Nov 6, 2001
NEW YORK, N.Y. –
With BC-BKC–Preseason All-America List
By JIM O’CONNELL
AP Basketball Writer
Jason Williams, who led Duke to the national championship last season, was aunanimous selection Tuesday to The Associated Press preseason All-America team,the first player on every ballot since 1996.
The junior guard was joined on the team by Stanford’s Casey Jacobsen, likeWilliams a returning first-team All-American, Missouri’s Kareem Rush, FrankWilliams of Illinois, and Kentucky’s Tayshaun Prince, the lone senior selected.
Prince, the Southeastern Conference player of the year, withdrew his namefrom the NBA draft to return for his senior season with the Wildcats. The 6-9Prince belied his thin frame by playing at power forward last season and woundup a second-team All-American after averaging 16.9 points and 6.5 rebounds.
Jason Williams was on each of the 72 ballots from the national media panelthat selects the weekly college basketball poll, becoming the first unanimouspreseason pick since Tim Duncan of Wake Forest five years ago.
Williams averaged 21.6 points last season – the first Blue Devil to lead theAtlantic Coast Conference in scoring since Danny Ferry in 1989 – 3.3 reboundsand 6.1 assists. He was the only player to rank in the top 20 nationally inscoring (15th) and assists (19th) as Duke won its third national championship.
The top-ranked Blue Devils lost national player of the year Shane Battierand fifth-year forward Nate James, but Williams, who averaged 25.7 points inthe NCAA tournament, will lead the way as they try to become the first team torepeat since Duke did it in 1992.
“We want it just as bad as last year,” Williams said. “It’s like puttingyour fingertip in honey and tasting it and never getting a chance to do itagain. You say, `I want it again really bad.”‘
Rush, the preseason Big 12 player of the year, was the second-leadingvote-getter with 47, one more than Prince and two more than Jacobsen.
The 6-foot-6 Rush led the conference in scoring last season with a 21.1average. His run at national postseason honors was hurt when he missed sevengames with a thumb injury on his shooting (left) hand.
Rush, an honorable-mention pick last season, scored 29 points in the Tigers’94-81 loss to Duke in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
“Even though people are talking about him the way they are now, he shouldstill get better. And he can,” Missouri coach Quin Snyder said. “There is alot more there.”
Jacobsen is going to draw a lot of attention from opposing defenses thisseason as the only returning starter for the Cardinal. The 6-6 swingmanaveraged 18.1 points in a balanced offense as he became Stanford’s first-everAll-American. He’ll look for his shot more and that’s not a bad thingconsidering he hit 51 percent from the field, including 47 percent from 3-pointrange.
Frank Williams returns to the Fighting Illini after being selected Big Tenplayer of the year and a third-team All-American. The 6-3 guard, who averaged14.9 points, 3.7 rebounds and 4.4 assists, already has said he will enter theNBA draft after this season. Last season ended on a sour note when he went3-for-15 from the field in the 87-81 loss to Arizona in the regional final.
Three members of last year’s preseason team – Battier, Troy Murphy of NotreDame and Joseph Forte of North Carolina – went on to be first-teamAll-Americans, while Jamaal Tinsley of Iowa State was picked for the secondteam and Loren Woods of Arizona was an honorable mention selection.
