2019 Top 70 Point Guard Shemera Williams Has Marquette Women’s Basketball In Her Top 10

If a high school star makes a recruiting cutdown and includes Marquette in some fashion, I am 100% here to talk about it. In this case, it’s Class of 2019 point guard Shemera Williams including the Golden Eagles in her top 10.

It’s an interesting list that also includes Big East rival DePaul. The SEC is represented by Georgia and Kentucky, while the Big 12 has two reps as well in Kansas State and West Virginia. Virginia, Minnesota, and Arizona State rounds out the list. Georgia is likely the most traditionally successful program on the list, with DePaul, Virginia, and Arizona State making a case with regular NCAA appearances over the past decade or so. If the idea of staying at home to play college hoops is enticing to Williams, then being a part of Carolyn Kieger’s Phase Two should be a fairly attractive option out of these 10 teams.

ESPN’s profile page on Williams lists her as a 5’7” point guard, and marks her as a four-star prospect ranked #42 in the country and the best player in the state of Wisconsin in the class of 2019. However, their information is a little weird, as they have her attending University School, while Williams has always attended Milwaukee Academy of Science. Prospects Nation has Williams as a four-star prospect as well, but they have her ranked #61 in the country. That has her as the third best player in the state behind McKenna Warnock and Sydnee Roby. PN has the same issue as ESPN, listing Williams at University School. Very weird.

If we’re going to talk about where Williams attends school, it’s probably important to talk about her prep career. We have to lead off with the fact that she became the 21st player in Wisconsin history to have 2,000 career points barrier. Yes, she did that during her junior campaign, getting there by averaging 26 points as a freshman, 31.6 points as a sophomore, and — this is not a typo — 39.9 points per game as a junior. According to MaxPreps.com, which measures her at 5’9” by the way, that 39.9 per contest mark was the best scoring average in the country last season. This kind of output isn’t a surprise to the Marquette coaching staff, who offered Williams a scholarship back when she was in 8th grade.

She’s not just a scorer, by the way. Williams is shooting 38% from behind the three-point arc across her prep career, and she’s averaged double-digit rebounds in two of her three seasons of high school ball. Williams is deft with the ball on both sides of the court, averaging 8.2 assists in her three seasons of varsity play, and she’s averaging — again, this is not a typo — 6.1 steals per game.

In short, she is exactly the do-it-all kind of player that would excel in Carolyn Kieger’s up-and-down system.

If you wanted to be a nozzle about it, you could point out that Academy of Science is a Division 4 school, which is limiting the competition levels for Williams. Which, okay, fine. However:

Shorewood (Division 2): 44 points, 13 rebounds, 9 assists, 6 steals, 3 blocks
Vincent (Division 2): 30/6/7/3
Monona Grove (Division 2): 36/8/4/3/2
Brookfield Academy (Division 3): 33/15/10/4/1
Riverside (Division 1): 39/13/4/5/3

You get the idea. Here’s a 5+ minute highlight package of one of her nine triple-doubles from this past season:

And another 5 minute reel of the game where she surpassed 2,000 career points:

The 2019 recruiting class is going to be an important one for Carolyn Kieger and her staff. The Golden Eagles already have two commitments from Destiny Strother and Jordan King, but MU will be losing their six player senior class, including reigning Big East Player of the Year Allazia Blockton. Marquette is going to need to restock their depth if nothing else, and if they get instant impact players to replace Blockton et. al., then even better. Williams would go a long way towards shoring up the roster if she ends up choosing the Golden Eagles.

Here’s what the scholarship picture looks like going forward.

(h/t @MarkKahnWI)