- The story about the shattered backboard has faded. The questions about Jordan Williams' transition from small-town high school basketball to the big-time setting of the Atlantic Coast Conference are gone, too.

This is the reality for Maryland (18-7, 8-3) heading into today's game against Georgia Tech (18-8, 6-6) at Comcast Center: After 25 games, all but two of which he has started, Williams has become one of the best freshmen in the ACC.

Neither Maryland coach Gary Williams nor Tony Turina, who coached Jordan Williams throughout his career at Torrington (Conn.) High, seem that surprised by what the 6-foot-10, 260-pound center has done.

"He didn't get the publicity of some guys, but I thought he was a very good player for us the way we try to play," Gary Williams said Friday. "We needed an inside scoring threat that we didn't have last year, and he gave us that. The good thing for Jordan is that he got to play right away."

Turina, who came down to Maryland on Friday to watch his former star play, said Williams was a "late bloomer" in high school whose biggest attribute might be his soft hands. "In 39 years of coaching and officiating on the high school and college level, I've never seen a big man with better hands," Turina said.

Veteran college basketball analyst Dan Bonner recalled a conversation he had with Gary Williams early in the season. The coach said all he was looking for from his freshman center this season was defense and rebounding.

"He has provided that since Day One, but as his offense has come along and his understanding of the game has grown, Maryland has become a lot better as a team," Bonner said Friday.

That was evident in Wednesday's 67-58 comeback win at North Carolina State.

In a game in which senior guard Eric Hayes was held scoreless after spending much of the day either in bed or hooked up to an IV while suffering from what he called "flulike" symptoms, and in which sophomore guard Sean Mosley continued to struggle with his shot, Williams became the team's second scoring option behind senior guard Greivis Vasquez.

While helping lock down Wolfpack center Tracy Smith for the second time this season and collecting 11 rebounds, Williams tied a career high with 19 points. He had 11 of those points in the second half when Maryland came back from a 12-point deficit and finished the game on a 31-12 run.

It was the fourth time in the past six games that Williams scored in double figures and the third time during that stretch that he reached double figures in rebounds. It raised his season averages to 8.8 points and 8.1 rebounds, and his ACC averages to 9.3 points and 7.7 rebounds.

After the game, Jordan Williams credited Smith - who scored just 10 points - for his own performance.

"He's such a good player. He brings the best out of his opponents. He makes me want to play against him because he's so good," Williams said. "Anytime you play against competition like that, it's great. Guys like [ Florida State's Solomon] Alabi and Smith, they all bring the best out of me."

Williams will certainly face that type of competition against the Yellow Jackets, who rotate three-time ACC Freshman of the Week Derrick Favors (6-10, 246) with junior Gani Lawal (6-9, 234) and senior Zack Peacock (6-8, 235) between center and power forward. Williams will likely be matched up with either Favors or Lawal.

Though he started off a bit shaky against the Wolfpack, missing his first two field-goal attempts and his first two free throws, Williams settled down quickly after making his next two foul shots and his next three field-goal attempts in the first half.

"Confidence is a big thing," said Williams, who finished 7-for-10 from the field and 5-for-8 on free throws. "After you make your first couple of buckets, you get a little bit of confidence. That's basically for free throws, too. Every time you see the ball go over the rim [into the basket], it helps you a lot. My teammates started trusting me a lot more than they had been."

So has his coach, who decided to start Williams over fellow freshman James Padgett after junior Dino Gregory was forced to sit out the first eight games because of a violation of team rules. One of those games was against Villanova, when Williams scored 19 points and had 12 rebounds in a 95-86 loss to the then-No. 3 Wildcats.

"I think the Villanova game was big for him," Gary Williams said Friday. "He was able to gain confidence that he could play against some pretty good players, and that's helped him. ... He's playing with a very talented guard in Greivis, but also a very talented backcourt with Eric Hayes, so when Jordan gets open, our guys are good enough to get him the ball."

Gary Williams said Jordan Williams is still adjusting to the physicality of the college game, especially near the basket. For a player whose backboard shattering became a YouTube staple for Maryland fans awaiting his arrival, Williams still is a bit tentative going up for dunks.

"He's learning how to finish. I think the biggest thing for Jordan that he's learned so far is that every time he gets a chance to finish close to the basket, how hard he has to take the ball because he's still getting shots blocked that he shouldn't," Gary Williams said. "He's got this little tip-toe move that he brought with him from high school. You've got to get up, especially against the front line we'll see [today]."

Gary Williams said he sees similarities to former Terps star Lonny Baxter. As a freshman, Baxter started 10 of the last 11 games after replacing an injured Obinna Ekezie and wound up averaging more than 10 points in the postseason, when the Terps made it to the Sweet 16.

In Maryland's two trips to the Final Four, Baxter was the regional Most Valuable Player both years.

"Lonny Baxter is the best reference I can use," Gary Williams said. "Lonny became a much better athlete, Chris Wilcox became a much better athlete, after their freshman year. What they do is get a look at what they have to work on, not just hear it from a coach, see it for themselves and get it done."

Gary Williams expects the same thing to happen this spring and summer for Jordan Williams.

"As far as maturity goes, we're still working on it, " Gary Williams said. "There's a lot to work on with Jordan, but he's willing to work, which is the key to anybody being successful."

Turina said a player who averaged 36 points a game as a senior in high school will become a "20-points plus" scorer by the time he is done at Maryland - most likely in three years. Bonner, who played center and forward at Virginia in the 1970s, said that unlike many of today's college freshmen, Williams doesn't seem to be playing with one eye on the NBA.

"What impresses me is that he doesn't seem to be in a hurry. It's the old cliche, 'He lets the game come to him,' " Bonner said. "He plays with a high basketball IQ and a great demeanor. And he's only going to get better."