North Carolina, Jawad Williams wasn't even the first Williams option.
Roy Williams, the coach, was down on his senior's game. Freshman forward Marvin Williams, who shares time with Jawad, is projected as a high draft pick while coming off the bench.
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| Jawad Williams jams home two of his 20 points. (AP) |
"The only thing I don't like is people making excuses for me," Jawad Williams said after scoring 20 points in 23 minutes against Michigan State in Saturday's 87-71 national semifinal victory. "I never have an excuse and I never will."
If there was ever a guy who could, though ...
Williams' sore hip flexor came upon the senior shortly before the ACC Tournament. Since Feb. 27, he had scored in double digits just once.
"I told him that this is the best time to make your comeback," teammate David Noel said. "He regained his confidence with a game like he played tonight."
Williams' game is sometimes caught up in the Carolina hype vortex. First-round draft choice? Hardly. Williams probably doesn't put the ball on the floor well enough for the NBA at the moment. What he needed to do right now was assert himself more.
On Saturday, only Sean May (22 points, 9 of 18 from the field) scored and shot more for the Tar Heels than Williams (20 points, 9 of 13).
In one intimating sequence Saturday, he blocked Michigan State's Maurice Ager. Twenty-one seconds later, Rashad McCants came down and nailed a 3-pointer that put the Heels up by 10 with 12½ minutes left.
"I told him after the game, 'The reason why we won this game is because you have heart. You wouldn't let us fail,'" May said. "He carried us in the first half.
"He was a totally different player than I've seen the last four games, He was the old Jawad Williams, dunking on people, rebounding the ball, making big plays, doing little things that he probably doesn't get enough credit for."
Williams' decline wasn't exactly a tragedy for Carolina. Quick, how many teams actually have a fourth scoring option to lose? On a team full of stars, that's what Williams is -- on the nights when he isn't bothered by something.
As a freshman from Cleveland in 2001-02, the 6-9 forward was part of that dismal class that finished 8-20. His mother had to talk him out of transferring. He peaked his sophomore year, averaging 14.9 points. Williams has declined each of the last two years.
He had been averaged 3.6 points over the past five games. After helping get the Heels into the national championship game, Williams declared himself "98 percent."
There's a two-percent margin there, then, if the Heels don't win Monday.
"That was the way I was brought up," Williams said. "I never make excuses."
