NEW YORK — DeShaun Williams is answering questions from reporters with two-word quips. He’s shooting rarely, opting instead to pass to covered teammates. And he matters less, logging 35 minutes last night for five points and four turnovers.

Quite simply, Williams, once a catch-your-eye scorer, is slowly disappearing.

In the last four games, Williams has done wonders to disprove the players-get-better-with-experience philosophy.

“He looked a little different on film,” said Jamel Bradley, a South Carolina guard who helped hold Williams to just seven shots. “He seemed to do some more things for them. He just seemed like a different kind of player.”

Maybe that’s because Bradley could have been watching tape of Williams in the Preseason NIT, a four-game tournament here at the beginning of the year in which Williams averaged 23 points to garner tournament MVP honors.

During that stretch, Williams heaved an average of 17 shots and made about half of them. In the four games he’s played thus far in the postseason NIT, Williams is averaging nine points — seven under his season average — and nine shots. His teammates are even starting to miss his once infamous 5-of-18 performances.

“DeShaun only getting seven shots when he is used to 15 or 20 is really big,” Craig Forth said.

But Williams might not be used to such high shot totals anymore. In the first 28 games of the year, Williams never took less than 10 shots. In the last four games, he’s taken less than 10 three times.

Same thing with scoring. Williams notched double digits in 27 of Syracuse’s first 28 games. But in the NIT, Williams has had outings of six, four and five points.

Nobody seems to know why. He’s not injured. He isn’t suddenly being targeted by opponents. Even Williams can’t figure it out.

“I don’t know. You watch the games,” he said. “I’m just being too passive lately and not taking my shot.”

Such was certainly the case last night, when Williams repeatedly passed up his shot in favor of, well, passing, but often unsuccessfully. With the game tied at 46 midway through the second half, Williams overthrew an alley-oop pass to wide-open Hakim Warrick. In an equally tense moment eight minutes later, Williams threw the ball into the hands of South Carolina’s Tony Kitchings instead of Warrick.

Even when he did shoot, Williams was far from spectacular. He made just 2 of 7 shots and missed one very big free throw. Williams, normally supremely confident, looked shaky when he missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with a minute left and his team down four.

Without Williams’ normal production, Syracuse scored just 59 points. If Williams scored his average, Syracuse wins easily with 70.

“He’s not really even shooting anymore,” point guard James Thues said. “I think he needs to take more shots. I’ll tell him that.”

Question is, will Williams listen? Asked if he planned on shooting more, Williams said, “You’ll see.” Asked what he would do to get more shots, he said, “You’ll see.” Asked if he wanted to shoot and score more, Williams said, “You’ll see.”

Problem is, nobody is seeing anything. Because Williams has simply disappeared.

Eli Saslow is an Asst. Sports Editor at The Daily Orange where his columns appear regularly. E-mail him at eesaslow@syr.edu.

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Published on March 26, 2002 at 12:00 pm