She had chills. Chills when the confetti came raining down, and chills when her future team stood on the ultimate stage of women’s college basketball. She had chills knowing that in just a matter of time, she too could be up on that stage.
Fast forward about seven months later, and Mikaylah Williams looks like anything but a true freshman. She’s as calm as ever, almost like she’s been at LSU for years.
In her first four games at the collegiate level, Williams is averaging 22 points per game, including a 42-point performance against Kent State. In her last two games, she’s knocked down 10 3-pointers on 14 attempts.
“Everything goes to effort,” Williams said after her 20-point performance against Mississippi Valley State. “As long as you work hard and do what you need to do, you’ll be successful.”
Williams lives by that mantra. The freshman guard from Parkway High School in Bossier City, Louisiana, has worked hard. She’s worked hard enough to be the No. 1 ranked recruit in the country for the class of 2023, to lead her team to a state championship as a senior and to be named MVP at the U17 FIBA World Cup representing team USA.
These are just a few honors that she held coming into LSU, and she was set to join a team with the highest honor in women’s college basketball: national champions.
READ MORE: Mikaylah Williams and Sa’Myah Smith lead LSU to 109-47 win over Mississippi Valley State
LSU made sense to Williams. It was easy for her to think that way since Baton Rouge is only four hours away from her hometown. But it was about more than just distance, and about more than just location. It was the people. The people at LSU and the people within the women’s basketball program were the ones who made it make sense to her.
“I feel like they really made me a priority,” Williams said. “I feel like they can provide that family aspect in college that I needed. Because I’m a big family person.”
Williams came to LSU as the gemstone of a No. 1 ranked recruiting class. The former five-star recruit came to Baton Rouge alongside five-star Aalyah Del Rosario, four-star Angelica Velez and four-star Janae Kent. The top-ranked class was loaded, but no recruit had more attention on them than Williams did.
Despite Angel Reese and Flau’jae Johnson returning, and Hailey Van Lith and Aneesah Morrow joining the team from the transfer portal, there was a large possibility that Williams would start as a true freshman for the Tigers. Against Colorado, she did. She completed that starting five alongside Reese, Johnson, Van Lith and Morrow.
“I feel like they open the door for us younger players to come through and pick up where they left off,” Williams said.
However, in the 92-78 loss to the Buffaloes, no one else on LSU’s roster matched the performance that Williams had. In 31 minutes of play, which was the second most on the team for that game, she led the stat sheet with 17 points, knocking down one of LSU’s four 3-pointers.
That was Williams’ first regular season game at the collegiate level. That was the first game she shined, but it certainly wouldn’t be the last.
Against Mississippi Valley State, Williams made five 3-pointers and finished the game with 20 points in 28 minutes of play. Despite this, no one could predict what the true freshman would be capable of doing next.
Just two days later, Williams scored 42 points.
In the team’s 109-79 win over Kent State, she scored the most points by a freshman in LSU women’s basketball history, and the most points by any player in the last 25 seasons of the program. She made five more 3-pointers, grabbed seven rebounds and shot 75% from the field.
After that performance, if her coaches and teammates didn’t realize it already, they now knew Williams was exceptional.
“She’s a special talent,” Kim Mulkey told reporters after their win over Kent State. “It was one of those moments where the rim feels as big as the ocean.”
The second half was when Williams found her groove. She came into the half with 10 points when the Tigers were leading Kent State by just two. In the third quarter alone, she scored 14 points. She played all 10 minutes and knocked down two 3-pointers, and she wasn’t done.
In the fourth quarter, she scored 18 points. It was obvious that she was in her element.
She made three of her four attempted 3-pointers, shot 5-of-6 from the field and 5-of-5 from the free-throw line in nine minutes.
“My teammates just knew that I had the hot hand, so I applaud them for getting me the ball,” Williams told the media after her 42-point performance. “I was just executing on the shots.”
To put this all in perspective, Morrow was the next leading scorer with 17 points in her stellar defensive performance. Williams had more than that in just nine minutes.
For all this to come from a true freshman almost seems odd. It’s unlike anything LSU women’s basketball has seen before. And from having a 9-13 record to being national champions just two seasons later, the program has seen its fair share of downfalls and extraordinaries.
Mulkey has seen a lot; just about anything women’s college basketball can offer. But this type of talent from a true freshman doesn’t come around very often.
