What to make of Serah Williams' slow start with UConn

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What to make of Serah Williams slow start with UConn

Serah Williams has not gotten off to a flying start at UConn. Through the first semester, the Wisconsin transfer is averaging just 7.4 rebounds and 4.3 rebounds, hitting double-figures three times but never surpassing 12 points. Four different Huskies have led the team in scoring this season. Williams isn’t one of them.

Beyond the numbers, she’s often invisible on the court. Williams isn’t drawing extra defensive attention to free up her teammates, isn’t dominating the glass and has to yet make an outsized impact defensively.

Geno Auriemma admitted Williams’ transition to UConn has been “a struggle” but has remained positive about her potential. The coach expected there to be some bumps as she adjusted to the Huskies’ system and learned how to play with significantly more talent around her.

Williams has also had a hard time keeping pace with her new team. UConn likes to play fast and push the ball in transition, ranking in the top third of the country with 74.3 possessions per 100 minutes. For reference, Wisconsin ranked in the bottom 24 percent nationally in pace last season. Williams is still getting up to speed.

“The pace, it’s quick. We get at people,” she said. “Just getting up and down the court, trying to keep up, I don't want to look sluggish on TV. So yeah, that pace is definitely an adjustment.”

Often, Auriemma blames himself for Williams’ slow start, explaining that he needs to get Williams more touches and more minutes to help her settle in. He’s also indicated that she performs well in practice but struggles to translate that success in game action.

“She's been different in practice but she gets rushed in games,” Auriemma said last month. “She gets in games and she has this over-active personality type that wants to please and wants to do so well, wants to make a huge statement… She's in a hurry to do certain things.”

That shows up best in Williams’ layup attempts. She’s currently fifth on the team with a 64.9 percent mark on shots at the rim, per CBB Analytics, though it’s not as if she’s taking bad looks or forcing shots through traffic. Often, Williams will have a clean look at the rim then miss the easy look. She didn’t just forget how to make layups, so it’s reasonable to expect that as she gets more comfortable, those will start to fall.

Even though Williams has not been the impact addition that UConn was hoping for to this point, Auriemma has consistently spoken about her in a positive and optimistic tone.

“There's just things that are going to take time,” he said on his radio show.

“She'll be fine,” he added later. “It just takes a little bit of time.”

That changed on Sunday. After Williams finished with eight points and four rebounds against a bad DePaul team that didn’t feature anyone taller than 6-2, Auriemma turned on the heat.

“Serah Williams should get a lot more production. Whether it's against all these other teams we play, Big Ten teams that we play, ACC teams that we play, she should be more productive and touch the ball more often, go rebound the ball more often,” he said. “That's a decision that I think she needs to embrace: ‘I should be dominant.’”

Williams’ first chance to answer that challenge will come on Saturday against a familiar opponent: USC. Last season at Wisconsin, she put up 19 points, seven rebounds and four blocks in a Big Ten matchup with the Trojans. That familiarity could help, just as it did when she scored a season-high 12 points against Ohio State.

Talent hasn’t been the problem for Williams. She’s already put up 15 points in the Boston College exhibition followed by a 14-point day in the tune-up with Southern Connecticut. Williams just has to do that on a consistent basis in the regular season.

It’s not uncommon for transfers to struggle in their early days at UConn. Two players in particular share some similarities with Williams: Dorka Juhász and Kaitlyn Chen.

Like Williams, Juhász came in as two-time All-Big Ten selection, only from Ohio State instead of Wisconsin. Through her first seven games with the Huskies, Juhász scored a total of 20 points. Then she broke out with 16 points and 16 rebounds on Dec. 11 against UCLA and followed it up eight days later with 15 points and eight boards against Louisville.

Juhász didn’t truly emerge as a force until her second season at UConn but she still put up a respectable line of 8.6 points and 6.0 rebounds the rest of the way as a part-time starter.

As for Chen, the Princeton transfer came in as a day-one starter (like Williams). Through the first half of the year, she was far too deferential with the Huskies, frequently passing up open shots to dish the ball to teammates.

Then in January, Chen finally started calling her own number. In a three-game stretch, she put up 17 points, nine points and 17 points in a three-game span. After that, there was a clear difference in Chen’s game. Even if she didn’t put up a big stat line every night, she played with a newfound confidence and assertiveness that continued all the way through the national championship run.

Juhász finally found her footing at exactly this point in the calendar while Chen needed an extra month. The Huskies will hope Williams experiences a similar epiphany in the coming weeks. She has the ability to become the low-post presence that UConn has been missing for years while also taking some of the scoring pressure off Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong.

But in order to get there, Williams has to show something in the coming weeks.

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