Christyn Williams has long been known as a great scorer, from her days in HS to her arrival on campus at UConn. In her 7th game Christyn confirmed that status with a 28 pt explosion in a huge win at ND. She had some ups and downs her freshman year, but on a team full of AA’s, Christyn flew somewhat under the radar as the 5th scoring option. More importantly, Christyn stepped up big in the postseason, averaging 17 ppg in 5 NCAA games, second only to Pheesa.
As a result, expectations were sky high for Christyn’s sophomore year. Unfortunately, during that season Christyn was inconsistent. Her confidence seemed fragile at times and she started pressing. When she didn’t score, Christyn had a tendency to disappear from games. Towards the end of her sophomore season, Christyn started to pull things together, but the pandemic shut down the season just short of the Big Dance.
Heading into her junior season, Christyn was named one of the team captains. We all hoped she had turned the corner. But as the season stumbled through early shutdowns and cancellations, Christyn once again struggled with inconsistency. Some folks here on the BY went as far as to suggest that Geno remove Christyn from the starting lineup for the good of the team.
Christyn is an incredibly hard worker. Her off-season strength and conditioning training would drop most people in their tracks. She is as committed to her teammates as any UConn Husky. If you view yourself as a scorer, and you’re not scoring, you might just feel that you are letting your team down. Every great scorer has off nights. Most just shake it off and get you the next game. In Christyn’s case, one mediocre game might lead to another, and maybe another still.
Geno is extraordinarily adept at reading his players and finding the key to unlocking their potential. With Christyn, he had to find something she could succeed at game after game, other than scoring. He has been pushing Christyn to contribute in other ways for three seasons. But it’s only been over the last month or so that we’ve seen the full transformation of Christyn Williams the scorer, into Christyn Williams the lock down defender.
For several weeks now, Christyn has drawn the toughest g/w defensive assignment in every game. Christyn’s exceptional strength, conditioning and athleticism permit her to suffocate opponents on D. It is also clear from her postgame comments that Christyn takes great pride in her defense, quite a change from the high scoring kid from Arkansas that showed up in Storrs in 2018. Best of all, Christyn’s focus on defense has set her free on offense. She is attacking the basket, pulling up from mid-range and hitting shots from the arc.
In the recently completed BE tournament, Christyn’s transformation was on full display. With some help from her teammates, Christyn held the 3 highest scoring players on St Johns, Nova & Marquette collectively to 12 pts on 5/33 shooting. On offense, Christyn scored 56 pts on 22/42 shooting. Geno said it best after the Nova game, “When Christyn plays like that, we’re a championship team.”
Bring on the Big Dance……
