Tamika Williams

Tamika Maria Williams (born April 12, 1980) is an assistant coach at Penn State University. She was a professional basketball player for the Connecticut Sun in the WNBA.

Tamika Williams
Penn State Lady Lions
PositionAssistant coach
LeagueBig Ten Conference
Personal information
Born (1980-04-12) April 12, 1980
Dayton, Ohio
NationalityAmerican
Listed height6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Listed weight195 lb (88 kg)
Career information
High schoolChaminade-Julienne
(Dayton, Ohio)
CollegeUConn (1998–2002)
WNBA draft2002 / Round: 1 / Pick: 6th overall
Selected by the Minnesota Lynx
Playing career2002–2008
PositionForward
Number20
Coaching career2002–present
Career history
As player:
2002–2007Minnesota Lynx
2008Connecticut Sun
As coach:
2002–2008Ohio State (GA/assistant)
2008–2011Kansas (assistant)
2014–2016Kentucky (assistant)
2016–presentPenn State (assistant)

High school

Born in Dayton, Ohio, Williams started playing organized basketball at age 10 in the Dayton Lady Hoopstars AAU program,[1] played on Lady Hoopstar teams which won one national AAU age group championship and finished in top four twice.

Williams had a stellar basketball career at Chaminade-Julienne,[2] a Catholic high school in Dayton, Ohio. She was named the 1997 and 1998 Ohio Player of the Year and was named in the 1997-98 Associated Press girls Division I All-Ohio high school basketball team. She was named "Ohio's Miss Basketball" by the Associated Press and chosen by a statewide media panel.[3] Williams was also named a WBCA All-American and the WBCA high school player of the year.[4][5] Williams participated in the WBCA High School All-America Game, where she scored eight points.[6]

After graduating from Chaminade-Julienne, Williams was heavily recruited by numerous collegiate teams. In 1997, she was the subject of a seven-page feature in a January 1998 issue of a Sports Illustrated magazine article on the pressures of being recruited.[7] Ohio State arranged for a private jet to fly Williams from her home in Dayton to Columbus, approximately 70 miles away. She mentioned this to UConn coach Geno Auriemma, who responded by mailing her a little wooden plane, explaining, "Sorry, Tamika. This is the best we can do."[8]

College

Williams attended the University of Connecticut, majored in interpersonal communications, and served as President of UConn's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.[9] From 1998 to 2002 she was part of the UConn basketball team, which became NCAA Division I National Championship teams in 2000 and 2002 under coach Geno Auriemma.

She completed her four-year collegiate career in 2002 with averages of 10.6 points per game and 5.8 rebounds per game. She finished as UConn's all-time leader in field goal percentage at 70.3% (560-for-797), which is also an NCAA Division 1 record.[10] She also holds the Huskies' top four single-season marks for field goal percentage,[11] ranked 14th on UConn's all-time scoring list with 1,402 points,[12] and finished 10th all-time in rebounding (763).[13] She was one of four players (along with Asjha Jones, Swin Cash, and Sue Bird) called by Sports Illustrated "best recruiting class of 1998".[14]

In recent years, she has been spending the WNBA off-season working on getting a master's degree in sports management at Ohio State University.

Professional career

During the 2002 WNBA Draft, the Minnesota Lynx selected Williams in the first round, sixth overall.[15] In 2003, she set a WNBA single-season record for field-goal accuracy, with a percentage of 66.8%.[16]

On March 14, 2008, Williams was traded to the Connecticut Sun in exchange for Kristen Rasmussen.[17]

Coaching career

Williams served as an assistant coach at the University of Kansas for their women's basketball team.

Williams served as the head coach for the Senior National team of India at the Asian Games held in Guangzhou (China). The games were played in November 2010.[18]

Williams joined Matthew Mitchell's Kentucky staff as an assistant coach in August 2014.[19]

Awards
  • WBCA high school player of the year(1998)[5]
  • Ohio Ms. Basketball (1998) awarded by Ohio High School Basketball Coaches Association[3]
  • 2008 Dawn Staley Community Leadership Award, awarded annually to a WNBA player who best exhibits the characteristics of a leader in the community.[20]
  • 2013 Inductee of the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame

UConn statistics
Tamika Williams Statistics[21] at University of Connecticut
Year G FG FGA PCT 3FG 3FGA PCT FT FTA PCT REB AVG A TO B S MIN PTS AVG
1998-99 33 173 263 0.658 0 2 0.000 98 151 0.649 226 6.8 27 66 12 50 738 444 13.5
1999-00 31 115 161 0.714 0 0 0.000 51 71 0.718 111 3.6 24 65 8 40 509 281 9.1
2000-01 33 132 174 0.759 0 1 0.000 60 97 0.619 186 5.6 25 54 7 45 656 324 9.8
2001-02 35 140 199 0.704 0 0 0.000 73 112 0.652 240 6.9 44 47 16 52 766 353 10.1
Totals 132 560 797 0.703 0 3 0.000 282 431 0.654 763 5.8 120 232 43 187 2669 1402 10.6

See also

Notes
  1. "Welcome to the Dayton Lady HoopStars". Retrieved 2009-07-13.
  2. "Chaminade-Julienne junior cager Walker commits to UConn". Retrieved 2009-07-13.
  3. "OHSBC Ms. Basketball". Archived from the original on 2009-02-07. Retrieved 2010-11-06.
  4. "Past WBCA HS Coaches' All-America Teams". Women's Basketball Coaches Association. Archived from the original on 2014-07-15. Retrieved 1 Jul 2014.
  5. "Past WBCA Players of the Year". Women's Basketball Coaches Association. Archived from the original on 2014-07-14. Retrieved 3 Jul 2014.
  6. "WBCA High School All-America Game Box Scores". Women's Basketball Coaches Association. Archived from the original on 2014-07-15. Retrieved 29 Jun 2014.
  7. "Full-court Press". Sports Illustrated. 1998-01-19. Retrieved 2009-07-13.
  8. Auriemma, G.; MacMullan, J. (2006). Geno: In pursuit of Perfection. Warner Books. p. 95. ISBN 978-0-446-57764-9.
  9. "Player Profile Tamika Williams". Retrieved 2009-07-13.
  10. "NCAA Basketball Individual Collegiate Records" (PDF). p. 104. Retrieved 2009-06-10.
  11. "UConn Media Guide" (PDF). p. 108. Retrieved 2009-06-12.
  12. "UConn Media Guide" (PDF). p. 112. Retrieved 2009-06-12.
  13. "UConn Media Guide" (PDF). p. 107. Retrieved 2009-06-12.
  14. "Flat-out Perfect". Sports Illustrated. 2002-04-08. Retrieved 2009-06-13.
  15. "WNBA 2002 Draft". Retrieved 2009-06-10.
  16. "WNBA Player Profile". Retrieved 2009-06-12.
  17. "WNBA Transaction 2008". Retrieved 2009-06-10.
  18. "Tamika Raymond appointed to lead Indian Sr. Women's National Team". Basketball Federation of India. 7 October 2010. Retrieved 13 October 2010.
  19. "Kentucky hires Tamika Williams as assistant". Washington Times. August 13, 2014. Retrieved 18 Aug 2014.
  20. "Tamika Raymond receives leadership award". Retrieved 2009-06-14.
  21. "UConn Media Guide" (PDF). p. 146. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-02-26. Retrieved 2009-06-19.
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