DURHAM — The good news for Duke is that sophomore point guard Jason Williams is already an NBA level player. Of course, that’s also the bad news for the Blue Devils (16-1), who are crossing their fingers, toes and pitchforks that Williams can somehow be successfully persuaded to return for his junior season.
Based on Tuesday night’s performance against visiting Boston College, Williams is already way too good for the college game. No, make that way, way, way too good for the college game. Williams scored a career-high 34 points in No. 2 Duke’s 97-75 victory over 25th-ranked Boston College. He made 12 of 19 field goal attempts, including five of 10 3-pointers. He made shots from places that humans don’t dream of shooting from. He made all of them look ridiculously easy.
“Obviously, Jason had an amazing game,” said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, “but Shane (Battier) and (Carlos) Boozer were right there with him.”
Well, no, not really. Not that Battier (five 3-pointers) and Boozer (five dunks), who scored 22 apiece, were shabby. But Williams was from another planet. Maybe we should just start calling him “Mars” Williams. You know, so he can hang with Venus Williams.
Williams looked so strong and quick and smooth that if some NBA team trades 10 players and 10 future draft picks and 10 million dollars for the opportunity to draft him this June, well, they’re probably getting a steal.
Boston College coach Al Skinner was more to the point than Krzyzewski in his analysis.
“Williams was the difference,” he said. “Williams gets any shot he wants and he gets his teammates any shot they want. He totally controls the game.”
“I have to take charge,” said Williams. “Everyone has told me that, from Coach to Shane. I’m the one who has the ball in his hands most of the time.”
When he wasn’t swishing jumpers or making daring drives, Williams dished out nine assists and hounded BC star Troy Bell into a 4-for-16 shooting night. The really telling stat on Williams’ dominance is that he is destroying Duke’s best competition — not its worst. In his five games against ranked opponents, Williams is averaging 26 points and six assists. Enough said.
Duke, as a whole, wasn’t very good in the first half. Mike Dunleavy didn’t score; Nate James was pretty awful all the way around; and top sub Chris Duhon couldn’t find the range. Duke also got killed on its defensive board by a small, but aggressive bunch of Eagles (12-2), who piled up 12 second-chance points. The Devils, who had led by as many as 10, limped to the locker room with a slim 42-38 lead, knowing a displeased Coach K was going to let them have it.
He didn’t let them down.
Duke’s lead was down to 44-42 early in the second half when Williams must have said something along the lines of, “OK fellows, let’s get serious.” He came down the floor, jumped over a defender and sank a closely contested 18-footer. It was a very un-Duke-like shot. An NBA shot. Then he exhorted Duke fans to get crazy by beating the floor like a rock drummer.
Then Williams decided maybe it would be a good idea to get Dunleavy involved and threaded him a sweet pass for a layup. Then he made spectacular feeds to Boozer for a couple of scores, including a vicious dunk. And then James caught his first break — making a 3-point play on a ball that slipped out of his hands, sailed through the air and went in the hole.
Just like that, Duke, which has won six straight since losing to Stanford, had an 11-0 run and a 13-point lead.
“Up until then we kept our composure and handled things well, but they cracked us for a few minutes and that was that,” said Skinner.
Duke’s lead grew steadily. Then with time about to expire, Williams proved once more that he was ready for the NBA — putting on a little showtime act that infuriated BC’s already frustrated Kenny Walls. Walls shoved Williams hard enough to knock him onto the scorer’s table. Williams exchanged a little NBA-style trash talk with Walls, then made the free throws.
“Ijust hope that last second isn’t everyone’s big story,” said Krzyzewski, “because this was one hell of a ballgame. We played great in the second half.”
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NOTES:Duhon didn’t make a field goal, but had eight assists. ... Dunleavy came on strong for nine points and nine boards. ... Battier and Boozer had four blocks each. ... BC had five players in double figures, including reserve Jonathan Beerbohm, who had 12 boards and several spectacular dunks. ... Duke plays at Georgia Tech Saturday at noon.
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