IMO, Williams improving her play is the key to the team reaching NC level play. She is obviously an enormous talent and just my opinion, but I believe she is still struggling a bit with how to initiate her offense within the team concept, in simple terms, she is thinking about WHETHER she should “go” rather than just “going”. Consciously thinking, rather than “just playing”, is a killer. Only shooting when you “think” you should shoot makes shooting all that much harder.
Two positive signs? When things tightened up against DePaul, she strapped it up and got several big rebounds down the stretch; when things got tight, she got focused. Further, I thought she made a conscious effort to go to the pull-up jumper against Oklahoma. While she had only moderate success with it in that game, that is definitely an awesome weapon, was an important part of her HS game, and will open up the court for her drives. Coupled with what I thought was a very honest and self aware interview before that game, especially by offering a serious and thoughtful ”I don’t know” when asked about her struggles, I think she is about to enter a much needed “the heck with it, I’m just going to play” mind set.
