Wake Forest Athletics
Deacon Sports Xtra: Williams Finding Form in New Role
12/7/2022 12:22:00 PM | Women's Basketball
“She probably is the brightest player on the team and really gets the philosophy and really gets the offense.” - Head Coach Megan Gebbia
It was an offseason full of change for Wake Forest sophomore guard Elise Williams — new coaching staff, new offensive philosophy and some positional flexibility.
While still playing some point guard, Williams is going to be asked to play off the ball a bit more this season, playing more at the two-spot, after playing mostly at the point a season ago while averaging 9.5 points and 3.4 rebounds a game, leading the Deacs in assists with 87.
"I've been taking things slowly," Williams said. "It's been a process, trying to learn myself and helping to teach my teammates through the process. It's definitely been a learning curve. The second half of preseason we really started putting the pieces together. I'm excited for the season. We're building something here."
The mid-summer change in coaching staff was a bit of a shock to Williams, but she's loving the changes implemented thus far and is excited to get the 2022-23 season underway.
"It was very important to us," Williams said. "The new coaches coming in stayed positive with us and helped us adjust. It was a struggle at first and adversity was a thing. But we learned to play with each other and things are really moving forward positively.
"The entire coaching staff, including (head) coach (Megan) Gebbia came in and were extremely open with us. It wasn't hard at all to find out what they were about and where they wanted to go with things. The connections with the staff are really strong, and that's really important."
Gebbia envisioned the point guard role being in the hands of senior Kaia Harrison and freshman Kate Deeble, this season, but Williams has been helping some at the position throughout the start of the season.
"I know she played at some point last year, so it's not like a foreign position for her," Gebbia said. "She probably is the brightest player on the team and really gets the philosophy and really gets the offense.
"She really gets the defense and she is the straw that stirs the drink."
For Williams, just in her second season at Wake Forest, it'll be consistency that Gebbia is most looking for.
"Her issue is just putting all her effort into both ends of the floor the entire time she's out there," Gebbia said. "And that's sometimes a maturity thing. (Assistant coach) Nikki's (Flores) talked to her a lot about if you play your heart out, I'll get you sub and then I'll get you back in. But if you're gonna walk around, you're coming out. So either way, you're probably going to come out.
"So you might as well just give it your all. If we can get her to be consistent with just the energy piece, she's a heck of a basketball player. We're trying to teach her more angles around the basket and have better shot selection."
Williams led the Demon Deacons with 51 steals last season, and her defensive intensity can often turn into transition buckets for her teammates. This season after eight games, Williams has accounted for a team-best nine steals while also leading the Deacs in assists, ranking second in points per game and ranking fourth in rebounding.
"My game hasn't changed much, it's more a change in the position the staff is putting me in," Williams said. "They want to play me as a 2-guard, so that's been my agenda. If they need me at the point, I'll play there. But I'm focused on being more efficient this year.
"The coaching staff has expressed that 3-point shooting is going to be a big part of our offense. Then we're going to want to create in the paint."
The Deacs were selected to finish 14th in the ACC preseason poll and recently are coming off a big road victory over Minnesota in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge where Williams finished the game with 16 key points and led the team in both assists and rebounding.
"That's not what I'm seeing at all," Williams said. "I kind of like that we were ranked really low, and can come out this year and be the underdog. That motivates me and motivates the team."
