Girls Player of the Year says, ‘I’ll never be satisfied’
NORTH LITTLE ROCK — The accolades continue to pour in for Central Arkansas Christian junior Christyn Williams.
The 5-11 ambidextrous guard, who averaged 26.6 points, 8.6 rebounds, 2.4 steals and 2.1 assists per game in leading the Lady Mustangs to a 29-5, Class 4A state quarterfinal finish, repeated as the Gatorade Arkansas Girls Basketball Player of the Year for 2016-17.
She could become the first Arkansas player to win the award three times.
Williams, a three-time all-state player ranked No. 2 in the Class of 2018 by Blue Star Basketball, was also named this spring to the third team of the Naismith Trophy High School Girls All-America team, one of only two juniors on the three teams.
Williams, who has narrowed her scads of scholarship offers to Baylor, Notre Dame, UCLA, Tennessee and UConn, led the USA team to a bronze medal in the FIBA U17 World Championship in Spain last summer, a year after being named an alternate for the U16 team. She will represent the United States again this summer as part of the FIBA 3x3 U18 World Cup 2017 on June 28-July 2 in Chengdu, China.
She is one of 35 players invited to USA Basketball’s tryouts for the FIBA U19
World Championships, to be held in Italy in July. Tryouts will be May 18-21 in Colorado Springs.
And she is the River Valley &
Ozark Edition Girls Basketball Player of the Year for 2016-17.
“I’m aware of these accolades,” Williams said. “Of course, they’re one of my goals, but they are not one of my written-down goals. I’m just going with the flow.
“There’s always stuff to work on. I’ll never be satisfied.”
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More than one opposing coach has called Williams the best they’ve seen.
“In the 35 years I have coached, I have not seen a better player,” said Pulaski Academy coach Rick Treadway, whose Lady Bruins fell to the Lady Mustangs in the season opener, 53-49 in overtime. “Just the skill level for a 15, 16-, 17-year-old. And she’s gotten better every year. Obviously, she’s worked on her game.
“I’ve seen the best ones — the kid from Morrilton (Shekinna Stricklin, who played at Tennessee and is now in the WNBA); the kid from Hot Springs (Shameka Christon, the first Razorback player to represent the United States at the World Championships and a former WNBA player). They were phenomenal players, but [Williams] has just got something I’ve never seen in a young lady. Just the mindset — she plays like a boy. She could start on most boys teams, and she plays with a lot of passion.”
Former Lonoke coach Nathan Morris agreed.
“In my 17 years of coaching, she’s the best I’ve seen,” he said. “She’s just a phenomenal, once-in-a-great, great while, almost a oncein-a-lifetime type of player. I’ve coached against some good ones like Shekinna Stricklin, and the things [Williams] can do with the basketball are nothing short of phenomenal.”
Conway coach Ashley Nance, who served as an assistant to her father, Guy-Perkins coach John Hutchcraft, in the 2015 McDonald’s All American Games, also compared Williams to Stricklin.
“She’s right there with our state’s best,” Nance said. “Being able to be part of the McDonald’s All-American Games and that level of basketball player, the thing that sets those girls apart — and the same with [Williams] — is character. She is not only a great basketball player, but you see her off the floor, and she has great body language. She speaks well. She represents her school really well.”
Lonoke coach Heath Swiney, whose Lady Jackrabbits face off against Williams and CAC in the 4A-2 Conference, said Williams “might be the best female high school player to come through the state of Arkansas.”
“Besides the basketball skills, she is just physically so much stronger,” he said. “That’s what impresses me more than anything.”
Chris Kordsmeier, Treadway’s assistant at Pulaski Academy and a longtime head coach at Conway St. Joseph, said Williams is better in person than he had anticipated.
“She is a heck of a player, a complete player,” he said. “She can shoot it, score, play defense, rebound. She’s dang good. Very talented.”
Treadway and Morris agreed that one of the things that set Williams apart is her commitment to her team.
“One of the key assets on the high school level is the way she involves her teammates,” Morris said. “Most players of her caliber don’t have to involve their teammates, and she does. I think that’s only going to translate to more success for her in the years to come.
Treadway added, “She makes other girls look really good, too. She brings her team’s level of play up and makes them all better. She’s just one of those that if she’s on your team, you love playing with her, and if she’s not on your team, you really don’t want to play against her. She is so hard to guard and figure out what to do against her.”
Williams’ stats this season reflected that team commitment. As a sophomore, she averaged 29.3 points, 10.1 rebounds, 2.38 steals, .95 blocks and .81 assists. Scoring and rebounding were down a bit during her junior season.
“She carried our team
again this year,” CAC coach Steve Quattlebaum said. “We gave her a little more help.”
Treadway marveled at Williams’ ability to grab a defensive rebound and go coast to coast for a layup at the other end.
“We had a very good team last year; we won 30 ball games [and reached the Class 5A state semifinals],” he said. “When we played them, I told my girls I wanted two to stay back on defense and put up a picket fence, take a charge.
“Those girls did that, and [Williams] still shot layups. Maybe we needed a better gate on our picket fence.”
Williams suffered a bruised shoulder in the semifinals of the Class 4A East Regional and missed the second half of that game, as well as the third-place game. It was the first real injury of her career. She returned for the state tournament, but the Lady Mustangs entered a No. 4 seed instead of the expected No. 1, so they faced a tougher draw and had a disappointing loss to Berryville in the quarterfinals.
Swiney said that shoulder injury was the only thing that slowed Williams.
“If she doesn’t hurt her shoulder, they probably are playing in the state finals,” he said.
Williams said the shoulder was just the last of several other unfortunate CAC injuries.
But she is back to full speed now.
“As good as she was last year, she was even better this year,” Quattlebaum said. “And I expect her to be even better next year because she’s not going to stop working, and she’s going to play all summer with the [junior] Olympic team, more than likely, and she’ll be better.”
Originally, Williams had also included Texas, South Carolina and Arkansas in her college choices. She said she plans to take official visits in the fall to Baylor, Notre Dame, UCLA, Tennessee and UConn and commit prior to the season.
“The crazy thing is, she’s got another year of high school,” Morris said. “I think she’s going to be the best to ever come through Arkansas. There are things she can do the others couldn’t do.”
Treadway already has a date in May 2018 circled on his calendar.
“I’m going to her graduation, and I’m going to cheer when she walks across the stage because I’ll be glad to see her go,” he said, chuckling. “She is a great kid and a great player.”