During a timeout in the second half, with Duke locked in a ferocious battle with a Maryland team tied for first place in the ACC, an ordinarily timorous freshman asked head coach Mike Krzyzewski for the chance to speak.
Krzyzewski, acceded, curious to hear what the young big man had to say to his teammates.
"I was getting the ball in the first half, and for about six minutes, I haven't touched it," Shelden Williams said. "Give me the ball."
His teammates looked at the tall Oklahoman and screamed a supportive, "Yeah!"
When the Blue Devils came back out on the court, they made sure to keep incorporating Williams in the offense, and though he did not produce many points in the second half, he drew double teams and a collapsing defense that opened up Duke's outside shooters.
"It gives us a good inside-outside combination, and that's what you need to be a great team," senior tri-captain Dahntay Jones said. "I think everybody can see our team evolving and getting better and better each game, and that's what we need as Shelden and the freshmen mature."
Williams dominated the paint from nearly the opening whistle, unlike the prior game against Maryland when Ryan Randle had 15 points and 17 rebounds as the Terrapins won by 15.
On Duke's first possession, Williams worked Randle down low, aggressively taking the ball to the basket, spinning and hitting a layup. When Maryland brought the ball back upcourt Williams blocked a shot by Drew Nicholas.
A few plays later, Williams received the ball in the paint again. He gained position on Randle and drew a double team from Tahj Holden. Williams' layup bounced out, but his frontcourt-mate Casey Sanders grabbed the offensive rebound and scored a layup.
Questions about Williams dominated the post game press conference. When asked by Adam Gold, host of a sports radio call-in show on WRBZ 850 The Buzz, to explain Williams' development, Krzyzewski responded by lecturing the sports radio personality.
"I remember when you came into town, you were doing a talk show, and for the first month and a half or so, you were unsure," Krzyzewski said. "You didn't know when to go to commercial break. You weren't instinctive. And now, you're such a master at going from one thing to another. It's that evolution, at a younger age - that's what he's going through as a player. You can probably empathize with him."
The freshman used a mixture of inside post moves and even short and mid-range jumpers to score, and he repeatedly blocked shots from both the man he was defending and other Terrapins. Early in the game he pulled down an offensive rebound, realized he had an open look at the basket and slammed the ball through the hoop, eliciting wild cheers from the Cameron Crazies.
Williams finished the game with 13 points and 11 rebounds in 35 minutes of play. Perhaps more impressively, he added six blocks - including four in the first half.
In a far cry from last month's game, in which the Blue Devils were outrebounded by 10, Duke dominated Maryland inside, winning the war on the boards by six. Points in the paint and second-chance points were even for the two teams at 28 and 12 respectively.
The emergence of Duke's inside game - not as a dominant force, but as an equal contributor - allows the Blue Devils to compete with any team in the country and has drastically changed the team since the defeat in College Park, Md.
"We're a different team [since the first Maryland game]," freshman J.J. Redick said. "When we played up there, we didn't compete. Tonight, we outrebounded them. We played together, and got the ball into the post."
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