Williams Earned her Spot the Hard Way

Williams Earned her Spot the Hard Way

1/31/2006

By Jennifer O’Neill

While leaving one’s family and friends behind to attend college is a difficult experience, deciding to attend a school without the guarantee of even having a scholarship after your freshman year makes the experience downright nerve-racking.  Today, junior guard Caroline Williams leads the Vanderbilt women’s basketball team in three-point scoring this season, but when she arrived in Nashville she did not know whether she would even be playing for the Commodores as a junior.

 “I knew that I could be a part of the team just like anybody else,” said the 5-11, Rockmart, Ga. native.  “Once I got out there and showed [the coaches] I could play with the other girls, I knew they wouldn’t want to take my scholarship away.  They called me a “walk on” because they could recruit with my scholarship the next year if it didn’t work out.”

The Class of 2007 was one of the top classes in the nation with every player receiving a four-year scholarship, except for Williams.  It took every one of her three-point shots as a freshman to convince Coach Melanie Balcomb not to give Williams’s scholarship to a new recruit the following year.

“Confidence was an issue,” said junior guard Dee Davis.  “When she first came in it was like, ‘I didn’t get a full scholarship like the rest of these girls,’ but she came in and stuck it out with the best.”

Despite facing adversity during her freshman season, Williams maintained a positive attitude

“I tried just not to think about it or worry about it,” she said.   “Once I got here I really liked the coaches and players, and I loved everything about it.  I knew the tradition here with basketball of competing every year for the SEC Championship and going to the Tournament, so it was hard, but I was just excited to be here and have a chance.”

At the end of her freshman campaign, Williams learned she would keep her scholarship.  With the uncertainty behind her, Williams finally was able to focus exclusively on improving her shooting and defense.

“Her game has developed tremendously since freshman year,” Davis said.  “She is a great runner of the floor, key three-point shooter and whenever we need her to make a shot she seems to find herself an open shot.  Her role is to put points on the board and get key defensive stops for us.”

Williams’s off-season work paid off.  Last year, she led the SEC in three-point field goal percentage, hitting 50.5% of her shots from beyond the arc. 

So far this season, Williams ranks fourth in the SEC and 13th in the nation in three-point shooting percentage, hitting on half of her shots.  She also leads the SEC and is sixth in the country in three-point field goals per game, making an average of 3.2 three-pointers per game.

“I just try to not focus on [my three-point shooting],” Williams said.  “I know from the past and in high school that if I start putting too much pressure on myself it will really hurt me.  I try to relax and play my game and the shots just come.  Thinking about it is the worst thing you can do.  My attitude simply is what happens, happens.”

With the security of a guaranteed four-year scholarship, Williams can now spend more time focusing on what lays ahead. 

“We’re a very good 20 minute team, but not 40 minute team,” she said.  “We need to turn it around going into the SEC Tournament.”

The Commodores hope that the adversity Williams endured as a freshman can be a lesson for the rest of the team, and help them learn to play two halves, instead of one.  If they can become that “40 minute team,” then it looks like another NCAA Tournament appearance is in their immediate future.