MINNEAPOLIS (AP) Just about everything Zion Williamson did at Duke created a highlight or headline in a spectacle of a season.
The soaring dunks.
The open-court moves more nimble than his 6-foot-7, 285-pound frame should allow.
Even the freak occurrence of one of his feet tearing through its shoe in a fall to the court.
Handling all that attention became maybe the biggest lesson for the freshman, who quickly became the face of college basketball and the games biggest star in years then fittingly finished as The Associated Press mens player of the year.
I was comfortable with it because you dont really have a choice, Williamson said in an interview with the AP earlier this week. I think if you try to force it out, then its going to bother you. … My mom just told me to look at it as a lot of kids would wish to be in my position, so if it does bother me, I just think about it like that.
Williamson claimed 59 of 64 votes from AP Top 25 voters before the NCAA Tournament in results released Friday. Freshman teammate RJ Barrett earned two votes as a fellow AP first-team All-American, while Virginias DeAndre Hunter, Michigan States Cassius Winston and Murray States Ja Morant each earned one vote.
In a likely one-year college stop for a possible top overall NBA draft pick, the 18-year-old Williamson averaged 22.6 points and 8.9 rebounds while ranking second nationally by shooting 68%. He also ranked among the Atlantic Coast Conference leaders in steals (2.12) and blocks (1.79).
Williamsons play was marked by breathtaking athleticism to go by, through and over anyone to get the ball.
