Williams's mother knows best
Illinois point guard had excellent teacher
ST. LOUIS -- Denise Smith watched with pride as her son, Deron Williams, helped lead the University of Illinois basketball team to a berth in last night's NCAA championship game against North Carolina. What made Smith really proud, though, was that the lessons she taught her son as his grade-school coach served him well in top-seeded Illinois's 72-57 victory over fourth-seeded Louisville Saturday in the semifinals of the Final Four at the Edward Jones Dome.
While Williams didn't lead his team in scoring or rebounding -- he had 5 points and 5 rebounds -- he did the little things his mother, who once started at West Liberty State, taught him so well.
Things like playing hard on defense. Being unselfish with the ball. Making everyone around him better. The things that added up to Williams becoming an invaluable floor leader for the
"I'm just being a point guard, doing whatever I can to help my team win," Williams said before last night's 75-70 loss to North Carolina in the championship game. "Whether it is guarding the best guy, getting people the ball, doing the little things."
Williams put the clamps on Francisco Garcia in the semifinal, limiting Louisville's top scorer to 4 points on 2-for-10 shooting, and by dishing out nine of Illinois's 21 assists, giving him a tournament-leading 43 assists in five games, nine more than North Carolina's junior guard Raymond Felton (34 in five games).
It was caused in large part by his mother's tutelage.
"She was the defensive player of the year for her high school team," Williams said of his mother, who basically raised him after his father, Byron Williams, left when Deron was 8. "She got me started on defense, and she got me started on passing. It was something she always stressed, which is pretty rare because everybody wants to score."
But Smith stressed the fundamentals to her son, who grew into a 6-foot-3-inch point guard who starred at The Colony (Texas) High School, where he was running mate to heralded star Bracey Wright, now at Indiana.
"She stressed that defense was important," Williams said. "It is a cliche, but she always said it: `Defense wins championships.' She was the coach of my grade-school team. I was the best player on my team and I could have shot it every time, but she wouldn't let me do that. She wanted me to pass it and make everybody else better."
And that's why many believe Williams may be Illinois's best NBA prospect: He does just that.
Williams isn't the leading scorer on his team -- in fact, his 14.2 average ranks second behind Luther Head's 15.8 -- but he is considered by many to be the best player on the team because he is capable of elevating the other aspects of his game, which, in essence, is the job of a point guard.
"This is a team, and that's why we keep winning, but really it's Deron Williams," Illinois assistant coach Wayne McClain told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch after Saturday's triumph. "Every player comes to college wanting to be a scorer, but Deron's unique. He's so cerebral. He's quicker than you might think. He's stronger than he might look."
Garcia, the Cardinals' 6-7 junior guard, discovered that first-hand when Williams applied some in-your-shirt defense.
"He volunteered to cover Garcia as soon as we knew we were playing Louisville," McClain said. "He does that every game we play. He always wants to cover their best scorer. But you know what? Even if he didn't volunteer, he had no choice. He was going to be on him."
Last night's assignment was more of a traditional matchup for Williams. Interestingly enough, it came against a player, Felton, whose signing with the Tar Heels took away an opportunity for Williams to do the same.
"I actually wanted to go to North Carolina all my life . . . but it didn't happen," Williams said. "Carolina did recruit me a little bit, but I guess I was their second option to Felton. My mom was a Carolina fan, and I guess she got me started on that. It was the team I liked. I liked Ed Cota when he was there, Shammond Williams, Vince Carter. I liked all those guys."
Frank Williams? Derek Harper? Those were Illinois point guards who never registered on Williams's radar as a boy.
But they did last night as he attempted to accomplish what no other point guard in Illinois history had by leading the team to its first national championship.
"I think, if you talk to older coaches, legendary coaches, and asked, `What do you start a team with?' most people would say a big guy," said Illinois coach Bruce Weber. "But I think coaches that have been through the war see it differently. They would say a point guard, that's what you start with. Somebody that is a true point guard that understands, has a great feel, is unselfish, his ego doesn't get involved. I think you saw that [against Louisville]. Deron did all the things that never get the headlines." 