Williams set for Final Four

The North Carolina senior said a return trip to the Final Four will serve as a reminder of his 1-for-13 performance in a loss to Arizona in last year's semifinals.

Williams, the school's career 3-point leader, was in fact reminded of his poor shooting game yesterday morning when he turned the television on, then several hours later when reporters grilled him on the subject.

"Actually, (yesterday) morning on ESPN they were playing the 1997 Final Four (highlights) and in the middle of the thing they were like, 'Well, it wasn't a good semifinal game for Shammond Williams,' and they showed me missing some shots."

What was Williams' reaction to the TV commentary?

"It was the truth so there is nothing I can say," he said. "But now, having an opportunity to go back, hopefully I can turn it around and play my style of basketball."

Williams, who believes he is often overshadowed by All-Americans Antawn Jamison and Vince Carter, is a bit of a loner, listing his hobby as spending time alone thinking and shooting by himself at the Smith Center at 2 a.m.

Williams is the team's second-leading scorer at 17.0 points per game and shoots 41.3 percent from beyond the arc. His 131-for-144 (91 percent) free-throw effort this season is the best in school history.

But he voiced his displeasure several weeks ago when he was named second-team all-ACC, and not to the first team.

Earlier last month and three days after scoring a career-high 42 points in a 107-100 double overtime victory at Georgia Tech, Williams left the bench in tears after a disagreement with coach Bill Guthridge. He returned but didn't play in the second half, and totaled just one point for the game.

Both parties said the incident, which was captured live by ESPN, was quickly buried and forgotten.

Still, Williams is uncomfortable discussing his actions.

"I don't regret it at all," Williams said yesterday. "I feel bad that things went that way, but I felt like being the person I am I handled it the best way I could. I was never disrespectful or anything like that to my coaches."

Most would agree that without Williams the Tar Heels (34-3) would not be playing Utah (29-3) on Saturday in the program's 14th Final Four appearance.

He scored 32 points in an overtime victory against North Carolina-Charlotte in the second round of the NCAA tournament, then added 18 and 19 points in the East Regional semifinals and finals in Greensboro this past weekend.

"He was an important part of our year," Guthridge said when asked about the value to Williams. "Shammond has improved a lot during his career here.

"He's a tireless worker, and if someone says he can't dribble with his left hand very well, then he'll work on it and work on it until he can do it. He has made himself into an excellent player."

And one of the main go-to guys in crunch time on a team full of offensive stars.

Williams has scored 35 points in North Carolina's last 20 minutes of overtime, including 10 in the Atlantic Coast Conference tourney semifinals against Maryland and nine against UNCC in the NCAAs.

Williams' teammates have little doubt he'll rebound from last year's Final Four shooting slump.

"The guy put a lot of pressure on himself after that performance, and he was despicable about the way he played," Jamison said. "Shammond is too smart to go out there and say, 'I shot 1-for-13 last year, and I'm going to come out there and gun it.' He's going to go out there and do the things he's been doing the last couple of months and throughout the years."

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