Duke Basketball: Blue Devils must serve Zion Williamson buffet on offense

The Duke basketball players’ best chance to taste the program’s sixth title is by feeding Zion Williamson as often as his talent deserves for six games straight.

Duke basketball freshman Zion Williamson couldn’t weigh 280 pounds without an appetite as legendary as his game; therefore, his teammates must dread standing behind the 6-foot-7 behemoth at any buffet.

But starting with No. 1-seed Duke’s first-round game in the NCAA Tournament against No. 16-seed North Dakota State on Friday at 7:10 p.m. (on CBS), Williamson’s teammates should take comfort from knowing that six victories would surely ensue if they ensure the big fella consistently satisfies his hunger with scoring opportunities.

Thus far this season, though, the Blue Devils have not once terrorized an opponent by having Williamson be the first option on every single possession.

It’s time.

There’s now too much at stake to risk any option other than the best option — at least until a team proves able to repeatedly stop it (spoiler: that won’t happen).

In transition, Williamson finishes with a kaboom that makes fireworks jealous. In a halfcourt setting from the perimeter, he bullies his way to the basket with a force that makes bulldozers jealous. In the paint and with his back to the basket, he pivots brilliantly and scores with a soft touch that makes the Charmin Bear jealous.

He’s the nation’s toughest player to defend — also well on his way to becoming the toughest basketball player in history to defend, period.

Toward the end of the first half of Duke’s 73-63 win to take home the nets from the ACC Tournament on Saturday night, a quadruple-team from Florida State wasn’t enough to stop him. And the previous night, with 31 seconds remaining in a 74-73 victory over UNC, his sheer determination to score amongst heavy traffic proved too much for the Tar Heels and resulted in the game-winner — as was the case with the basket against FSU, he scored after rebounding his own miss.

ALSO READ: Nothing finer than Zion Williamson muting Carolina

Both those plays were awe-inspiring evidence that no matter defenses’ strategies to contain him, all he needs is the ball in his hands — from anywhere on the court — in order to render their efforts futile.

The Spartanburg, S.C., native — who watched his team go 3-3 when he was out with a knee sprain at the end of the regular season yet returned for the ACC Tournament and averaged 27.0 points on his way to earning MVP — will be within 100 miles of his hometown this weekend when taking the court in Columbia for what he hopes to be the first two of his final six games as a Blue Devil.

(Pause for Duke fans to tear up from thinking about how much they will soon miss him.)

Williamson is shooting 69.3 percent from the field for the season (ranks first in the ACC and second in the NCAA). While his 22.1 scoring average ranks second on the team behind fellow freshman R.J. Barrett’s 22.9, he ranks first on the team in points per 40 minutes (30.5), first in the country in 2-point field goal percentage (76.0), and first in the country in effective field goal percentage (71.7).

Translating those numbers into words, he’d be the best scoring option for any college team in any season (and soon to be so for the world’s luckiest NBA franchise).

ALSO READ: Zion Williamson could own shoe company

But it seems his shot selection has actually been a bit too wise all season. He hasn’t made less than 50 percent of his field goal attempts in a game since Duke’s 89-87 loss to Gonzaga on Nov. 21. And he’s scored on 76.7 percent of his attempts in the three games since his return from injury.

Heck, even his 3-point percentage (31.5) is better than that of the team (30.2). In fact, he’s shooting 38.9 percent from beyond the arc in the current calendar year, never once in that time finishing a game with more than two misses without a single make (another sign of his beyond-his-years discipline on offense).

More from Ball Durham

His shooting percentages should take a dip from now until April 8, though, if that means his scoring average will dramatically increase (he certainly has the offensive firepower to flirt with Glen Rice’s tournament-record 184 points, which fueled Michigan’s 1989 title run).

No offense to Barrett, who shoots 45.7 percent from the field and 30.4 percent from downtown, but it’s time now for Williamson to shoulder the bulk of the Blue Devils’ scoring load.

It’s time for Williamson to trade in his unselfishness for increased title hopes.

Maybe the sustained feeding of Williamson on offense from here on out has been part of coach Mike Krzyzewski’s secret plan. Maybe part of the reasoning behind not doing so yet was to hone other weapons and/or not allow opponents ample time to prepare for the unprecedented flurry of points from the beast.

What seems certain, though, is that if the Blue Devils do not fully capitalize on Williamson’s scoring prowess in this tournament and fall short of winning the title as a result, everyone associated with the program will regret this team not doing so — constantly wondering what could have been — for decades to come.

Because what also seems certain is that heavily relying on Williamson’s beautiful buckets gives the Blue Devils their best chance to eat from the Big Dance’s buffet until April 8 and have the program’s all-time greatest player finish his college career savoring a sweet dessert with his teammates — to the utter delight of every Duke basketball fan.

Next. Top 10 wins of the Coach K era. dark

Simply put, it’s impossible to overfeed Zion.

Home/Duke Basketball