The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Williams returns home to face Arkansas
Traditionally, UConn coach Geno Auriemma schedules a game for his seniors in their hometown.
Turns out, Christyn Williams won’t have to wait that long.
Needing games to fill their 202021 schedule, the thirdranked Huskies recently added No. 19 Arkansas to the schedule for Thursday (5 p.m.).
The Razorbacks have been allowing up to 4,000 fans into Bud Walton Arena because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Williams, a native of Little Rock, Ark., expects to have a strong following of family and friends in the building.
“I don’t know the exact number, but it’ll be a lot,” Williams said Tuesday during a Zoom call. “People I went to high school with, family members, old teammates. … I’ve had to turn some people down because I don’t have enough tickets to give. I felt bad about that, but first come, first serve.”
Williams, a former No. 1 recruit, hasn’t played in Arkansas since high school, but she did get to spend a good about of time back home this past year. She was there from March through July — unwinding, reflecting, and re-examining herself.
“I did a lot of self-reflecting while I was home dur
ing the pandemic,” said Williams, who remembers thinking to herself, “I’m running out of time.”
Williams wasn’t satisfied with how her sophomore season had played out. Sure, seeing the NCAA tournament get wiped out stung, but Williams was bothered by more than that.
Halfway through her college career, her passion for basketball had waned.
“That kind of scared me, like, ‘Dang, I’ve only got two years left. I need to get myself together.’ I put in tons of work when I was home, and fell in love with the game again and gradually got in better shape, started eating healthier, started taking it more serious than I ever have before. … I worked my butt off.”
And, as Williams says, here we are, in the middle of a pandemic, 10 games into the season, watching her play the best basketball of her career.
Not only is Williams scoring more, averaging a career-best 15.6 points per game, she’s also expanding her game to fit the mold of a more complete player.
It’s something Auriemma has been harping on seemingly since the moment she arrived in Storrs as a celebrated recruit.
“These kids come out of high school and they know how do one thing — score,” Auriemma said. “At least they think they do. Then they come to college and they find out they can’t shoot like they did in high school and they can’t score like they did in high school. Hopefully, I like to think that she understands that impacting the game every possession is the key to being a good basketball player.”
Williams labeled her sophomore year, in which she averaged 14.6 points, the worst of her life. In hindsight, she thinks she put too much pressure on herself.
“It was a lot of things coming my way that I wasn’t ready for,” she said.
“It just hit me all at once. I just had a tough year. … I told myself that wasn’t going to happen again.”
Despite her struggles, Williams was voted Big East preseason player of the year. And she’s been solid, if not spectacular, at times this season, establishing herself as a more polished playmaker alongside fellow juniors Evina Westbrook and Olivia Nelson-Ododa and freshman Paige Bueckers. She’s scored in doublefigures in nine games and has three 20-point games, including a 20-point performance in a victory at No. 25 Tennessee.
“This past couple weeks, she’s had this type of grittiness to her,” Westbrook said. “Something clicked. Something clicked for her. She was like, ‘I have to do more.’ ”
So far, she has.
BUECKERS FEELING BETTER
Auriemma said Bueckers (sprained ankle) did not practice Tuesday, but is feeling better. He maintained that the freshman point guard has a “better chance of playing Thursday than of not playing.”
Meanwhile, Class of 2021 early enrollee Saylor Poffenbarger has begun working out with the team, but Auriemma doesn’t think she’ll be ready to face Arkansas.
“She picks things up pretty quickly,” Auriemma said. “I don’t know that she’s game ready. I don’t think she’ll be game ready in two days.”
NOTES: UConn will participate in the 2021 Battle 4 Atlantis, an early season, eight-team tournament from Nov. 20-22 on Paradise Island in Nassau, Bahamas. The rest of the field will include Buffalo, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Florida, and Syracuse. … Junior Olivia Nelson-Ododa was one of 15 players named to the Naismith Women’s Defensive Player of the Year watch list.