Jason Williams found out about his alleged stress fracture the same way everyone else did yesterday-word of mouth. But nothing had to be said for Dave Odom to find out the alleged fracture was nothing more than an unsubstantiated rumor.
Minutes into last night's 85-62 Duke victory over visiting Wake Forest, Williams answered an early 7-2 run from the Demon Deacons by bombing Duke's first of 14 successful three-pointers and then finding Carlos Boozer all alone under the basket for a dunk. Williams' game-high 27 points were nothing new for Duke's leading scorer, but the early morning speculation that he might miss last night's game because of a stress fracture stunned everyone, from fans to his coaches and, most of all, Williams himself.
"I'm not really a big Internet goer, but I found out through my coaches," he said. "They were like, 'Are you all right? I heard you had a stress fracture.' And I'm like, 'No, I'm good to go.'"
The conjecture about Williams' playing status was rampant and, for a while at least, it even had him wondering whether or not he would step on the floor last night.
"When it comes down to it, I really wanted to play tonight," said Williams, who landed on a teammate two days ago in practice, prompting the bombardment of Internet posts professing to have inside information on his health. "I was really scared because I thought maybe I was going to find out I had a stress fracture, but thank God everything turned out to be good."
Although the injury to a previously sprained ankle was initially thought to be fairly serious, tests Tuesday night revealed only a minor sprain. That prognosis was confirmed yesterday morning, and Williams remained in the training room throughout the afternoon to receive treatment on the sprain.
"He hardly did anything in practice," Krzyzewski said of Williams' injury. "He has been playing with it for a couple weeks and he tweaked it again. It's one of those things; it's just aggravating. And of course he was terrific, even with that going on."
So terrific that Odom, the feisty Wake coach who received a technical foul in the first half during a decisive 21-3 Duke run, was hard-pressed to accept the fact that anything was wrong with Williams. When Odom was asked if he could believe that Williams took over the game despite a bum ankle, the response was incredulous, more a concession of defeat than anything else.
"I'd believe anything," Odom said. His star, Robert O'Kelley, had just clashed head-to-head with Williams and had exited Cameron's doors with his tail between his legs after being outscored 27-6. What else could the coach say?
He had been privy to what has become routine this season, another show-stopping performance by Williams. Duke's point guard connected five times from beyond the three-point arc, he showed only the slightest signs of favoring one side and he never backed away from a collision.
More than once, the 6-foot-2, 196-pound floor leader raced down the court on a fast break and took the ball straight to the hole with a much bigger Wake defender in his path. He did not always score-he did not even always draw the foul call from the referees-but each and every time he attacked the basket he showed the Demon Deacons he would not back down, that he was not concerned about his ankle. As Williams joked afterward, "No pain, no gain, you know what I'm saying."
His resiliency-as usual, he still played 35 minutes-was something that surprised everyone, even his teammates.
"I don't know what he did, I guess he popped a couple motrin in before the game," Shane Battier said. "He came out and showed that he could handle adversity and that he could go and be the all star that he is."
When the game had ended and Williams had a chance to unlace his game shoes and rest, he was his normal self, playfully teasing the media in his charismatic way. He divulged little about his injury, answering every question, but not always giving every question a straight answer.
And when all was said and done, only Williams and the trainers even knew which ankle was sprained in the first place, as the point guard sidestepped that query in order to keep future opponents guessing as well.
"I'm not going to tell you because you know we've got a lot more games left, and right now, to everybody else, my foot is doing great," Williams said. "There's no injury, I'm fine. Coach is misinformed, I'm good to go and I'm ready to play Maryland."
Last night, Williams left Maryland with little doubt that he will be ready for Saturday's game at Cole Field House. And in Odom's opinion, Williams' tongue-in-cheek reply probably did not even hint of sarcasm because for all Wake could tell, there was no injury and Duke's point guard is, in fact, fine.
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