Bob Child, Associated Press Connecticut's Marcus Williams looks for a teammate to pass to as St. John's Cedric Jackson guards him in the first half in Storrs, Conn., earlier this month. Click photo for larger image.

Connecticut sophomore Charlie Villanueva calls him "college basketball's best kept secret." Coach Jim Calhoun calls him a throwback.

Marcus Williams calls himself a point guard, in the plainest and simplest terms. Williams, a 6-foot-2, 190-pound sophomore, is the reason red-hot Connecticut enters a game today against Pitt at the Petersen Events Center at the top of its game.

Williams' ascent to becoming one of the top point guards in the Big East Conference has coincided with Connecticut's surge toward the top of the league standings. The Huskies have won six conference games in a row and are just one game behind first-place Boston College.

"I don't want to praise him too much because I've yelled at him so much that it would be out of character, but he's stiffened," Calhoun said after the Huskies' 88-74 victory against Notre Dame Monday. "He's different than most point guards you see in America because he actually plays the game the way some of us used to think the way we played the game. He plays on the floor. He's not high-flying."

Williams had the best game of his career against the Irish. He was one rebound shy of a triple-double and dominated the game with his court awareness and decision-making. He scored 17 points, dished out 12 assists and had 9 rebounds.

"That was the game where I really started to feel comfortable," Williams said yesterday before the Huskies boarded a flight for Pittsburgh. "I've just started to get used to it, the speed and everything."

Williams and the Huskies struggled early in the Big East Conference schedule. With a first-year starter at the point, they started 4-3, including a 76-66 loss to Pitt in Storrs, Conn. Williams was 1 for 7 from the field and was held to four points. Since then, he has begun to come into his own.

He had 16 assists in a loss at Notre Dame late last month and nine in the next two games against St. John's and Villanova. And he had 15 points and 13 assists against Providence. He leads the Big East in assists with more than eight per game.

"I've been more aggressive," he said. "I've been working hard in practice. I've been taking my man off the dribble, getting open shots. I've been opening the game being aggressive and creative."

Connecticut is ranked 17th in The Associated Press poll this week and may be flying under the radar. As most Connecticut teams have done under Calhoun, the Huskies seem to be peaking at the right time. And a lot of it has to do with the play of their young point guard.

"He's been having a fantastic stretch of games," backup point guard Antonio Kellogg said. "I'm happy for him, everybody on the team is happy for him. It is amazing what he can do, the numbers he has been putting up with points and assists. We're going to get on his back and see how far he can take us. He is the general of the team. That's who we look to in order to get it done."