THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 21, 1996 TAG: 9602210550
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ED MILLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Long : 112 lines
Glenn ``Big Dog'' Robinson did it. So did ``Pistol'' Pete Maravich.
But so, too, did Joe Jakubick. And Greg Guy and Harry Kelly and Kevin Houston - guys who were so publicity-poor, they couldn't afford nicknames.
In fact, for every big-name player to lead NCAA Division I in scoring, and go on to make a fortune in the NBA, there are two from small schools who did it and never made a dime. Players who rarely if ever got on television, players who caused newspaper agate readers across the country to scratch their heads and ask: ``Who?''
Players like Hampton University's JaFonde Williams.
In the tradition of Jakubick, Guy and all the anonymous others, Williams, a 6-foot-1 guard, is making a run at the national scoring title. Williams, who has a nickname - ``J.J.'' - was leading the nation last week, with a 26.9 average. Back-to-back games of 17 and 20 points lowered his average to 26.2, however, and with two games remaining, Williams is in third place, one-half point behind Bubba Wells of Austin Peay and three-tenths of a point behind Kevin Granger of Texas Southern.
Williams could surpass both with a couple of mammoth scoring nights, but he won't be looking for his shot any more than usual tonight, when Hampton plays its home finale against Coastal Carolina, or on March 4, when the Pirates finish their season at Oral Roberts. Williams plans to let the shots - and a possible scoring title - come to him.
``I'm not going to say I don't want it,'' Williams said. ``It would be nice. But if it doesn't happen, that's OK. We're winning now, so other guys are stepping up.''
Hampton (8-16) had won four in a row before falling to Oral Roberts 74-68 Saturday night. But overall in their first season in Division I, the Pirates have not had much to celebrate. Road trips have been long. Home crowds have been sparse. Several losses have been heart-breakingly close.
``We don't get the opportunity to say we're No. 1 in a lot of things,'' Hampton University coach Byron Samuels said.
Williams certainly never expected to have a chance to finish No. 1 in scoring among the almost 4,000 young men who play Division I basketball.
But after scoring 38 against Dayton, 39 against Marshall, and 31 against Iona in consecutive games in early January, Williams parachuted into the national statistics, at No. 3. He's been among the top three since.
``It all happened so fast, I was just as surprised as everybody else,'' he said. ``People told me I was No. 3 in the nation, and I was like, `Oh, OK.' ''
Williams was second in scoring in the Division II CIAA last season, with a 22.5 average. He never doubted he could make a smooth transition to Division I this season.
Williams would have been in Division I all along, if he had not been late qualifying under NCAA academic guidelines.
``Temple, Manhattan, St. Joe's,'' Williams said, ticking off some of the schools that recruited him out of Highland Springs High near Richmond.
Williams signed with Division II Hampton, where he could sit out a year and still have four to play. Soon after signing, he qualified to play Division I. But Williams, who grew up following the CIAA and had a couple of high school teammates playing at Hampton, decided to stay put.
``I miss the CIAA,'' he said. ``I think if we would have been in the CIAA this year, we would have won it.''
Williams, in fact, uses a CIAA analogy to describe Hampton's first year in Division I.
``Every game,'' he said, ``is like a Norfolk State or (Virginia) Union game. We had two or three big games last year. This year, they're all big.''
Williams has been the biggest reason Hampton has stayed in as many games as it has. Always a dangerous long-range shooter, Williams has expanded his game this year, adding some dribble-penetration moves that keep defenders guessing.
``We tell him, `Use your jump shot to get by people,' '' Samuels said. ``We work on that every single day. He's sort of had the defenders in limbo: `Do I stay back? Or do I get closer?'
``We spend an awful lot of time with skill development, and he's made an awful lot of improvement. He's scored in the team concept. He hasn't gone one-on-one much. We run a lot of stuff for him.''
Lately, Williams has been running stuff for others. After spending the entire season at shooting guard, he's moved to the point, a move that coincided with Hampton's four-game winning streak.
The obvious advantage to moving Williams is that he has the ball more often, Samuels said.
``We moved him because he attracts so much attention, and because he is very good at beating people off the dribble,'' Samuels said. ``His assists have gone up, his turnovers have gone down. He's creating shots for other people, and scoring at the same time.''
Williams is also creating some buzz for Hampton, and for himself.
``Obviously it helps the university with name recognition,'' Samuels said. ``It also helps in recruiting. We can tell people we're graduating the No. 1 scorer in the nation, and we need someone to come in and give us some of the things that he's given us.''
The move to Division I helps Williams, who is more likely to get an invitation to a postseason pre-draft camp like the Portsmouth Invitational than if he had put up similar numbers in Division II.
``It gives you more of a look,'' he said. ``Now people know that, hey, I can play at this level.''
Samuels, who has coached in the Big South, the Colonial Athletic Association, and the Pac-10, said Williams could have played in any of those conferences.''
``He could play in a lot of places,'' Samuels said. ``He's bonafide.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/The Virginian-Pilot
With two games to play, Hampton University's JaFonde Williams is a
half-point behind Division I leader Bubba Wells of Austin Peay.
BILL TIERNAN file/The Virginian-Pilot
Nicknamed ``J.J.'', Williams scores at a 26.2-per-game clip for the
8-16 Pirates.
by CNB