DATE: Sunday, March 30, 1997                TAG: 9703300186

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: TOM ROBINSON

DATELINE: INDIANAPOLIS                      LENGTH:   75 lines

WILLIAMS' WORST DAY ARRIVES AT WORST TIME

Shammond Williams had played in 95 basketball games for the University of North Carolina before Saturday's NCAA semifinal against Arizona. Somewhere today, Williams has to be asking why oh why the worst performance of his career had to come in No. 96.

He won't get an answer, at least not one he can live with. It wasn't the airy background at the RCA Dome, he said. It wasn't the new backboards or tight rims. It wasn't something special about Arizona's defense. It wasn't anything . . . except hellacious agony for the junior shooting guard from Greenville, S.C. who simply lost his shot.

When Williams left the floor muttering after the Tar Heels' 66-58 loss to Arizona, reserve Ryan Sullivan's arm draped around his shoulders as comfort, he left as the dubious flag-bearer for one of North Carolina's most miserable shooting nights ever.

The autopsy of this one begins and ends with North Carolina's 31.1 shooting percentage (23 for 74). It is the worst a Tar Heel team has shot at least since 1991, and as off-target as Williams has ever been.

It's strange, because Williams had been so right, especially lately, averaging 19 points over the previous six games. But he went wrong Saturday to the tune of 1 for 13, missing all eight of his second-half shots and hitting just 1 of 8 3-pointers for three points.

The really cruel twist was that Williams made the first shot he tried, a 3-pointer in the opening minute that gave the Tar Heels a 3-2 lead.

In a brickfest that included 102 rebounds - two of the deadball variety - Arizona wasn't much better, making exactly a third of its shots. But because freshman Mike Bibby did what Williams has done so often for Carolina, that is lift the Wildcats by the grace of his jumper and 17 points in the second half - the Tar Heels said goodbye to a poignant season.

UNC's year featured an ode to their coach, Dean Smith, who became the winningest college coach in history during the NCAA tournament. It sprouted from the wreckage of an 0-3 start in the ACC into a 16-game winning streak, an ACC tournament title and the widespread belief that this remarkable six-man team could actually win the national championship.

But it ended as it started in Springfield, Mass., on Nov. 22, with a loss to Arizona, of all schools, a mercurial club that wasn't supposed to win then or now.

Painful as it was, this is as close as Williams got to an excuse, when prompted: In Friday's hourlong practice and Saturday's pregame, he said, ``I didn't get to shoot as much as I wanted to, you never get to shoot as much as you want to to get used to the rims and whatever. . . . It was just a horrible shooting night, and I cost my team. I was going through the same mechanics, the same confidence. I just wasn't able to knock down the shot.''

These things happen, Williams said softly. His teammates said the same because, remember, nobody wins or loses as a team the way Carolina does. That doesn't mean their hearts didn't go out to Williams.

``Shammond is the reason we're here, but you can't sit around and expect him to do it all,'' said Vince Carter, whose 21 points led the Tar Heels. ``I really think there was a lot of pressure on him. I just hope he didn't think he had to do all the scoring. We knew and everybody in the country knew they were going to try to slow down Shammond Williams.''

That Arizona did. It bumped him when it could, dogged him through a maze of screens, didn't bite on Williams' ball fakes. Still, Williams rarely shot when his feet weren't under him, including twice inside the two-minute mark. The 3-pointers that wouldn't go would have pulled Carolina to within 64-61 with a minute left.

Williams will remember that. The Tar Heels will remember the hurt. And those who saw them will remember these scenes: Carter departing inconsolable, a towel over his face, staggering in the arms of teammate Makhtar Ndiaye; then Sullivan walking off with a glassy-eyed Williams, rubbing his shoulders, saying nothing.

``I love him like a brother,'' Sullivan said. ``He's my friend. No words had to be said.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

ASSOCIATED PRESS

It all went wrong for UNC's Shammond Williams, right, Saturday

night. He made just 1 of 13 shots, finishing with just 3 points.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu