Gold Rush: Williams' Presence Makes Deacons Better
1/6/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 6, 2004
Presence is defined as immediate proximity in time or space. Presence is what Eric Williams offers the 2003-04 Demon Deacon basketball team. By just being there, the 6-9 Williams makes this team better. While freshman phenom Chris Paul and counterparts Taron Downey and Justin Gray seem to be getting the lion's share of attention for the moment, Williams is quietly leading the team in scoring and rebounding, statistical categories that usually bring the spotlight shining brightly. Although the competition likes to categorize Williams as a bruising hulk, he seems to be playing through games much like the soft-spoken and friendly person he has proven to be off the court.
One can tell that this is a different Eric Williams from the one that played last season. The 275-pound sophomore center is trimmer, losing 15 pounds from a season ago. What used to be just pounds are now defined muscle. He is quicker and more skilled and fitting well into the up-tempo style Wake is playing this year. "Eric Williams can run down the court well," Deacon head coach Skip Prosser said of Williams earlier this season. "He's not a wooly mammoth. He can run."
Williams' work in the off-season has produced undeniable progress. Through seven games, Williams is averaging almost 10 points more per game than he did a season ago and more than two more rebounds per contest. He also is getting more than seven more minutes of action per contest.
"A lot of people say 'Eric, this is your year,' " Williams said. "Last year I was a freshman and really wasn't focused on it. We had Josh Howard, who I watched when I was in high school. It was just a shock for me to play on the court with him. It was like I'm just out here having fun and getting my feet wet. But Coach told me 'we don't have Josh anymore, and we need a dominant scorer. Why not you?' As soon as he said that, it just kind of stuck in my head. Why not me? Why can't I be the guy this team relies on?"
While making the difficult transition from high school to the ACC, Williams had his bouts with foul trouble. Last season he fouled out five times and accumulated 96 personal fouls. Through eight games this season, Williams has 22 fouls but has better managed the fouls and has yet to be disqualified. Against North Carolina A&T on Dec. 30, Williams played 18 minutes without committing a single foul. The bottom line is he has been able to be present at critical stages of games.
And to better put in perspective just how much Williams has improved consider that entering the A&T game, Williams ranked second in the ACC in scoring, second in the league in field goal percentage (59.3), 15th in the league in rebounds per game and seventh in offensive rebounds per contest.
"I think a team is almost like a timepiece, and the more moving parts you have, the more chances you have of a breakdown," Prosser said following the Deacons' win over the Aggies. "You play five or six guys, everybody knows their role, but sometimes (when you play many players), you run the risk of a cacophony of play. Eric, on the other hand, has been pretty consistent throughout, and in a performance that was much more staccato than free flowing, he was outstanding."
Nowhere was his ability to be present when he is most needed more evident than in Wake Forest's 119-114 triple-overtime victory over North Carolina Dec. 20. Williams played a career-high 40 minutes and committed just three fouls, all of which came in the first half. What stood out to Prosser was that Williams was able to be in the game when he could make the biggest impact - after North Carolina's Sean May had fouled out and the Tar Heels had few options to defend a bigger Williams. He ended up being the player that lifted the Deacons to victory. Williams hit a hook in the lane with 37 seconds left and later converted two foul shots to seal the win in undoubtedly one of the ACC's best ever games. His 11 field goals were a career high, and his 24 points was one point from tying his career high.
"He stayed out of foul trouble and stayed in the game," Prosser said following the ACC victory. "It couldn't happen to a better person."
"Honestly I was relieved to get rid of that game," Williams said. "That's the kind of game you want to end the season on, a packed house and you win something like that. After the game, it kind of felt like the season was over. But honestly, after the Carolina game, it dawned on me that I have to have a game like this every night."
With the series of injuries that Wake Forest has suffered this season his consistency could not have come at a better time. Chris Ellis, a 6-9, sophomore forward, fractured his foot in the first practice of the year and just returned to game action on Dec. 30. Vytas Danelius, a 6-9 junior forward, has missed three games this year with ankle injuries. With two inside players injured, the need for consistent play in the post has been there. Williams has taken the challenge head-on.
"This year is more serious," Williams said. "I took the season serious last year, but I was more worried about having fun than anything. Now it's time to go to work. This is your job. Injuries are a part of life, but you have to pick it up for the team until they get back. Now that I don't have any subs I have to have a lot more endurance and stay in the game."
If he has a fault, Williams says that it's that he isn't aggressive enough from the outset of games. He admits to feeling his way through stretches and wanting to more involve his teammates than take control. Maybe he is unselfishness to a fault, but he genuinely speaks about not letting down his team whether it means taking on the scoring load or reversing the ball to open shooters.
"My problem is I want to get my team into it before I do anything," Williams said. "I want to rebound for them and kick it out to them. But Coach says you've got to feel it from the jump. You can't wait and see how your team is going to react. You've got to get started and they'll feed off you."
Perhaps a reluctant leader, Williams has stepped into an important role in making the 2003-2004 Deacons a complete inside, outside package. As ACC play begins in January, he'll certainly draw the attention of opposing coaches who will want to pare the points Williams has been able to produce night in and night out. Prosser saw potential when he recruited Williams out of Wake Forest, N.C. And perhaps only Prosser fully sees what Williams can become.
"I still think, and I mean this in all seriousness, he's at the tip of the iceberg to the kind of player he can become," Prosser said. "He's better, but I think he'll continue to get better."
