If you ask Frank Williams to describe his game, a style he honed on the courts of Peoria, Ill., you'll get a succinct answer, unfettered by flowery platitudes.

"My game is a playground game," said Illinois' gifted junior point guard, who announced last week he would take that game to the NBA after this season. "That is the kind of style I like to play.

"You can play halfcourt or you can play fullcourt. I think I can pretty much run both games."

Playground game? To some old-school coaches and fans, that term conjures up all sorts of negative stereotypes.

	His toughness was nutured on the playgrounds of Peoria, Ill., but Frank Williams' talent has blossomed at the state's university.

Undisciplined. Out of control. Helter-skelter.

et the picture?

Illinois opponents and fans of Williams paint a dramatically different picture.

That admiring group includes first-year Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan, who faced Williams last season when he was leading the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Ryan grew up in the Philadelphia area and was a regular on the playground courts of that city. So when he hears Williams describe his game in the manner, he smiles and nods his head in acknowledgement and respect.

"For some, yes, there is a negative meaning," Ryan said. "Here is what I think of. You lose, and you've got to sit for 45 minutes some days. You talk about every game having a lot riding on it. Who wants to sit at the cage?

"On the playground, it is survival of the fittest. They don't care if you're from 1st Street or 20th Street. You've got to get more points than the other team and you get to play again."

Williams' teams during his formative years in Peoria rarely sat. And Peoria Manual High School was the only team left standing at the end of the Illinois State High School tournament for three consecutive seasons (1995-97).

Last season, Williams was named the Big Ten player of the year and helped Illinois remain standing until the Midwest Regional final, when he struggled badly in a loss to Arizona. He finished seventh in the Big Ten in scoring (14.9 points), sixth in assists (4.4), sixth in free-throw percentage (.806) and third in steals (1.97) averaged 14.9 points per game.

On a deep, talented team, perhaps the best example of his toughness was the fact he averaged a team-high 32.2 minutes per game.

Those numbers don't surprise Ryan.

"When I hear playground," he said, "I think: tough, competitive, win-at-all-costs. Guys were rough. Guys went into the fence. There were good fouls taken, when fouls needed to be taken.

"You have to be able to finish, knowing that you're going to take your lumps on any penetration. When you play on a playground, everything isn't perfect. You've got wind. You've got rain. Everything isn't perfect. So you just adjust."

Big Ten teams spent all of last season trying to adjust to and compensate for Williams, without much success.

"It is hard to pick someone else's most valuable player," Iowa assistant coach Sam Alford said. "But when we scout them and we prepare for them, Frankie Williams is right in the middle of our thinking."

Two seasons ago, though, Williams was the one forced to make adjustments.

	“	Here is what I think of (the playground). You lose, and you've got to sit for 45 minutes some days. You talk about every game having a lot riding on it. Who wants to sit at the cage? On the playground, it is survival of the fittest. They don't care if you're from 1st Street or 20th Street. You've got to get more points than the other team and you get to play again. ”
		— Bo Ryan, Wisconsin head coach on Frank Williams' basketball background

After sitting out the 1998-99 season as a partial qualifier, Williams struggled as a freshman under Lon Kruger. His numbers were solid -- 11.4 points, 4.1 assists and 2.3 steals per game -- but he rarely seemed comfortable running the offense and too often played tentatively. Williams simply wasn't the same player who helped Peoria Manual dominate the high school ranks for three consecutive years.

"It was a learning experience for me," Williams acknowledged. "I made a lot of mistakes, had a lot of bad games."

Exit Kruger to the NBA; enter Bill Self from Tulsa.

Williams is too diplomatic to say it, but he clearly played with more freedom and creativity last season under Self than he did as a freshman under Kruger. Part of that improvement can be attributed to maturity, but part must also be attributed to Self's ability to demand more of Williams while at the same time freeing him to do more.

"You know what is tough on a point guard?" Ryan said. "Changing coaches. With point guards, there are going to be differences on what they (coaches) expect."

Williams blossomed under Self, regained his aggressive attitude and took ownership of the team.

"Every loss we had," Williams said, "I took full responsibility for every loss. The guys would tell me, 'It's not your fault.'

"But in reality, I know it is my fault. I'm supposed to run the team."

No Big Ten point guard ran his team better than Williams did last season. In fact few point guards in America ran their teams better than Williams led the Illini.

"Frank Williams, at worst, is one of the top three or four point guards in all of college basketball," said Kansas coach Roy Williams, whose team was drilled by the Illini in the Midwest Regional semifinals. "I think he does a fantastic job distributing the ball. He is hard to guard one on one.

"He is one of those players who wants to take the last shot and has taken the last shot in a lot of games."

The beauty of Williams' game, though, is that he would prefer to get his teammates involved first. In fact, the Illini were at their best when Williams merely choreographed the show. But when the Illini needed Williams to take over, he did so seamlessly. He averaged 19.4 points per game against top 25 teams.

"When Frankie brings the ball at you it's not a situation where he is going to make a pass and it's all over and you can relax," Alford said. "He can drive you. He can pull up in your face and shoot it. He can do so many things.

"And he's got a great combination of quickness and strength. Some players have one but not the other. He is one of those guys who has a little bit of both."

For many years.

"I had that (trait) ever since middle school," Williams said of his ability to take over a game if needed. "Guys said I did the same thing back then."

What allows Williams to be able to cruise along for much of the game, allowing his teammates to flourish, and then take over in a tight game?

Fear.

"Just knowing that you can lose," Williams said. "And I'm not into losing. I hate to lose. Knowing you can lose puts a burst into me."

Williams learned long ago that when you lose on the playground, you may not get back on the court for the rest of the day.

Jeff Potrykus of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.