February 16, 2024 • 33 mins
This week’s guest on Going Great Across UW Women’s Athletics is Serah Williams, the star sophomore on the Wisconsin women’s basketball team, who ranks 3rd in the B1G in scoring and number-1 in rebounding and blocked shots. Williams also has posted a school record 9 consecutive double-doubles.
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(00:00):
I'm from big cities, like I'mfrom New York City, I'm from Toronto.
We're driving into Madison and I'm like, what did I get myself into?
Like I had not I hadn't searchedit up or Google or anything.
I just wanted to surprise myself.Yeah, I'm like, oh my gosh,
Like what did I get myself into? It was just houses and all
this stuff. And then we droveinto Yeah, we drove into campus.
(00:23):
I was like, Okay, thankGod. I was like a thank God.
And it's just like, I loveMadison. It's so fun. And
you know, it's not like abig city, but I think it being
a college town and how busy itgets and the scenery, it's just it's
just really nice. Here, welcometo Going Great Across UWD Women's Athletics,
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presented by Great Clips. Great Clips. It's going to be great Going Great
across UW Women's Athletics. Here's ashowcase on the great thing student athletes are
accomplishing on the field, in theclassroom, and beyond. Now here's your
host, Ryan Posick. Hello,and welcome to the iHeartRadio podcast Going Great
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Across UW Women's Athletics. Presented byGreat Clips. I'm Brian Posik, the
father of a former UWD women's hockeyplayer and NCAA pole vault qualifier, the
brother of an All American basketball andsoccer player, and the husband of an
iron man. In this podcast,we'll talk with a guest or guests who
have made or are making an impacton UW women's athletics, and our guest
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today is Sarah Williams of the Wisconsinwomen's basketball team. As many of you
know, Sarah is a six tofour sophomore for Marissa Moseley squad. She
ranks third in the Big Ten inscoring right now at over eighteen points per
game, number one in the BigTen in rebounding almost eleven per game.
She also leads the league in blocksabout three per game, and the Badgers
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are eleven and eleven right now.They've equaled last year's win total and then
are in position for their first winningseason since twenty ten. Eleven. A
consensus member of the Big Ten AllFreshman Team last season, Sarah Williams with
us, Hi, Sarah, howare you? I'm good? Thank you
for having me. Oh, thanksfor doing this. I appreciate it.
You know, we're speaking right now. On Tuesday, February thirteenth, a
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couple of days after Wisconsin rallied fromseventeen down to beat Penn State sixty nine
sixty four at the Coal Center,Sarah matched her career highs with thirty one
points and fifteen rebounds. She alsohad three block shots and four steals.
That was quite a comeback for yourclub. Tell us about it. It
was. You know, we cameout of that halftime like blazing guns.
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We always talked about as a team, halftime is where it's the hardest part
for us as a team. Youknow, we played hard that first quarter.
We have a little fifteen minute breakand coming out we usually start slow.
But at the beginning of the game, we spoke and we was like,
we're not losing today. I thinkwe all had that mindset like Penn
State's a really good team, theyhad a really good season, but we
also know that we can compete withthese girls, Like it's not a team
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you play where we can't compete withthem. So we really showed and improved
that with our defense and translated onoffense. Yeah, it was also play
for k Day, a pink game. An Auto, a former NC State
coach k Yao, who was tobenefit the UW Carbon and Cancer Center,
which was the first university founded cancerresearch center in the United States. And
you had about forty five hundred fansthere and you and I were talking about
(03:14):
this. They were energetic. Theyhelped spuryond, didn't they. They had
a really great energy from the startof the game, Like even though we
were down seventeen, every time youwould score and get a stuff, they
were just tearing and making noise forus, especially on that point where we
were coming back the game got close. It was just it felt like the
co Center was packed for us,Like their energy was really good. Yeah,
aren't you supposed to block that out? Or I suppose you can't help
(03:37):
it? All right? You hearyou can't help it? Right? When
is that good of energy? Youcan't really block it out? I mean
it's there. It was just sogood that like it just it stood out
to me. I usually am likelocked in, but it stood out to
me on Sunday. That's awesome.That's awesome. And you wore pink too.
I did pink shoes and a pinkhat band nine. I got some
pink hearts on my nails. Verynice. That's very nice. Again,
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it was the play for K Pinkgame, and you know I mentioned the
Carbone Center. I understand, Uh, you want to be a nurse?
Is that right? Do you wantto be a nurse? Yeah? Labor
and delivery to be exact, laborand really yes, why are you so
interested in that? Well, whenI was in like middle school, I
like heard the statistic that black womenhave the highest mortality rate when it comes
(04:19):
to childbirth. Yeah, so Iwas like, I don't really like that.
So I really just want to,you know, do what I can
and you know, help out inthat aspect. And I love babies.
I do love babies. I lovebabies. So how's school going in that
regard? I mean, it's it'sgot it. It can't be easy.
(04:39):
Freshman year it was so so itwas a bit hard because it's freshman year.
But you know, right now,with our schedule in basketball, it
hasn't been too bad. But youknow, looking at the timeline and the
classes setup, it's going to pickup junior and senior year. So I'm
just enjoying my stress free life rightnow. Sarah Williams is our guest here
on going great across the double Women'sAthletics presented by Great Clips. So your
(05:02):
hometown is Brooklyn, New York.Right, Okay, that's on the western
edge of Long Island. Where isthat? I think it's his own borough.
Okay, it's its own borough.I know that. Yeah. Okay.
I hear Brooklyn and I think oftough, like rough, blue collar.
Is that fair? Yeah? Iwould say so. Yeah. What
was it like growing up there?It was actually pretty fun. I grew
(05:23):
up around a lot of like likeAfrican Caribbean people. That was just an
environment. It was just fun.When I think back at it, I
just know I had a good childhood. I had a lot of fun like
schools and everything was close, andthe people there were great, lively and
like a really big community. Okay, so you were born there, I
was how long did you live thereuntil twenty eighteen? Okay? So fourteen
(05:48):
years? Okay, fourteen years really? Yeah? Okay, and then you
moved. I'll ask you about movingto Toronto here in a bit. Tell
us about your family, and Iwanted you to start with your mom.
OLDABISI. I love my mom.She's like, I have so much love
for my mom. She's like agreat person, you know, single mother.
(06:08):
She raised me and my siblings allby herself and New York. And
she's an immigrant from Nigeria as well, so doing that all by herself and
not even her home country. She'sjust just like the statue of like resilience
and like bravery, like just forme. And my mom's really funny,
like just so funny. She's Ithink I get a lot of my personality
(06:30):
from her. And fun fact,she doesn't. I don't think she knows
how good I am at basketball,Like she doesn't. It's not like she
doesn't watch me play, but youknow she don't watch sports. Oh,
but she'll see stuff on social mediaand be like, I'm so proud of
you. But I'm like, Iknow you don't know what that means.
Does she know what a double doubleis? Yeah? Like when she's to
(06:51):
watch me play, she used tobe like, when you shoot the ball
and it goes inside of the hoop, I need you to be aggressive aggressive,
and and me she's like, don'tlet those girls bully you. And
I'm like, you know what,like I appreciate the effort. You do
not know basketball? What does shedo while she was I mean, what
(07:13):
was her work? What does shedo. Yeah, grown up, she
had her own business. She cateredNigerian food and now she does that on
inside. But she's really into childcare. So right now she's she works in
childcare. Okay, another reason whyyou probably got into your field of nursing,
right. Yeah, I've been aroundbabies basically a lot. They smell
different. It's so great. Iknow, I know. Again, Sarah
(07:36):
Williams is with us. You havetwo brothers to tell us about, Solomon
and Michael. Solomon is my olderbrother, about a year and a half
older than me, and Mike wasmy younger brother. He's about four years
older than me. It's been nicebeing the only girl, the middle the
middle child. I'm a middle kidtoo. Their benefits to that, I
think there is. It's like welook kind of like run I think we
(07:58):
run a house. The middle childrenrun house, right, a lot more
independent, yeah, and being theonly girl, like I mean, it's
just me and you have two otherpeople to blame things, yeah, I
know, right, and less thingsfor me to do because there's two men
in the house. So yeah,yeah, my brothers are don't tell them
I said this. They're really great. Like my older brother and younger brother
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are really supportive and you know,they keep me humbled. I saw simple
siblings are supposed to do, youknow, just make sure I'm doing good
though. That's cool, that's cool. So you moved to Toronto in twenty
eighteen. Yes, right, Sowhy My mom was just kind of like
she's wanted to move for a while, but we just didn't know. We
didn't know where. We definitely weren'texpecting Canada. Yeah. So I know
(08:41):
before she was looking at like Texasand stuff. I was like, okay,
like Texas will be cute. Butnow she told us we're moving to
Toronto and we literally left like amonth later. Wow. Yeah. And
since then we've been there and mymom loves it. She loves Toronto.
Yeah, I mean that's a meltingpot of it. Yeah, it really
is. I think there's like onehundred and sixty some odd languages in Toronto
(09:03):
proper. That's pretty amazing. Sheloves it. Yeah, you're you're fourteen
or fifteen when you move, You'rein the middle of high school. That
must have been tough for you.Actually left like about halfway through my eighth
grade year. Okay, So Icame here, moved to Toronto, and
then like started school like the endof my eighth grade year, and then
(09:24):
I was able to do all fouryears of high school up in Toronto.
But you're leaving lifelong friends. Yeah, that's tough. It was. It
was hard, but you know,just seeing my mom like enjoying herself up
there, and you know, beingshe let us choose where we're going to
go to. She said, we'removing to Canada. You guys can pick
the city. Oh so she kindof gave you a choice. Yes,
(09:45):
So you know, we don't knowmuch about Canada. No one really talks
about Canada. But we know Drakein Toronto, so we chose Toronto there,
right, yeah right. Are youa hockey fan? I am not.
Yeah, well I do support thewoman's hockey team. Hockey team is
so good Leila Edwards and KK HarveyHarvey. Yeah, yeah, they're really
(10:05):
good, really good. Yeah,they're really good. The Hockey Hall of
Fame is in Toronto. So somedaygo look at the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Okay, I can bring Leila andyeah, there you go, there
you go. So that's an Englishspeaking city, So I said, there's
a lot of languages in Toronto.Do you speak any other language other than
English. I speak Yuruba like it'sa Nigerian Okay, it's a Nigerian language,
(10:31):
my mom's mother tongue. Okay,Well, can you can you say
something for us like, uh,let's see here, how about the Badger's
rally past Penn State? Can yousay can you translate that? Or how
about I'm hungry? Something simple?I'm hungry? Will you say which means
(10:54):
okay? Which means like I needto eat, like I really need to
eat? And then you say it'smore like express. You just say back
or over again, We'll set you, We'll fetch down. That means you're
really hungry. Sounds like you've saidthat many times. Yes, Sarah Williams
is with us going Great across theUld Women's Athletics presented by Great Clips.
(11:15):
You are six feet four inches tall. I am yeah. Have you always
been tall? Yes? I meanI think I kind of shot up third
grade, Like I remember just beingtaller than everyone starting like the third grade,
and then I remember sixth grade.Then I was like, okay,
I'm tall, but sixth grade Iwas like five seven, I believe,
okay, And then seventh eighth gradeshot up to like six one, and
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then when I moved here, Igot remeasured. I was like six two
sixty three, and then that's whenI stopped growing. Oh wow, so
thank god. Actually I don't wantto get you don't want to get to
any time. You're hard to finepants. So I was gonna say so,
like when I was young, andlong, long long before you were
young, I was the tallest too, and I thought that was the cool
thing. Was it cool being thetallest person as a woman or a girl,
(12:01):
Not until, like I think,not until I got into athletics,
okay, or like yeah, becausegrowing up people but oh my gosh,
you're like tall, like a giraffe. And I hated that. Like I
hated that. And I know somepeople meant that obviously were kids. Some
people meant it to try to befunny, but like I hated that.
(12:22):
And then you know, as Igot older, people would be like before
I got into sports, people wouldsay, oh, you should get into
like modeling, you like a tallgirls, Like nah, not really,
but then yeah, I didn't reallystart like I was always comfortable with my
head because that's just what it was, but like actually embracing it until I
got into sports. Okay, butit is tough to find pants. It's
(12:45):
it's expensive. I found like placesnow, yeah, but it's just like
ninety dollars for a pair of jeans. No, when the shorter people can
get them for twenty thirty dollars.I don't think that's right. So when
did you start playing hoopsn You saidyou played sports, so you must have
played other sports besides basketball. No, no, no, it was just
all I don't think you want tosee me play another sport. I'm not
(13:07):
that a volleyball. Oh, Idon't think I can move like that.
Oh come on, really, Ithink you're more athletic than you think.
I don't know. I think Ican like jump and you know, a
middle everything else, the setting andstuff. I don't think I could do
it. Okay, but yeah,the first time I actually did pick up
a ball was fifth grade, butit was just because middle school and that
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was the first time I was ableto participate in an organized sport because it
was through school. So I justmy brother had convinced me to just you
know, She's like, why not, you're tall, just go do it.
I was like, I've never playedbefore, so you know, I
really wasn't that good. I didn'treally play the same year sixth grade,
didn't really play. But one ofmy teammates on that I went to school
(13:54):
with, had played on a AAUteam and her coach, her coach,
came watching me play, and hereally put in the work with me,
Like he said, every weekend likeme and you are going to be in
the gym. And we sure wasin the gym every weekend. And I
just fell in love with like competingand you know, just always wanting to
be like better than I was before, just wanting to compete at a high
(14:18):
level. So from there I've beenplaying. All right, who's that coach
Fred Fortune for? And NOI unitedin East New York? Nice? Nice?
So did you play like street ball? Did you play in the city
parks and stuff like that? No? I didn't, wasn't No, that
was my game. They're too skilledfor They were too skilled at the time
for me. So you moved toToronto, you played it Niagara Prep?
(14:39):
Is that right? Is basketball goodin Toronto? I haven't seen it since
then, but yeah, I meanwhen I first got there, Aliah Edward
two plays at Yukon. She wasreally the talk of women's basketball when I
was when I first moved there,and have really good players I think my
first no, my yeah. Allthroughout high school, I think I had
(15:01):
a really good experience with competitive basketball. Like a whole bunch of girls who
I've competed with and against are nowlike playing at the Division one level.
You have some at Duke again youcall Miami like all over the country.
Wow, Sarah Williams with us here, Sarah, I'm gonna ask you to
move your microphone up right by yourlips there. Fantastic. So role models
(15:22):
and favorite players when you were growingup. So you're playing basketball, you
like the sport, you really likedthe sports. So who did you watch?
I hated watching sports growing up.Again, I was really much a
girl girl. I like, ifyou were to asked me in like elementary
what I wanted to be, Iwould not have said athletics at all.
But you know, like God hadalign my path this way. And when
(15:43):
I first started playing and taking thesports seriously, Asia Wilson was at South
Carolina and she was just dominating,Like I just watched her dominate. So
I really like her. Ever sinceI just started playing, I just loved
watching her play awesome cool. Sarah, by the way, was a consensus
first team Ontario All Star her senioryear. Were you heavily recruited? Would
(16:07):
you say heavily? I would justsay heavily because moving to Toronto and like
right around between COVID and stuff,I had a lot of paperwork issues regarding
traveling, so I really didn't doAAU at all. I didn't do any
AU, so I didn't really getthat kind of exposure. But again,
luckily for COVID, a lot ofrecruitment was through film and talking with high
(16:30):
school coaches, so that was wheremajority of my recruitment came. And I
committed before senior year, so Iwas pretty locked in at that point.
Sure, remember the first time anybodycontacted you about maybe playing college? Yeah,
it was James James Madison, Okay, James Madison. I spoke to
them first. I was like wait, like this is this is so cool?
(16:52):
And my first d one offer camefrom VCU Sure in Junior Commonwealth.
Ye, when did Wisconsin get themix? They came in late, like
not gonna lie. Scott Merritt hadleft Illinois and he recruited me from Illinois
and I already had my top fivesolidified and it was Michigan State VCU,
(17:15):
James Madison and Illinois. Sure.Yeah, so it was just that's just
what it was. But you knowit was a top five. I didn't
really feel like solidified in that choice. But coach Scott was like, yo,
love like Marisa, like she's grey. And I told my coach at
the time, I was like,you know what, like, I'm not
(17:37):
really I don't really want to likeI would. I wasn't really gonna entertain
it at all. And he wasjust like it's nothing to just talk to
the coach at all. So Iwas gonna take it serious again. But
off the first call, like theysay, you know when you know,
Like off the first call, Iknew I was gonna commit to Wisconsin.
And and you hadn't been here yet. I had not visited. I visited
(18:02):
right before. We had like acouple of days before we had to come
here for summer workouts. Okay,wow, wow, crazy story, that
is crazy. That is crazy.So you chose Wisconsin after speaking with Marissa
Moosa? Yes, wow, andhad not seen the city. So when
you finally get here, what didyou think? Okay, So it was
a lot of travel issues. SoI had gotten picked up from Chicago,
(18:25):
and then you know, I'm frombig cities, like I'm from New York
City, I'm from Toronto. We'redriving into Madison and I'm like, what
did I get myself into? LikeI had not I hadn't searched it up
or Google or anything. I justwanted to surprise myself. I'm like,
oh my gosh, Like what didI get myself into? It was just
houses and all this stuff. Andthen we drove into Yeah, we drove
(18:48):
into campus. I was like,Okay, thank God. I was like
thank God. And it's just likeI love Madison so fun and you know,
it's not like a big city,but I think it being the college
town and how busy it gets inthe scenery. It's just it's just really
nice here. It's awesome. Whatare your other interests on campus? I
love I love burgers like I loveburgers and I have them about like every
(19:14):
other day. Really yeah, likenot even lying. Do you make your
own? Like you know, whenmoney's a bit, you know, when
I'm being money's like never type,but yeah, you know, you know
what, I'm trying to save money. Ah, Okay, I'll make my
own, but yeah, I'll trya whole bunch of burgers. What's the
best burger place? Because I mightgo there for lunch. I like Echoes,
Oh yeah, Echoes Top and Grail. Yeah, they have really good
(19:37):
ones, and so does Deluxe.Okay, yep, I've had those two.
Okay, yummy. Yeah, Ilike that. I like that.
I the UWU campus is made upof a lot of different people. Two
point three percent of the students hereare black. It's just an inclusive campus.
(20:00):
Is it inclusive? I would saythat's a hard question for me to
answer because I'm an athlete. Ifeel like my experience as an athlete it's
different from any other regular students herebecause again, I'm here to play back
Like I'm here to play basketball.Majority of my time is with my team,
un less on campus and doing otherworks. So I really wish I
(20:22):
could speak to that, but Iwon't be able to do it justice because
I really can't relate to the actualminority students who are here, who are
like living like the true student lifestyff. Sure there are so many different nationalities
here though, Yeah, which issimilar to Toronto. That's kind of cool,
isn't it. Yes, yeah,you can meet all sorts of people.
It's a wonderful place to live.And February is Black History Month as
(20:45):
well. How do you celebrate that? Just being black? Black excellent?
You know, every day, justcoming in a gym, you know,
just showing the word what I canoffer, which is obviously more than sports.
But you know, I'm blessed tohave opportunity to play and just going
out and having fun and trying tobe you know, a good basketball player
(21:06):
that night. Sure in a rolemodel too, probably right, yes,
yeah. Sarah Williams is with ushere, going great across the uw Women's
Athletics presented by Great Clips. Shewears number twenty five. Why twenty five?
Twenty five? In high school,I wore number twenty okay, and
then I was like, you knowwhat to like signify moving up to the
next level. I'll go up five, So twenty to twenty five, so
(21:27):
when you turn pro it'll be thirtythirty. We'll see, we'll see,
we'll see. Latanya Simms wore numbertwenty five, one of my favorite players
in Wisconsin women's basketball history, sixthall time and points, fourth all time
in rebounds. Mid nineties Teresa Huffwas another fantastic player, the best rebounder
(21:48):
here. She had her number twentyone retired. How much do you know
the history of this Wisconsin women's basketballprogram. I know a little bit.
We coach Moil tries to she usa lot. You know, you got
to learn our alumni. We hadmet Teresa Huff and her sister. They're
really like nice people. Yeah,a bunch of alumni came back for the
(22:11):
Rutgers game and we got to seethem and talk to them. And last
year there was an alumni pano thatwe had and we got to hear their
experiences and we got to talk toa bunch of alumni. That's cool.
That's cool. This program has beenat the varsity level since nineteen seventy four.
Riss is the eighth head coach.There've only been seven NCAA Tournament appearances
and none since twenty ten. Theywon the NIT in two thousand and went
(22:34):
to the final the year before.Most players, Sarah, of your talent
would elect to go to programs thatare already established. You're here to build
something, it seems. Yeah.I mean, coming in again, I
wasn't really a top prospect recruit comingout of high school. But I didn't
know the type of player I was, and I really wanted to come to
(22:56):
a school where I can make animpact right away and show that, you
know, like I am a goodplayer and you know. And I just
thought the idea of being able tobe a part of a rebuild was not
the one everyone can say they didor could be part of, because you
know, top programs are already topprograms. But to say that I was
(23:18):
a part of that, I washere when that happened, and just to
see it go from go to thetop would just be which is something that
excited me. Yeah, and itsounds like you're gonna be here all four
years. I mean, the transferportal is it comes up with every athlete,
right, But it sounds like youyou love this place. I do
love Madison. So yeah, I'mjust taking a year by year and hopefully
we get better as we go,which we are so far. Yeah.
(23:41):
Right, So you've matched your windtotal from a year ago. How much
better is this team now than lastyear? We're younger, Oh my gosh,
we are younger. Last year wehad a lot of older players,
which I think that's really the onlydifference. I think we're better, which
is good. We're we have alot of more offensive threats. We have
(24:02):
more people who want to compete.Yeah, not that last year nobody wanted
to compete. But you know,we have really gritty players. We have
Ronnie Ronnie Porter. We have Sonaya, who I think is one of the
best defenders in the Big Ten.And then we have Natt brook Hally coming
in, Tessa Grady freshman, andDeanna's We just have a whole bunch of
people who want to go out thereand compete, which is really nice to
(24:26):
you know, play around young.You are very very very three on this
club. Yeah, even underclassman that'svery very young, and you're competing with
the big boys there. You are, Yes, Sarah Williams with us.
She mentioned Ronnie Porter, who wasa walk on last year and came off
the bench and played a little bitlast year. She's starting now all twenty
(24:47):
two games. She's averaging ten pointsix rebounds, four assists. I mean,
and there was an article in theWisconsin State Journal today about Sarah Williams
and Ronnie Porter being troublemakers. Youwant to just do you want to kind
of nipped that at the bud there, Me and Ronnie trouble makers want to
be the right term. I toldyou earlier. I think we just bring
life to the co Center. Imean, we're here every day for majority
(25:10):
of our day. Why not likespice it up or shake it up a
little bit. Like a couple ofweeks ago, we bought splat guns.
Are what splat guns? It's likea little Orbi's okay inside a kind of
like a NERF gun kind of andthen we just, you know, we
just shot everyone in sight. Ifelt bad because it was a bit of
a mess, but it had tohappen. It was getting dark quick.
(25:34):
Everyone's not smiling, so we haveto bring life into the co Center.
That's awesome. You said before youwere a girly girl, right, so
dancer singer? Uh? I meandid you play with dolls all that type
of stuff? Right? You playedwith dolls? Like I wanted to be
a fashion designer. Oh yeah,and well the nails are got me and
(25:55):
I actually did a bit of majoratte dancing really for like a year.
Okay. I was like and Iwas like a flag a flag dancer like
that does big flag and I willlike spin it around. Can I YouTube
that no, I don't think it'son YouTube. Thank god, Thank God
again, Sarah Williams with us here. Big ten is tough. I mean,
Ohio State is tough. Indiana,that's your next opponent again. We're
(26:18):
speaking here on Tuesday, February thirteenthin Iowa. Iowa's pretty Caitlin Clark.
I don't know. You know you'veplayed against her now. She's averaging thirty
two points a game. Right now, she's eight point shy the NCAA record
for scoring set by Kelsey Plumb andWashington. Iowa plays against Michigan on Thursday
the fifteenth. What's it like playingagainst her, trying to defend someone like
(26:41):
her and then her teammates who benefitfrom the type of player she is.
Yeah, I mean she's shown,like Dane and Dale that she's a really
good she's a good player, Likeshe is the face of women basketball right
now, and kudos to her andeverything she's doing. She has great teammates
who know how to play with her, and you know she knows how to
play with them, and you knowshe's just doing her thing. Yeah,
(27:03):
Angel Rees could be the face ofwomen's basketball, couldn't she. I mean,
I mean she has it. She'sjust on a team where it's shared.
They have five like sure, likethey have five go getters, and
with Kaitlyn Clark without her there,you can you would be able to say
they're a very different team. Butwith a team like LSU like you can
(27:27):
take one out, sure and thenbut they will still really have a great
performance game as a team. So, yeah, did you ever block a
shot of Kaitlyn Clark's I don't thinkso. Would have been nice though,
right, I mean I kind ofkeep you gotta protect the paint, so
a lot of people are hesitant comingin. That's a good thing against Sarah
Williams with us. What's it likeplaying for Mriss Moseley. I mean,
(27:48):
you said the conversation hooked you tocome to Madison. What's it like been
playing for I mean, it's beengreat so far. She's just really competitive
and you know, just to havethat. It's my first time being coached
by a women, So just tohave that and just to see her will
and like desire to want to makeus better and make the program better,
it's just inspiring. Yeah, shesays you're coachable. Yeah, that's a
(28:11):
good trait. I mean I canjust I can hear it. I'll hear
it, and I'll digest it,and you know, keep it moving because
I don't think any of my coacheswill be ill intentioned towards me to want
to say or do something. SoI know, even in the heat of
the moment, we all have thosemoments, and especially in a type of
sport we play, I believe Ineed that kind of toughness that I need
(28:33):
you to be on me, justyou know, keep me at the highest
level, tough and honest, probablyright, yes, Yeah. She also
said that she pushes you every daybecause you want to be an All American.
Yeah, I mean the goal isjust to be just break the potential
barrier, whatever that is. Justget better. You don't what it is,
(28:53):
right and you don't that's the beautyor the sport. You don't know
what it is. And just tokeep getting better better and wherever that leads
me. If it leads me there, it leads me there. But you
know, just every day just comingin and just having that mindset of just
wanting just wanting to be good atthe sport. And you only have four
(29:14):
years to showcase it, so whynot go hard? Right Wisconsin, by
the Way has only had six AllAmericans in its history. All Honorable mention
Joline Anderson, Tomorrow More, JesseStomsky, Kisha Anderson, Barb Frankie,
my old friend Robin three who usedto do Badger women's basketball games with me
on the radio. Sarah Williams isplaying like an All American against She's third
(29:36):
in the Big Ten and scoring firstand rebounding and block shots. You're averaging
six points and five rebounds more thanyou did as a freshman last year when
you were on the All Big TenFreshman Team of Consensus Choice. So how
much better are you now? Andhow much better can you get? I
mean you're talking about potentially. Iguess the sky is the limit, right,
I mean, I just I'm alot more confident now. I'm more
(29:57):
settling to the team, Like Iknow my teammates more, and you know,
freshman years, like you don't knowwhat to expect every game, like
playing day one basketball is hard onceyou especially the transition from high school to
D one. But now I'm moresettled into the competition, the competitive level,
and in terms of getting better,you know, I didn't want to
(30:18):
become a better passer, so you'rejust working on finding my teammates more,
just to open the floor out forthem as well, which I think will
make us a good team. Youbecome a better shooter too. Yeah,
hitting three pointers. I worked onthat all off season. We're all for
three. I think as a freshmanyou were like afraid to shoot a three.
Probably I just never worked on it, and I kind of hated like
(30:40):
when I catched it on a threepoint line and people would like step back.
I hated that. That really botheredme. So I was like,
you know, I'm gonna work onit and just open that floor out a
little bit so differents would have toguard me when I'm out there. Nice.
You shooting like thirty seven percent fromYeah, that's pretty good. That
is a good percentage. I'll takethat. One of fifteen players his name
(31:00):
to the Natesmith watch List for DefensivePlayer of the Year, which is a
nice honor for Sarah Williams. Wouldyou rather score, rebound or block a
shot? Score? Yeah? Yeah? Yeah, me too. Yeah.
Yeah. Reboundings hard, though.You got to work at that. It
is. I actually worked on itall oh season. I didn't really rebound
(31:23):
that much last year, and Ijust knew that I mean, Sarah,
you're six to four, Like,regardless of what you got to start rebounding
more in I actually start to fallin love with it a little bit,
just to get in there, jumpup and snatch snash the ball. It's
just really fun. It's satisfying.It is. It's satisfying. So your
dreams, not only for yourself butfor this team right now? What are
(31:47):
you hoping to accomplish here in thenext month or so? Because you've got
I think six regular season games leftand the Big Ten tournament at the Target
Center in Minneapolis. So what areyou hoping to accomplish here down the stretch?
Sarah, I just more of afeeling of accomplishment and togetherness. I
mean, Coach Mo tells us allthe time, this is the only time
(32:07):
you get to play with this groupof people. So just for us to
go out there half fun and competethe whole time. And whether that ends
up with the win or loss.I know, if you do play with
Horror and have fun with it,like we'll be able to win any game,
and if we're locking into the gamepan. But just to just to
have fun, just to look backon the season and say, wow,
(32:28):
like we had fun with this groupof girls. That's cool. That's cool.
Hey, pleasure getting to know youa little bit. Thank you,
thank you for having me. Goodluck the rest of the way. You're
having a great season. Thank you. Watch thank you so much. You're
welcome. That's Sarah Williams from theWisconsin women's basketball team. I'm Brian Posik.
Thanks for listening to Going Great AcrossUW Women's Athletics presented by Great Clips
and iHeartRadio. Going Great Across UWWomen's Athletics presented by Great Clips, Great
(32:53):
Clips. It's going to be great. Believe s
I'm from big cities, like I'mfrom New York City, I'm from Toronto.
We're driving into Madison and I'm like, what did I get myself into?
Like I had not I hadn't searchedit up or Google or anything.
I just wanted to surprise myself.Yeah, I'm like, oh my gosh,
Like what did I get myself into? It was just houses and all
this stuff. And then we droveinto Yeah, we drove into campus.
(00:23):
I was like, Okay, thankGod. I was like a thank God.
And it's just like, I loveMadison. It's so fun. And
you know, it's not like abig city, but I think it being
a college town and how busy itgets and the scenery, it's just it's
just really nice. Here, welcometo Going Great Across UWD Women's Athletics,
(00:43):
presented by Great Clips. Great Clips. It's going to be great Going Great
across UW Women's Athletics. Here's ashowcase on the great thing student athletes are
accomplishing on the field, in theclassroom, and beyond. Now here's your
host, Ryan Posick. Hello,and welcome to the iHeartRadio podcast Going Great
(01:03):
Across UW Women's Athletics. Presented byGreat Clips. I'm Brian Posik, the
father of a former UWD women's hockeyplayer and NCAA pole vault qualifier, the
brother of an All American basketball andsoccer player, and the husband of an
iron man. In this podcast,we'll talk with a guest or guests who
have made or are making an impacton UW women's athletics, and our guest
(01:26):
today is Sarah Williams of the Wisconsinwomen's basketball team. As many of you
know, Sarah is a six tofour sophomore for Marissa Moseley squad. She
ranks third in the Big Ten inscoring right now at over eighteen points per
game, number one in the BigTen in rebounding almost eleven per game.
She also leads the league in blocksabout three per game, and the Badgers
(01:46):
are eleven and eleven right now.They've equaled last year's win total and then
are in position for their first winningseason since twenty ten. Eleven. A
consensus member of the Big Ten AllFreshman Team last season, Sarah Williams with
us, Hi, Sarah, howare you? I'm good? Thank you
for having me. Oh, thanksfor doing this. I appreciate it.
You know, we're speaking right now. On Tuesday, February thirteenth, a
(02:07):
couple of days after Wisconsin rallied fromseventeen down to beat Penn State sixty nine
sixty four at the Coal Center,Sarah matched her career highs with thirty one
points and fifteen rebounds. She alsohad three block shots and four steals.
That was quite a comeback for yourclub. Tell us about it. It
was. You know, we cameout of that halftime like blazing guns.
(02:29):
We always talked about as a team, halftime is where it's the hardest part
for us as a team. Youknow, we played hard that first quarter.
We have a little fifteen minute breakand coming out we usually start slow.
But at the beginning of the game, we spoke and we was like,
we're not losing today. I thinkwe all had that mindset like Penn
State's a really good team, theyhad a really good season, but we
also know that we can compete withthese girls, Like it's not a team
(02:52):
you play where we can't compete withthem. So we really showed and improved
that with our defense and translated onoffense. Yeah, it was also play
for k Day, a pink game. An Auto, a former NC State
coach k Yao, who was tobenefit the UW Carbon and Cancer Center,
which was the first university founded cancerresearch center in the United States. And
you had about forty five hundred fansthere and you and I were talking about
(03:14):
this. They were energetic. Theyhelped spuryond, didn't they. They had
a really great energy from the startof the game, Like even though we
were down seventeen, every time youwould score and get a stuff, they
were just tearing and making noise forus, especially on that point where we
were coming back the game got close. It was just it felt like the
co Center was packed for us,Like their energy was really good. Yeah,
aren't you supposed to block that out? Or I suppose you can't help
(03:37):
it? All right? You hearyou can't help it? Right? When
is that good of energy? Youcan't really block it out? I mean
it's there. It was just sogood that like it just it stood out
to me. I usually am likelocked in, but it stood out to
me on Sunday. That's awesome.That's awesome. And you wore pink too.
I did pink shoes and a pinkhat band nine. I got some
pink hearts on my nails. Verynice. That's very nice. Again,
(03:58):
it was the play for K Pinkgame, and you know I mentioned the
Carbone Center. I understand, Uh, you want to be a nurse?
Is that right? Do you wantto be a nurse? Yeah? Labor
and delivery to be exact, laborand really yes, why are you so
interested in that? Well, whenI was in like middle school, I
like heard the statistic that black womenhave the highest mortality rate when it comes
(04:19):
to childbirth. Yeah, so Iwas like, I don't really like that.
So I really just want to,you know, do what I can
and you know, help out inthat aspect. And I love babies.
I do love babies. I lovebabies. So how's school going in that
regard? I mean, it's it'sgot it. It can't be easy.
(04:39):
Freshman year it was so so itwas a bit hard because it's freshman year.
But you know, right now,with our schedule in basketball, it
hasn't been too bad. But youknow, looking at the timeline and the
classes setup, it's going to pickup junior and senior year. So I'm
just enjoying my stress free life rightnow. Sarah Williams is our guest here
on going great across the double Women'sAthletics presented by Great Clips. So your
(05:02):
hometown is Brooklyn, New York.Right, Okay, that's on the western
edge of Long Island. Where isthat? I think it's his own borough.
Okay, it's its own borough.I know that. Yeah. Okay.
I hear Brooklyn and I think oftough, like rough, blue collar.
Is that fair? Yeah? Iwould say so. Yeah. What
was it like growing up there?It was actually pretty fun. I grew
(05:23):
up around a lot of like likeAfrican Caribbean people. That was just an
environment. It was just fun.When I think back at it, I
just know I had a good childhood. I had a lot of fun like
schools and everything was close, andthe people there were great, lively and
like a really big community. Okay, so you were born there, I
was how long did you live thereuntil twenty eighteen? Okay? So fourteen
(05:48):
years? Okay, fourteen years really? Yeah? Okay, and then you
moved. I'll ask you about movingto Toronto here in a bit. Tell
us about your family, and Iwanted you to start with your mom.
OLDABISI. I love my mom.She's like, I have so much love
for my mom. She's like agreat person, you know, single mother.
(06:08):
She raised me and my siblings allby herself and New York. And
she's an immigrant from Nigeria as well, so doing that all by herself and
not even her home country. She'sjust just like the statue of like resilience
and like bravery, like just forme. And my mom's really funny,
like just so funny. She's Ithink I get a lot of my personality
(06:30):
from her. And fun fact,she doesn't. I don't think she knows
how good I am at basketball,Like she doesn't. It's not like she
doesn't watch me play, but youknow she don't watch sports. Oh,
but she'll see stuff on social mediaand be like, I'm so proud of
you. But I'm like, Iknow you don't know what that means.
Does she know what a double doubleis? Yeah? Like when she's to
(06:51):
watch me play, she used tobe like, when you shoot the ball
and it goes inside of the hoop, I need you to be aggressive aggressive,
and and me she's like, don'tlet those girls bully you. And
I'm like, you know what,like I appreciate the effort. You do
not know basketball? What does shedo while she was I mean, what
(07:13):
was her work? What does shedo. Yeah, grown up, she
had her own business. She cateredNigerian food and now she does that on
inside. But she's really into childcare. So right now she's she works in
childcare. Okay, another reason whyyou probably got into your field of nursing,
right. Yeah, I've been aroundbabies basically a lot. They smell
different. It's so great. Iknow, I know. Again, Sarah
(07:36):
Williams is with us. You havetwo brothers to tell us about, Solomon
and Michael. Solomon is my olderbrother, about a year and a half
older than me, and Mike wasmy younger brother. He's about four years
older than me. It's been nicebeing the only girl, the middle the
middle child. I'm a middle kidtoo. Their benefits to that, I
think there is. It's like welook kind of like run I think we
(07:58):
run a house. The middle childrenrun house, right, a lot more
independent, yeah, and being theonly girl, like I mean, it's
just me and you have two otherpeople to blame things, yeah, I
know, right, and less thingsfor me to do because there's two men
in the house. So yeah,yeah, my brothers are don't tell them
I said this. They're really great. Like my older brother and younger brother
(08:18):
are really supportive and you know,they keep me humbled. I saw simple
siblings are supposed to do, youknow, just make sure I'm doing good
though. That's cool, that's cool. So you moved to Toronto in twenty
eighteen. Yes, right, Sowhy My mom was just kind of like
she's wanted to move for a while, but we just didn't know. We
didn't know where. We definitely weren'texpecting Canada. Yeah. So I know
(08:41):
before she was looking at like Texasand stuff. I was like, okay,
like Texas will be cute. Butnow she told us we're moving to
Toronto and we literally left like amonth later. Wow. Yeah. And
since then we've been there and mymom loves it. She loves Toronto.
Yeah, I mean that's a meltingpot of it. Yeah, it really
is. I think there's like onehundred and sixty some odd languages in Toronto
(09:03):
proper. That's pretty amazing. Sheloves it. Yeah, you're you're fourteen
or fifteen when you move, You'rein the middle of high school. That
must have been tough for you.Actually left like about halfway through my eighth
grade year. Okay, So Icame here, moved to Toronto, and
then like started school like the endof my eighth grade year, and then
(09:24):
I was able to do all fouryears of high school up in Toronto.
But you're leaving lifelong friends. Yeah, that's tough. It was. It
was hard, but you know,just seeing my mom like enjoying herself up
there, and you know, beingshe let us choose where we're going to
go to. She said, we'removing to Canada. You guys can pick
the city. Oh so she kindof gave you a choice. Yes,
(09:45):
So you know, we don't knowmuch about Canada. No one really talks
about Canada. But we know Drakein Toronto, so we chose Toronto there,
right, yeah right. Are youa hockey fan? I am not.
Yeah, well I do support thewoman's hockey team. Hockey team is
so good Leila Edwards and KK HarveyHarvey. Yeah, yeah, they're really
(10:05):
good, really good. Yeah,they're really good. The Hockey Hall of
Fame is in Toronto. So somedaygo look at the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Okay, I can bring Leila andyeah, there you go, there
you go. So that's an Englishspeaking city, So I said, there's
a lot of languages in Toronto.Do you speak any other language other than
English. I speak Yuruba like it'sa Nigerian Okay, it's a Nigerian language,
(10:31):
my mom's mother tongue. Okay,Well, can you can you say
something for us like, uh,let's see here, how about the Badger's
rally past Penn State? Can yousay can you translate that? Or how
about I'm hungry? Something simple?I'm hungry? Will you say which means
(10:54):
okay? Which means like I needto eat, like I really need to
eat? And then you say it'smore like express. You just say back
or over again, We'll set you, We'll fetch down. That means you're
really hungry. Sounds like you've saidthat many times. Yes, Sarah Williams
is with us going Great across theUld Women's Athletics presented by Great Clips.
(11:15):
You are six feet four inches tall. I am yeah. Have you always
been tall? Yes? I meanI think I kind of shot up third
grade, Like I remember just beingtaller than everyone starting like the third grade,
and then I remember sixth grade.Then I was like, okay,
I'm tall, but sixth grade Iwas like five seven, I believe,
okay, And then seventh eighth gradeshot up to like six one, and
(11:39):
then when I moved here, Igot remeasured. I was like six two
sixty three, and then that's whenI stopped growing. Oh wow, so
thank god. Actually I don't wantto get you don't want to get to
any time. You're hard to finepants. So I was gonna say so,
like when I was young, andlong, long long before you were
young, I was the tallest too, and I thought that was the cool
thing. Was it cool being thetallest person as a woman or a girl,
(12:01):
Not until, like I think,not until I got into athletics,
okay, or like yeah, becausegrowing up people but oh my gosh,
you're like tall, like a giraffe. And I hated that. Like I
hated that. And I know somepeople meant that obviously were kids. Some
people meant it to try to befunny, but like I hated that.
(12:22):
And then you know, as Igot older, people would be like before
I got into sports, people wouldsay, oh, you should get into
like modeling, you like a tallgirls, Like nah, not really,
but then yeah, I didn't reallystart like I was always comfortable with my
head because that's just what it was, but like actually embracing it until I
got into sports. Okay, butit is tough to find pants. It's
(12:45):
it's expensive. I found like placesnow, yeah, but it's just like
ninety dollars for a pair of jeans. No, when the shorter people can
get them for twenty thirty dollars.I don't think that's right. So when
did you start playing hoopsn You saidyou played sports, so you must have
played other sports besides basketball. No, no, no, it was just
all I don't think you want tosee me play another sport. I'm not
(13:07):
that a volleyball. Oh, Idon't think I can move like that.
Oh come on, really, Ithink you're more athletic than you think.
I don't know. I think Ican like jump and you know, a
middle everything else, the setting andstuff. I don't think I could do
it. Okay, but yeah,the first time I actually did pick up
a ball was fifth grade, butit was just because middle school and that
(13:31):
was the first time I was ableto participate in an organized sport because it
was through school. So I justmy brother had convinced me to just you
know, She's like, why not, you're tall, just go do it.
I was like, I've never playedbefore, so you know, I
really wasn't that good. I didn'treally play the same year sixth grade,
didn't really play. But one ofmy teammates on that I went to school
(13:54):
with, had played on a AAUteam and her coach, her coach,
came watching me play, and hereally put in the work with me,
Like he said, every weekend likeme and you are going to be in
the gym. And we sure wasin the gym every weekend. And I
just fell in love with like competingand you know, just always wanting to
be like better than I was before, just wanting to compete at a high
(14:18):
level. So from there I've beenplaying. All right, who's that coach
Fred Fortune for? And NOI unitedin East New York? Nice? Nice?
So did you play like street ball? Did you play in the city
parks and stuff like that? No? I didn't, wasn't No, that
was my game. They're too skilledfor They were too skilled at the time
for me. So you moved toToronto, you played it Niagara Prep?
(14:39):
Is that right? Is basketball goodin Toronto? I haven't seen it since
then, but yeah, I meanwhen I first got there, Aliah Edward
two plays at Yukon. She wasreally the talk of women's basketball when I
was when I first moved there,and have really good players I think my
first no, my yeah. Allthroughout high school, I think I had
(15:01):
a really good experience with competitive basketball. Like a whole bunch of girls who
I've competed with and against are nowlike playing at the Division one level.
You have some at Duke again youcall Miami like all over the country.
Wow, Sarah Williams with us here, Sarah, I'm gonna ask you to
move your microphone up right by yourlips there. Fantastic. So role models
(15:22):
and favorite players when you were growingup. So you're playing basketball, you
like the sport, you really likedthe sports. So who did you watch?
I hated watching sports growing up.Again, I was really much a
girl girl. I like, ifyou were to asked me in like elementary
what I wanted to be, Iwould not have said athletics at all.
But you know, like God hadalign my path this way. And when
(15:43):
I first started playing and taking thesports seriously, Asia Wilson was at South
Carolina and she was just dominating,Like I just watched her dominate. So
I really like her. Ever sinceI just started playing, I just loved
watching her play awesome cool. Sarah, by the way, was a consensus
first team Ontario All Star her senioryear. Were you heavily recruited? Would
(16:07):
you say heavily? I would justsay heavily because moving to Toronto and like
right around between COVID and stuff,I had a lot of paperwork issues regarding
traveling, so I really didn't doAAU at all. I didn't do any
AU, so I didn't really getthat kind of exposure. But again,
luckily for COVID, a lot ofrecruitment was through film and talking with high
(16:30):
school coaches, so that was wheremajority of my recruitment came. And I
committed before senior year, so Iwas pretty locked in at that point.
Sure, remember the first time anybodycontacted you about maybe playing college? Yeah,
it was James James Madison, Okay, James Madison. I spoke to
them first. I was like wait, like this is this is so cool?
(16:52):
And my first d one offer camefrom VCU Sure in Junior Commonwealth.
Ye, when did Wisconsin get themix? They came in late, like
not gonna lie. Scott Merritt hadleft Illinois and he recruited me from Illinois
and I already had my top fivesolidified and it was Michigan State VCU,
(17:15):
James Madison and Illinois. Sure.Yeah, so it was just that's just
what it was. But you knowit was a top five. I didn't
really feel like solidified in that choice. But coach Scott was like, yo,
love like Marisa, like she's grey. And I told my coach at
the time, I was like,you know what, like, I'm not
(17:37):
really I don't really want to likeI would. I wasn't really gonna entertain
it at all. And he wasjust like it's nothing to just talk to
the coach at all. So Iwas gonna take it serious again. But
off the first call, like theysay, you know when you know,
Like off the first call, Iknew I was gonna commit to Wisconsin.
And and you hadn't been here yet. I had not visited. I visited
(18:02):
right before. We had like acouple of days before we had to come
here for summer workouts. Okay,wow, wow, crazy story, that
is crazy. That is crazy.So you chose Wisconsin after speaking with Marissa
Moosa? Yes, wow, andhad not seen the city. So when
you finally get here, what didyou think? Okay, So it was
a lot of travel issues. SoI had gotten picked up from Chicago,
(18:25):
and then you know, I'm frombig cities, like I'm from New York
City, I'm from Toronto. We'redriving into Madison and I'm like, what
did I get myself into? LikeI had not I hadn't searched it up
or Google or anything. I justwanted to surprise myself. I'm like,
oh my gosh, Like what didI get myself into? It was just
houses and all this stuff. Andthen we drove into Yeah, we drove
(18:48):
into campus. I was like,Okay, thank God. I was like
thank God. And it's just likeI love Madison so fun and you know,
it's not like a big city,but I think it being the college
town and how busy it gets inthe scenery. It's just it's just really
nice here. It's awesome. Whatare your other interests on campus? I
love I love burgers like I loveburgers and I have them about like every
(19:14):
other day. Really yeah, likenot even lying. Do you make your
own? Like you know, whenmoney's a bit, you know, when
I'm being money's like never type,but yeah, you know, you know
what, I'm trying to save money. Ah, Okay, I'll make my
own, but yeah, I'll trya whole bunch of burgers. What's the
best burger place? Because I mightgo there for lunch. I like Echoes,
Oh yeah, Echoes Top and Grail. Yeah, they have really good
(19:37):
ones, and so does Deluxe.Okay, yep, I've had those two.
Okay, yummy. Yeah, Ilike that. I like that.
I the UWU campus is made upof a lot of different people. Two
point three percent of the students hereare black. It's just an inclusive campus.
(20:00):
Is it inclusive? I would saythat's a hard question for me to
answer because I'm an athlete. Ifeel like my experience as an athlete it's
different from any other regular students herebecause again, I'm here to play back
Like I'm here to play basketball.Majority of my time is with my team,
un less on campus and doing otherworks. So I really wish I
(20:22):
could speak to that, but Iwon't be able to do it justice because
I really can't relate to the actualminority students who are here, who are
like living like the true student lifestyff. Sure there are so many different nationalities
here though, Yeah, which issimilar to Toronto. That's kind of cool,
isn't it. Yes, yeah,you can meet all sorts of people.
It's a wonderful place to live.And February is Black History Month as
(20:45):
well. How do you celebrate that? Just being black? Black excellent?
You know, every day, justcoming in a gym, you know,
just showing the word what I canoffer, which is obviously more than sports.
But you know, I'm blessed tohave opportunity to play and just going
out and having fun and trying tobe you know, a good basketball player
(21:06):
that night. Sure in a rolemodel too, probably right, yes,
yeah. Sarah Williams is with ushere, going great across the uw Women's
Athletics presented by Great Clips. Shewears number twenty five. Why twenty five?
Twenty five? In high school,I wore number twenty okay, and
then I was like, you knowwhat to like signify moving up to the
next level. I'll go up five, So twenty to twenty five, so
(21:27):
when you turn pro it'll be thirtythirty. We'll see, we'll see,
we'll see. Latanya Simms wore numbertwenty five, one of my favorite players
in Wisconsin women's basketball history, sixthall time and points, fourth all time
in rebounds. Mid nineties Teresa Huffwas another fantastic player, the best rebounder
(21:48):
here. She had her number twentyone retired. How much do you know
the history of this Wisconsin women's basketballprogram. I know a little bit.
We coach Moil tries to she usa lot. You know, you got
to learn our alumni. We hadmet Teresa Huff and her sister. They're
really like nice people. Yeah,a bunch of alumni came back for the
(22:11):
Rutgers game and we got to seethem and talk to them. And last
year there was an alumni pano thatwe had and we got to hear their
experiences and we got to talk toa bunch of alumni. That's cool.
That's cool. This program has beenat the varsity level since nineteen seventy four.
Riss is the eighth head coach.There've only been seven NCAA Tournament appearances
and none since twenty ten. Theywon the NIT in two thousand and went
(22:34):
to the final the year before.Most players, Sarah, of your talent
would elect to go to programs thatare already established. You're here to build
something, it seems. Yeah.I mean, coming in again, I
wasn't really a top prospect recruit comingout of high school. But I didn't
know the type of player I was, and I really wanted to come to
(22:56):
a school where I can make animpact right away and show that, you
know, like I am a goodplayer and you know. And I just
thought the idea of being able tobe a part of a rebuild was not
the one everyone can say they didor could be part of, because you
know, top programs are already topprograms. But to say that I was
(23:18):
a part of that, I washere when that happened, and just to
see it go from go to thetop would just be which is something that
excited me. Yeah, and itsounds like you're gonna be here all four
years. I mean, the transferportal is it comes up with every athlete,
right, But it sounds like youyou love this place. I do
love Madison. So yeah, I'mjust taking a year by year and hopefully
we get better as we go,which we are so far. Yeah.
(23:41):
Right, So you've matched your windtotal from a year ago. How much
better is this team now than lastyear? We're younger, Oh my gosh,
we are younger. Last year wehad a lot of older players,
which I think that's really the onlydifference. I think we're better, which
is good. We're we have alot of more offensive threats. We have
(24:02):
more people who want to compete.Yeah, not that last year nobody wanted
to compete. But you know,we have really gritty players. We have
Ronnie Ronnie Porter. We have Sonaya, who I think is one of the
best defenders in the Big Ten.And then we have Natt brook Hally coming
in, Tessa Grady freshman, andDeanna's We just have a whole bunch of
people who want to go out thereand compete, which is really nice to
(24:26):
you know, play around young.You are very very very three on this
club. Yeah, even underclassman that'svery very young, and you're competing with
the big boys there. You are, Yes, Sarah Williams with us.
She mentioned Ronnie Porter, who wasa walk on last year and came off
the bench and played a little bitlast year. She's starting now all twenty
(24:47):
two games. She's averaging ten pointsix rebounds, four assists. I mean,
and there was an article in theWisconsin State Journal today about Sarah Williams
and Ronnie Porter being troublemakers. Youwant to just do you want to kind
of nipped that at the bud there, Me and Ronnie trouble makers want to
be the right term. I toldyou earlier. I think we just bring
life to the co Center. Imean, we're here every day for majority
(25:10):
of our day. Why not likespice it up or shake it up a
little bit. Like a couple ofweeks ago, we bought splat guns.
Are what splat guns? It's likea little Orbi's okay inside a kind of
like a NERF gun kind of andthen we just, you know, we
just shot everyone in sight. Ifelt bad because it was a bit of
a mess, but it had tohappen. It was getting dark quick.
(25:34):
Everyone's not smiling, so we haveto bring life into the co Center.
That's awesome. You said before youwere a girly girl, right, so
dancer singer? Uh? I meandid you play with dolls all that type
of stuff? Right? You playedwith dolls? Like I wanted to be
a fashion designer. Oh yeah,and well the nails are got me and
(25:55):
I actually did a bit of majoratte dancing really for like a year.
Okay. I was like and Iwas like a flag a flag dancer like
that does big flag and I willlike spin it around. Can I YouTube
that no, I don't think it'son YouTube. Thank god, Thank God
again, Sarah Williams with us here. Big ten is tough. I mean,
Ohio State is tough. Indiana,that's your next opponent again. We're
(26:18):
speaking here on Tuesday, February thirteenthin Iowa. Iowa's pretty Caitlin Clark.
I don't know. You know you'veplayed against her now. She's averaging thirty
two points a game. Right now, she's eight point shy the NCAA record
for scoring set by Kelsey Plumb andWashington. Iowa plays against Michigan on Thursday
the fifteenth. What's it like playingagainst her, trying to defend someone like
(26:41):
her and then her teammates who benefitfrom the type of player she is.
Yeah, I mean she's shown,like Dane and Dale that she's a really
good she's a good player, Likeshe is the face of women basketball right
now, and kudos to her andeverything she's doing. She has great teammates
who know how to play with her, and you know she knows how to
play with them, and you knowshe's just doing her thing. Yeah,
(27:03):
Angel Rees could be the face ofwomen's basketball, couldn't she. I mean,
I mean she has it. She'sjust on a team where it's shared.
They have five like sure, likethey have five go getters, and
with Kaitlyn Clark without her there,you can you would be able to say
they're a very different team. Butwith a team like LSU like you can
(27:27):
take one out, sure and thenbut they will still really have a great
performance game as a team. So, yeah, did you ever block a
shot of Kaitlyn Clark's I don't thinkso. Would have been nice though,
right, I mean I kind ofkeep you gotta protect the paint, so
a lot of people are hesitant comingin. That's a good thing against Sarah
Williams with us. What's it likeplaying for Mriss Moseley. I mean,
(27:48):
you said the conversation hooked you tocome to Madison. What's it like been
playing for I mean, it's beengreat so far. She's just really competitive
and you know, just to havethat. It's my first time being coached
by a women, So just tohave that and just to see her will
and like desire to want to makeus better and make the program better,
it's just inspiring. Yeah, shesays you're coachable. Yeah, that's a
(28:11):
good trait. I mean I canjust I can hear it. I'll hear
it, and I'll digest it,and you know, keep it moving because
I don't think any of my coacheswill be ill intentioned towards me to want
to say or do something. SoI know, even in the heat of
the moment, we all have thosemoments, and especially in a type of
sport we play, I believe Ineed that kind of toughness that I need
(28:33):
you to be on me, justyou know, keep me at the highest
level, tough and honest, probablyright, yes, Yeah. She also
said that she pushes you every daybecause you want to be an All American.
Yeah, I mean the goal isjust to be just break the potential
barrier, whatever that is. Justget better. You don't what it is,
(28:53):
right and you don't that's the beautyor the sport. You don't know
what it is. And just tokeep getting better better and wherever that leads
me. If it leads me there, it leads me there. But you
know, just every day just comingin and just having that mindset of just
wanting just wanting to be good atthe sport. And you only have four
(29:14):
years to showcase it, so whynot go hard? Right Wisconsin, by
the Way has only had six AllAmericans in its history. All Honorable mention
Joline Anderson, Tomorrow More, JesseStomsky, Kisha Anderson, Barb Frankie,
my old friend Robin three who usedto do Badger women's basketball games with me
on the radio. Sarah Williams isplaying like an All American against She's third
(29:36):
in the Big Ten and scoring firstand rebounding and block shots. You're averaging
six points and five rebounds more thanyou did as a freshman last year when
you were on the All Big TenFreshman Team of Consensus Choice. So how
much better are you now? Andhow much better can you get? I
mean you're talking about potentially. Iguess the sky is the limit, right,
I mean, I just I'm alot more confident now. I'm more
(29:57):
settling to the team, Like Iknow my teammates more, and you know,
freshman years, like you don't knowwhat to expect every game, like
playing day one basketball is hard onceyou especially the transition from high school to
D one. But now I'm moresettled into the competition, the competitive level,
and in terms of getting better,you know, I didn't want to
(30:18):
become a better passer, so you'rejust working on finding my teammates more,
just to open the floor out forthem as well, which I think will
make us a good team. Youbecome a better shooter too. Yeah,
hitting three pointers. I worked onthat all off season. We're all for
three. I think as a freshmanyou were like afraid to shoot a three.
Probably I just never worked on it, and I kind of hated like
(30:40):
when I catched it on a threepoint line and people would like step back.
I hated that. That really botheredme. So I was like,
you know, I'm gonna work onit and just open that floor out a
little bit so differents would have toguard me when I'm out there. Nice.
You shooting like thirty seven percent fromYeah, that's pretty good. That
is a good percentage. I'll takethat. One of fifteen players his name
(31:00):
to the Natesmith watch List for DefensivePlayer of the Year, which is a
nice honor for Sarah Williams. Wouldyou rather score, rebound or block a
shot? Score? Yeah? Yeah? Yeah, me too. Yeah.
Yeah. Reboundings hard, though.You got to work at that. It
is. I actually worked on itall oh season. I didn't really rebound
(31:23):
that much last year, and Ijust knew that I mean, Sarah,
you're six to four, Like,regardless of what you got to start rebounding
more in I actually start to fallin love with it a little bit,
just to get in there, jumpup and snatch snash the ball. It's
just really fun. It's satisfying.It is. It's satisfying. So your
dreams, not only for yourself butfor this team right now? What are
(31:47):
you hoping to accomplish here in thenext month or so? Because you've got
I think six regular season games leftand the Big Ten tournament at the Target
Center in Minneapolis. So what areyou hoping to accomplish here down the stretch?
Sarah, I just more of afeeling of accomplishment and togetherness. I
mean, Coach Mo tells us allthe time, this is the only time
(32:07):
you get to play with this groupof people. So just for us to
go out there half fun and competethe whole time. And whether that ends
up with the win or loss.I know, if you do play with
Horror and have fun with it,like we'll be able to win any game,
and if we're locking into the gamepan. But just to just to
have fun, just to look backon the season and say, wow,
(32:28):
like we had fun with this groupof girls. That's cool. That's cool.
Hey, pleasure getting to know youa little bit. Thank you,
thank you for having me. Goodluck the rest of the way. You're
having a great season. Thank you. Watch thank you so much. You're
welcome. That's Sarah Williams from theWisconsin women's basketball team. I'm Brian Posik.
Thanks for listening to Going Great AcrossUW Women's Athletics presented by Great Clips
and iHeartRadio. Going Great Across UWWomen's Athletics presented by Great Clips, Great
(32:53):
Clips. It's going to be great. Believe s
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