X’s and woes: Trying to stop Duke's Jason Williams (SN Archive — 2002)

This article, "X's and woes" by Mike DeCourcy, originally appeared in the March 18, 2002 issue of The Sporting News.

On the board mounted against a conference room wall in Wake Forest's athletic complex, Jason Williams is nothing more than a sloppily drawn X. That's him, right there next to the sloppily drawn free-throw lane. This is how it begins — the science of solving college basketball's most perplexing puzzle. It begins with lousy art.

Perhaps we should not be critiquing Skip Prosser's marker magic. Prosser, Wake Forest's coach, has been kind enough to open his doors and spend his valuable time explaining something he — and many others — concedes is virtually impossible.

How do you prevent Williams, Duke's All-American guard, its leading scorer and the engine of its 90-points-per-game machine, from having his way with the basketball?

Williams inspires fear in those about to oppose him. Two major programs we contacted to ask about observing their pre-Jason preparation declined, each citing concern about the “distraction” such scrutiny would cause. Williams simply inspires awe in those best described as his victims. “Breathtaking” is the word Florida State guard Monte Cummings uses. “My teammates hate when I say this, but it was a privilege just to be on the same court with him.”

Although Duke does not enter March as the same overwhelming favorite that began the season, how to defend Williams is the essential question governing the NCAA Tournament until an opponent finds a way or until an opponent somehow escapes the Blue Devils without concocting a solution. Or until Duke wins this thing for the second time in a row.

“Every time you meet and say, 'OK, now we're getting ready for Duke,' “Prosser says, “the first name that comes up is Jason Williams.”

As Prosser stands at the board, Duke is on a one-game losing streak. We are three days removed from Maryland's wrecking the Blue Devils at Cole Field House. Prosser saw the wrinkles in Gary Williams' defensive game plan and how well they worked. But he's not certain Maryland's scheme is ideal for his team in tomorrow night's game against the Devils, especially with star forward Josh Howard injured and the Demon Deacons forced toward a smaller lineup.

There was one ingredient Prosser noticed in Maryland's victory that he'd like to duplicate. “If they shoot 7-for-33 from 3 against us, it would enhance our chances,” he says. “You have to hope that happens.” When the subject is playing defense against Jason Williams, hope is a recurring theme.

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On the ball

If preparing a game plan to defend against Duke begins with Williams, preparing to defend against Williams begins with managing the Devils' ball screens.

The ball screen is the most elemental offensive tactic, but, as with a single note on a musical chart, its simplicity can be the foundation of sophisticated beauty. It can lead an offense in myriad directions depending on how the defense reacts. It can lead a defense to ruin depending on how well the offense executes.

The definition of the ball screen is simple. With Duke, a bigger player, such as 6-9 center Carlos Boozer or 6-9 power forward Mike Dunleavy, establishes a barrier on the perimeter. By dribbling narrowly past the screen, most often from left to right, Williams drags the defender into a collision and suddenly has room to shoot, drive or pass. With his speed, shooting range, strength and feel for playing off the screen, Williams can be nearly unstoppable.

“Technically, there supposedly are four ways to play a ball screen like that,” Prosser says. “The problem is, there's no good option.”

The trap. When Williams comes off Boozer's screen, Boozer's defender and the player guarding Williams surge toward Williams and try to force him to give up the ball. But if Boozer is left alone, he should turn and dash toward the goal, wide open for a pass from Williams.

“He is the only one, on occasion, who stops himself,” Clemson coach Larry Shyatt says. “The most foolish thing we ever would do is get two people close to him because it would be wasting a defender.”

The hug. This involves Boozer's defender fighting to the side of the screen from which Williams is approaching. The defender extends an arm to force Williams to take a wider path around Boozer. The player guarding Williams sprints under the screen and meets Williams on the opposite side. This can be the most dangerous approach as it leaves him unguarded for at least a moment, and that's all the time he needs to fire a 3.

Plus, Duke has the perfect counter: a stacked screen with Boozer and Dunleavy at the top of the key that is impossible for the defender to get through.

The switch. With Dunleavy as the screen, his defender and the one dealing with Williams simply change places. That means putting a smaller player on Dunleavy and a bigger — but probably slower — player on Williams. Not many teams are eager to deal with either of those options.

The hedge. As Boozer sets the screen, his defender slides from the opposite side of Williams' approach and cuts off his path. The route of the player guarding Williams puts him in position to prevent an immediate pass to Boozer. Once the big defender feels comfortable that his teammate has regained his position on Williams, he turns and hustles back to keep Boozer company. This may be the safest approach, but it has side effects.

“He's able to take and split you with the man who shows and the man who's guarding him,” says Ball State coach Tim Buckley, whose team held Williams to 6-of-22 shooting in a November loss to Duke. “Most guys have to dribble out and around the guy who shows. He's quick enough and explosive enough to drive right through those guys.”

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On the move

Although teams have little choice but to spend extensive time discussing and practicing ball-screen defense because of the nuances involved, Duke recently has used that approach less often. In the Devils' January 19 home win against Wake Forest, they ran the play 22 times. In the loss to Maryland on February 17, it was down to 13.

To prepare itself to be multidimensional during the nine games in 25 days required to win both the ACC and NCAA tournaments, Duke has more often turned to its motion offense. In the motion game, players move constantly without set patterns to find and create open spaces.

“In our league, teams scout us so much, you have to be able to change it up,” Blue Devils assistant coach Steve Wojciechowski says. “We don't want to just get into the one thing all the time. We want to be able to mix it up and keep teams, hopefully, on their toes.”

The drive-and-kick element of Duke's motion game — dribbling deep into the defense to draw defenders from the perimeter, then passing back to open shooters — was the most important component in last season's Final Four victories over Maryland and Arizona. This is a different team, though. With Shane Battier in the lineup, the Devils had four superb 3-point shooters. Dunleavy, Williams and Chris Duhon are as dangerous as ever, but wing Dahntay Jones has been only sporadically effective.

Playing more motion, Duke was held to 73 points by Maryland and endured a long scoreless streak in its loss to Virginia. That has not changed the team's direction. It might sound presumptuous, but this is what coach Mike Krzyzewski is talking about when he says he's not as concerned about the ACC championship as another NCAA title. It's almost like Tiger Woods using the lesser PGA Tour events to prepare his game for the Masters.

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On the job

The one person who consistently has defended Williams with some degree of efficacy is Maryland guard Steve Blake. He stalked Williams during the Terps' victory over Duke in February, and he had more help from his teammates and a tricked-up scheme. The result — Williams had 17 points on 6-of-22 shooting — was a dramatic reversal from the first game between the two teams, when Williams sliced up the Terps for a 34-point night.

In the rematch, Maryland used an unconventional method of guarding the ball screen. When Boozer set the pick, Terps center Lonny Baxter stepped back from the play, toward the foul line. Blake was left to fight through the screen on his own. When Williams came around the screen and looked for room to drive, Baxter was directly in his road, cutting off access to the lane.

It was a great idea, which coach Gary Williams was proud of but loathe to discuss following the game. “We may have to play them again,” he said, “but they'll probably be ready for that, and we'll need to have something else.”

So long as the Terps have Blake, they have a chance. Prosser believes Blake is effective in this matchup because of his length. Williams is listed at 6-2 but might be a touch shorter. Blake stands 6-3, and his limbs call to mind a praying mantis.

“He can afford to be off Jason a little bit farther,” Prosser says. “He can take another half-step back, which allows him to take away penetration and yet still be long enough to get into the shot.”

If size is an issue, that would seem to empower several elite teams that might face the Devils deep in the tournament. Kansas' Kirk Hinrich is as tall and long as Blake. Cincinnati's Immanuel McElroy is an inch taller and more dynamic athletically — though he struggled against Memphis' Dajuan Wagner, whose package of size, strength and speed is similar to Williams'. Oklahoma could try 6-5 Ebi Ere, who would be about as big as any defender Williams has faced.

But being taller might not be enough against Williams. Few bigger defenders have faced players who change direction as quickly. Cummings, who is 6-4, says he and the other Seminoles attempted to “crowd” Williams but admits no tactic works particularly well. “We tried to put a bigger guy on him, Julius Hodge,” NC State assistant Larry Hunter says. “But as a freshman, and with the physical strength difference, that wasn't a great plan. But it was something we tried.”

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On the spot

Some of what makes Williams difficult to deal with has little to do with his talent. It is partly a matter of Duke's scoring options at the other four positions. It is partly a result of the freedom Krzyzewski's players are given to play aggressively (thought not foolishly) with the ball.

Duhon, Dunleavy and Williams have such great range they're cleared to fire jump shots from as far as 30 feet. In practice before the Devils played Wake, Prosser had his managers tape a white stripe onto the court about where the NBA 3-point arc would be. He calls it the “Duke line.” The Deacons were instructed to be certain the key perimeter shooters were picked up at this point. That is not a defender's habit, though. As Prosser says, “It's aberrant.”

Williams' productivity is partly a product of Duke's wide-open approach to the game, which encourages the maximum number of possessions on the theory that the team with the more gifted players — that would be the Blue Devils — will get more opportunities to make winning plays.

That's why Duke's defenders extend into passing lanes and try to turn deflections into steals and steals into breaks. Williams is particularly hard to handle on the run. It's tough enough to keep pace with him, but defenders trying to remain in front of him eventually retreat far enough that he's in shooting range. Or he gets the half-step advantage to begin a driving layup.

“If he gets by you, that forces help,” Prosser says. “And they do such a great job of drawing and kicking; if you close out, they'll throw one more pass. They do an unbelievable job of catching the ball and making a quick decision: to drive it or shoot it or pass it. That decision's made while the ball's in the air.”

Avoiding turnovers and forcing the Blue Devils to defend longer can reduce those long, arena-shaking scoring runs. Making Williams work hard on defense can help tire him, perhaps take an inch or two off his jump shot or convince him to settle for a jumper rather than invite more contact in the lane. This was the approach Clemson followed, and it held him to 13 shots and 19 points in the Tigers' loss at Duke.

When Wake Forest got its opportunity for a rematch against Duke 38 hours after Prosser's lecture, the Deacons did not keep their turnovers to a minimum. They threw the ball into the crowd, at least, rather than to Duke, so there weren't many fast-break scores. But all those misspent possessions kept Wake from having any chance to be competitive. Duke departed from Joel Coliseum with a 90-61 victory.

“So much for all that preparation,” Prosser says.

And that puts us right back where we started. Most often, the science that goes into defending Jason Williams does not create a pretty picture.