Derrick Williams Monster Block Saves Arizona (via ESPN)
On a night when most basketball fans were fixated on the NBA Dunk Contest, Derrick Williams' emphatic game-saving block on Darnell Gant was probably the closest thing you could imagine to a Blake Griffin dunk.
There just isn't a whole lot else to be said about this play other than the fact that it had the power to leave Washington Huskies fans in a state of speechless dejection.
But for Arizona Wildcats fans it was the punctuation mark on a performance defined primarily by their ability to outwork the Huskies.
Arizona swats Huskies out of McKale - Arizona Desert Swarm
Forty minutes or not, ESPN might as well have cut to the final minute.Yet, it was only an instant that defined No. 12 Arizona's 87-86 nationally-televised victory over the Washington Huskies Saturday. Forward Derrick Williams sent a floating inside shot from UW's Darnell Gant into the McKale Center's whited-out crowd, only 0.2 near-worthless seconds remaining for the Huskies to steal a victory.
You can't be happy about that as a Huskies fan, but Williams had one of the top plays of the day in college basketball. And for those fans whose perspective of the college basketball is colored by east coast bias, Williams made himself known.
Tallying Saturday's winners and losers - College Basketball Nation Blog - ESPN
But the real winner here was Arizona forward Derrick Williams, who made the most of a rare nationally televised, primetime appearance with a monstrous performance. (Lorenzo Romar's words, not mine.) Williams was his typically brilliant self (26 points, 11 rebounds), but he saved the best -- a ferocious last-second walk-off block -- for last. If he wasn't already, Williams became a very rich man Saturday. One lucky NBA general manager will soon see to that.