Kamiko Williams knows all about the postseason.
Williams, who is now a special assistant to Arizona women’s basketball coach Adia Barnes, played for legendary coach Pat Summitt at Tennessee.
Williams was a 5-11 guard and played in four NCAA Tournaments with the Volunteers, making the All-Oklahoma City Regional Team in her senior year. In four tournament games that senior year she averaged 11.8 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.5 steals and 2.8 assists.
Williams was drafted by the NY Liberty and played overseas before an injury cut her career short. However, you wouldn’t know about the injury just by watching Williams lead the Wildcats’ practice squad. She’s runs the court, brings the energy, defends tightly and knocks down a great shot — just like she never stopped playing.
As No. 2 seed Arizona (19-13) was getting ready to host NAU (26-7) in the first round of the WBIT on Thursday, the Star sat down with Williams to learn about playing for Summitt during the NCAA Tournament, how Barnes keeps developing the Wildcats and what makes this squad special.
Kamiko Williams is the special assistant to coach Adia Barnes, and watches as the Arizona women's basketball team has their first official practice of 2024-25 at McKale Center on Sept. 23, 2024.
As a former player, what was it like this time of year? You get a little time off after the league tournament and then go-time in postseason?
A: “It’s interesting because we get a little break, but we can’t break too hard because we’ve got to be ready to go. We used to get two-and-a-half days off. But I do think nowadays that more days are beneficial because it is such a long season and sometimes you just need to refresh, because now it’s do-or-die. It’s stressful, anxiety is out the roof. There’s a lot of pressure. And for us, we are battling injuries. I think it just gives them a nice little breather and then we just regroup and go from there.”
What was it like for you to be coached by Summitt during the postseason?
A: “For the tournament, the energy was high. There was a lot of positive talk and encouragement. But really, the truth was the (Pat Summitt) stare that everybody talks about, you got that more often in practice because we didn’t have time to be in a drill (more than 10 minutes). We have to execute because we’ve got to go onto the next thing. We don’t have time to make mistakes. Our sense of urgency was through the roof. We had no choice but to be so sharp in what we were doing executing on and off the floor. We just had to be focused on trying to get to the Final Four and win a National Championship to the point where you don’t have time for distraction. She did all kinds of stuff to keep us focused and motivated, while still having fun. I don’t want to skip that point.
Guard Kamiko Williams (4) of the Tennessee Lady Volunteers during the NCAA Tournament against Louisville in 2013.
“We would take care of our bodies all season, but when it came down to the tournament, we did cold tubs multiple times a day. Hydro – the underwater treadmill – to keep conditioning but not really kill our bodies and our muscles, and massages. We were getting ready to play the Baylor’s, UConn’s, Notre Dame’s, we had to be ready.
“At the time, you are 18-19 and you don’t want to do all of this. Pat was adamant about it. There were no excuses. Sometimes if we couldn’t get into a facility to actually use the cold tub, I remember our managers would come back with carts and carts of ice, from a gas station or the grocery store. We sit two people in a tub. It didn’t matter if you were the starting five or the last two on the bench. Everybody was doing it. Everybody was stretching, everybody was doing everything. (Pat) was definitely ahead of our time.”
You’ve been on staff for the season now, what do you think makes Adia good at developing players and getting them ready for big games?
A: “Adia has this unique ability to still make practices competitive while developing the kids at the same time. And it’s a pro style, too. … They’ll buy into the fact that we’re doing slower development stuff, where you’re not doing a lot of running, but you’re still working hard and then we slowly start to increase in our practice and then all of a sudden, boom, we’re playing a 10-minute war. She keeps the mentality going that, like you still got to get better, we still got to work on certain things and now we have to compete. … Adia does this how we did it in the pros and at Tennessee. But here, we’re not trying to kill the body. I love that piece about her. At Tennessee, we would kill the body. That old-school mentality right there. You’ll be fine, suck it up, fight through it. Adia understands all those pieces and rest and recovery are just as important as skill, just as important as doing a war.
Kamiko Williams, the current special assistant to the head coach with the University of Arizona women's basketball team, played 128 games for Tennessee during her time with the Lady Vols.
“She’s the first coach in a very long time where she actually listens. She listens to her staff, she listens to her players and she takes all that information and tries to make the best decision for the entire team. … I think it takes a special person to reach a level of success like that and still humble themselves to involve everybody else. That makes sense and that is something that I really do love about Adia.”
What makes this team special?
A: “We’ve gone through so much … but when we had to step up and make things happen regardless of the outcome, we did. You can say all day like, ‘Well, you guys still lost,’ we did, like Baylor, for instance. Yes, we still lost. But it was so fun watching them in that game and watching them compete. … Here we are in the WBIT. We’ve had some competitive practices and they’re still working.
“I’m sure there there’s a lot of teams across the country that maybe didn’t make the NCAA and maybe they’re just like, ‘Screw it. I’m opting out. I don’t want to play.’ The fact that they still show up every day, they are still giving what they can give, I think that is a true testament to them and just what we’re trying to do here with Adia.”
