As Arizona's Derrick Williams hugged his fifth-seeded team's fans after a dramatic 77-75 victory against No. 12 seed Memphis in the NCAA tournament's second round Friday afternoon, one of them waved a “No Easy Buckets” sign.
The scene was fitting because it had been Williams' soaring clutch block of Memphis forward Wesley Witherspoon's short putback off a missed free throw with two seconds left that preserved the win before 12,631 fans at the BOK Center.
Following the block, the 6-foot-8, 241-pound sophomore power forward screamed and beat his chest in celebration. It capped an outstanding 22-point, 10-rebound performance by the reigning Pac-10 Player of the Year and one of college basketball's most underrated stars.
But perhaps most impressively, Williams' block was his second in the last month to seal an Arizona victory. He also pulled off the same feat in the final seconds of the Wildcats' 87-86 win against Washington on Feb. 19.
“In the moment, he's such a gamer,” Arizona coach Sean Miller said of Williams. “It's as if he's playing in his backyard. He has a way of making big plays and finishing the other team off, and he did it here again tonight.”
Prior to Williams' block, Memphis freshman guard Joe Jackson made his first of two free throws to pull the Tigers to within 77-75 with five seconds left. He then missed his second free throw and after a scramble Witherspoon ended up with the rebound on the left side of the paint before Williams' heroics.
“At one point he was wide open, so I knew he wasn't going to shot-fake because there wasn't enough time on the clock,” Williams said. “So, I just went up and tried to make a hard play on the ball like coach always tells us to do. And good thing it wasn't a foul.”
Memphis coach Josh Pastner was hardly surprised by Williams, who was sometimes triple-teamed by defenders. After all, he voted for him as national Player of the Year.
“I thought Wesley had a good look,” said Pastner, a 1998 graduate of Arizona. “I thought Wesley was going to score it, but I didn't get a good view if it was a foul or not. But that wasn't the reason we didn't get the win.”
Yet, as soon as Arizona forward Solomon Hill saw Witherspoon challenge Williams, he anticipated him blocking the shot.
“It's hard to contest Derrick when he gets that one-two step,” Hill said. “He got the one-two step down; it wasn't going to go. I knew he was going to make the play.”
In a game of hard fouls, flagrant elbows and trash-talking, the versatile Williams set that tone early by glaring at the Memphis bench after scoring his first basket on a layup that didn't come until 15:33 remained in the first half. The rest of the first half, he kept looking over at the Tigers bench after he scored, even on free throws.
Williams, who entered the game averaging 19.1 points and 8.1 rebounds, made 6 of his 11 field-goal attempts and was 9 of 9 from the free-throw line. He also sank his lone three-point attempt and is now shooting an amazing 61 percent on threes this season (36 of 59).
“He's going to make plays and make sure you know,” Hill said of Williams. “He's going to let you know that he did that.”
Arizona also had extra motivation to stop Witherspoon's shot in the final seconds. In the first half, he brashly shook his hand in the face of Miller after making a three-pointer from the left corner.
“Once their seaso's over, what can they say to you?” Hill said. “We just ended their season.”
But for Arizona to have any chance of continuing its season Sunday against fourth-seeded Texas, which edged past No. 13 seed Oakland 85-81 on Friday, the Wildcats will have to get Williams more involved offensively. Against Memphis, his teammates too often settled for poor three-point shots instead of getting him the ball, especially several times against significantly smaller defenders.
That problem was highlighted by a 13-0 run that Memphis used to take a 53-48 lead with 13:16 left in the game. During that spurt of just over five minutes, Williams didn't take a single shot.
“We need to get him the ball more, to be honest,” Arizona guard Brendon Lavender said. “He's one of the best big men, if not the best, in college right now. He's real consistent with his scoring.”
Before Williams left the court Friday, he stood waiting to do a television interview. Across the arena, Memphis fans jeered him.
Williams had nearly played for the Tigers, visiting only them and Arizona after being let out of his letter of intent with USC in the summer of 2009.
Williams waved to the Tigers fans, and one of them in a blue and gray Dr. Seuss hat with the same colored tinsel raised his middle finger at him. Williams simply smiled back at him.
He'd made another block that Tigers fan is unlikely to forget anytime soon.
