Williams awarded Duke's second consecutive Naismith

For the second straight year and the sixth time in school history, a Duke player has been awarded one of college basketball's most prestigious individual honors.

Junior guard Jason Williams, who has averaged 21.3 points and 5.4 assists per game this season, was named Naismith College Player of the Year Monday, succeeding former teammate and current Memphis Grizzlies guard Shane Battier for the honor. Former Blue Devil greats Johnny Dawkins (1986), Danny Ferry (1989), Christian Laettner (1992) and Elton Brand (1999) were also Naismith winners.

"Jason joins some pretty select company," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said, as he announced the Naismith decision to the media in a Monday news conference. "I think it's indicative of the year he's had. He's had a fantastic year and he's been our leader the whole year long, so we're very pleased for him and certainly for our program for him to get that award."

The Plainfield, N.J., native has been the favorite for many national awards since the beginning of the season, when several organizations honored him as preseason national player of the year. The Atlanta Tip-Off Club, which presides over the selection of the Naismith awards, did not hand out a preseason player of the year honor, but Williams was the leading vote-getter in a preseason poll facilitated by the club, which included selected members of the media, NCAA coaches and past Naismith winners.

Despite his excitement about winning the honor, Williams said that he was more focused on his team's current run through the NCAA Tournament than any individual accolades he has received.

"It's a great honor to have," Williams said. "But I think the bigger thing on my mind right now is trying to focus on Indiana and trying to win that game."

The honor for Williams is one of a handful of honors Williams has already garnered, including the ESPN.com andSportsline.com player of the year awards, and promises to be one of many that the projected No. 1 NBA Draft pick will receive. In fact, as a sophomore, Williams beat out Battier for the National Association of Basketball Coaches player of the year award, one of the only accolades that the Birmingham, Mich. native did not collect.

However, it was Williams who came up on the short end of the stick a few weeks ago, when Maryland's Juan Dixon, who has put up impressive numbers of his own throughout the season, edged the Blue Devil guard for the ACC's most valuable player honor. Despite the fact that he was favored for that award in the preseason along with many others, Williams said that being shunned by his own conference did not bother him.