North Carolina State University Athletics
PEELER: Williams Is Ready For Pack's Tourney Run
3/11/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
BY TIM PEELER
GREENSBORO, N.C. – C.J. Williams remembers the first time he really paid attention to the ACC Tournament.
He had just turned five years old, and there was a guy on television named Randolph Childress who made a big impression on a little kid from Fayetteville, N.C.
For three days, the Wake Forest guard made just about every shot he took. In the title game, Childress scored 37 points, including all of his team's points in overtime and the game-winning shot in an 82-80 win over North Carolina, breaking the Demon Deacons' 32-year drought without an ACC title.
Some say it was the greatest individual performance in the 56-year history of the event, or at least since Wolfpack superstar Tommy Burleson carried the 1974 team to the ACC title with his 38-point, 17-rebound performance against Maryland.
So that got Williams to thinking earlier this week, as he watched a tape of Childress' remarkable performance earlier this week: can he and the Wolfpack do something similar?
"I was just a little kid back then, but I watched a lot of ACC basketball," Williams said. "Randolph Childress was a great player and a great scorer for his team. I just hope I can go out and do the same kind of thing, or whatever I can do to help my team."
Williams, after starting the first 16 games of the season, has finally found his stride coming off the bench for the Sidney Lowe's Wolfpack. In Sunday's regular-season finale against Boston College, he scored 14 points off the bench in 35 minutes of play.
Williams credits his improved play to his versatility. He can come off the bench to replace either shooting guard Farnold Degand or small forward Scott Wood. When Williams started 16 games earlier this year, it was as a shooting guard.
"Playing the three has allowed me to have a lot more mismatches," Williams said. "A lot of guys playing the three might not have the same kind of quickness I have. Even when I am at the two, there are some guys bigger than me, so playing at the three gives me a chance to play a different role."
Williams' contributions are a big reason the 11th-seeded Wolfpack (17-14 overall, 5-11 in the ACC) has won three of its last four games heading into Thursday's 9:35 p.m. first-round game against seventh-seeded Clemson (21-9, 9-7).
"We are coming into the tournament with a lot of momentum, and that is something you need in an event like this," Williams said. "We just have to play great defense and the offense will come along."
The Wolfpack will have to win four games in four days to bring home its 11th ACC Championship. And while no men's or women's team has ever done that before, NC State has come close on several occasions, reaching the men's championship games in 1997 and 2007 and last weekend's women's championship game.
Senior Dennis Horner, the lone remaining player on the men's team from that 2007 run down in Tampa, hopes he can end his ACC career in the same way he began it.
"We have been playing together better as a team," Horner said. "We haven't been turning the ball over. Guys like C.J. have been stepping up off the bench. I think we can make a run."
Wednesday afternoon, the Wolfpack practiced at the Greensboro Coliseum without head coach Sidney Lowe, who stayed back at the hotel to recover from a 24-hour bug.
Williams believes this year's team has enough momentum and energy to play for a few more weeks. He hopes to seize his opportunity to become more of a leader, not only for the rest of this season, but as he prepares to go into his junior campaign.
"The beginning of the season I was a little hesitant to do try to step up and be a leader because I wasn't playing that well," he said. "It's hard to tell other people what to do when you aren't playing well yourself.
"Once I got myself going, I was able to help the others out a little bit also."
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
