‘Where the ball takes me’: CCU hoops star DJ Williams is ready for her professional shot
DiJanai “DJ” Williams had one of the best careers in the history of the Coastal Carolina women’s basketball program, and led the Chanticleers to their best-ever season.
The question for her now is what opportunities will she receive as a professional?
The Women’s National Basketball Association draft is Friday, and ESPN has Williams ranked as the 52nd best draft prospect and 12th best point guard, though she can also play as an off-guard.
But only 36 players will be drafted because the 12-team league has just three rounds.
So Williams is hoping for a chance to compete for a job in the top women’s league, but is prepared for other opportunities as well.
Williams is being represented by former CCU assistant coach Will Clay, an agent in Daymond John’s Shark Sports Management company, which also represents WNBA hopefuls Leaonna Odom of Duke and Amber Smith of Missouri this year.
Clay was an assistant for CCU head coach Jaida Williams for three years and was DJ Williams’ primary recruiter so he knows her well, though he left the team prior to her freshman season of 2015-16 to open a basketball skills business.
Clay believes Williams will be a better professional than college player.
“I think at the next level you will see more of it, I think it will be amplified. I think she can do really well at the next level,” Clay said. “. . . She’s one of the most athletic guards in the draft, hands down. She reads the floor very well, she knows how to make that second- and third-level pass. I think how smart she is and how athletic she is, and her skill set continues to get better, I just think it’s a matter of her getting an opportunity.”
Williams was the 2019-20 Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year after averaging 19.4 points, 5.3 assists, 7.5 rebounds, and 2.4 steals per game.
She had an amazing three-day stretch in mid-February, scoring a school-record 51 points with eight assists and seven rebounds in a 124-103 win over Troy in a first-place showdown, then recording just the third triple-double in program history with 22 points, 10 assists and 14 rebounds in a 76-73 win over South Alabama. She also had six steals and four blocks in the two games combined.
Williams is an athletic 5-foot-10 ball-handler who can penetrate and create for teammates or finish with both hands at the rim, and she has a polished mid-range game.
One apparent shortcoming pro teams will take into consideration is she made just 18 of 64 3-pointers on the season for a 28-percent shooting percentage compared to 46.3 percent on two-point shots and 77.6 percent from the foul line. Williams hit 36 of 130 3-pointers in her CCU career.
“She knows she’s got to shoot the 3 more because that’s what they’re going to be questioning,” Clay said. “It’s not a matter of whether she can, it’s just if the opportunity presents itself more.”
This is a terrible year for players from mid-majors like Williams to try to break into the WNBA because of the coronavirus’ impact on both the end of the college season and the WNBA preseason.
She was denied a chance to perform in the national spotlight by the cancellation of conference tournaments, the NCAA Tournament and the Women’s NIT. Coastal was 25-4 overall and had a bye into the Sun Belt semifinals as the conference regular-season runner-up to Troy.
“She was hurt by the fact that the NCAA Tournament didn’t happen, because they would have gone WNIT at a minimum because of their record, so she would have been able to play on the national level,” Clay said.
There is also normally a ProHoops combine at the Final Four where WNBA and overseas team representatives evaluate and test players. “For DJ that would have been great,” Clay said. “To be at No. 52 in the mock draft without that is really good. So I’m thinking at a minimum she gets an invite to training camp, even better she gets drafted.”
In past years undrafted players would have a chance to participate in a team training camp before some overseas players ended their seasons and joined them, but this year camps, which are being delayed, will already be full with overseas leagues canceled.
There are just 144 players in the WNBA so even second- and third-round draft choices will have a difficult time making a team. “It’s very, very difficult to make a WNBA team, especially for players out of the top 12 or 14 [in a draft],” said ESPN basketball analyst Rebecca Lobo on Monday.
Representatives of four WNBA teams on a conference call Monday did not say when asked that Williams was among the players they were looking to draft.
The best alternative to the WNBA is the FIBA EuroCup Women league, which has teams throughout Europe and has a season that generally runs from late September to mid-April, while the WNBA runs from mid-May to mid-September. Williams said some overseas teams have already contacted Clay.
She is prepared to go wherever the best opportunity presents itself.
“I’ve been telling people I’m going to go where the ball takes me,” she said. “The ball’s going to bounce and I’m going to be following it. So wherever it goes I’ll go, whether that’s here in America or overseas, I do want to play.
“I’m not really biased to where it’s at. I don’t really have location issues. I’m from California and spent five years in South Carolina, so playing in a city that’s not my own isn’t an issue.”
Williams, who redshirted as a freshman while beating ovarian teratoma cancer, is third on Coastal’s all-time scoring list with 1,582 points, which is behind Sherry Barnhill (1979-82) and Nikki Reddick (1999-2004), and is second all-time in assists behind Holly Bottar with 426. Williams is also second in school history to Reddick in career free throws made (453) and attempted (629), which is a byproduct of her aggressiveness offensively.
Coastal went 15-3 in the Sun Belt this past season and needed to win two games in the conference tournament to qualify for the first NCAA Tournament berth in program history, but the tournament was canceled on March 12, two days before its semifinal game. Williams said she has no doubt the Chants would have won the conference title.
“A championship was obviously in our sights so to not have the opportunity to play was definitely bitter,” Williams said. “But the season was great and it had so many high points. It was so much fun . . . just because of the team and the staff and who we were as a group and how we pulled the best out of each other. I think that’s the thing that keeps us going and doesn’t keep us sad about it.”
Despite adhering to a stay-at-home order at her home in Moreno Valley, California, Williams has been preparing for her next opportunity by practicing on the same backyard court that helped her hone her skill prior to attending CCU.
“I try to maintain shooting form, I do a lot of dribbling and I lift weights and stuff like that, so that’s what my workout regimen has been,” Williams said.
She has a treadmill to maintain cardiovascular endurance and planned to run this week about 5 miles up Mount Rubidoux in nearby Riverside, which is more than 1,300 feet above sea level. She generally runs it a couple times a month when she’s home for an extended period.
“I’m very excited just to have the opportunity to play beyond collegiate sports because a lot of people don’t get to do that,” Williams said. “. . . I think my talent suits the WNBA and obviously their recruiters and coaches have to feel that way. I think if they look hard enough they’ll see I’m a kid who’s capable of playing elite basketball.”
