SE: Williams Working on Maintaining Proper Aggressiveness for K-State WBB
Jan 28, 2020 | Women's Basketball, Sports Extra
By Corbin McGuire
K-State women's basketball coaches used to have to tell Peyton Williams to shoot more. Those days are pretty few and far between now.
It's not as if the senior forward never passes up a good look or open shot, either. She still has games where she, as K-State's leading scorer at 15.8 points per game, does not get up enough field goal attempts. She just recognizes it faster.
"She is pretty self-aware about it," sophomore guard Christianna Carr said of Williams, averaging 12.4 shots a game, up 1.5 shots from her average last season. "In our conversations in the huddle sometimes, she'll say, 'Hey guys, that's my fault. I need to start shooting the ball more. That's on me.' Even during halftimes of games, it's nice to hear one of your leaders taking accountability for how they can do better, too. Instead of just of nagging on how our team needs to be better, it's nice to be able to hear that accountability from other people as well."
Williams did not need to call herself out in K-State's 92-74 win against Oklahoma last Saturday. The Topeka native scored nine points in the first quarter on 4-of-6 shooting. She finished 10-of-18 from the floor and 2-of-5 from beyond the arc, matching her season high for total shot attempts and three-point attempts, for a team-high 24 points.
K-State head coach Jeff Mittie praised Williams' aggressiveness, especially within the flow of the game.
"It's imperative that Peyton do this, as opposed to always having to call plays, because plays are going to work much better when she's aggressive when we're not running plays," Mittie said, as K-State (8-9, 2-4) plays at Kansas (12-6, 1-6) on Wednesday at 8 p.m., on FSN. "We were able to find that balance (on Saturday) with her in that she was very aggressive, and we weren't calling her number. Then, when we did call her number, those things were executed much better."
While Williams, fittingly, holds the team's lead in shot attempts this season, she still struggles every so often at pulling the trigger on the floor. K-State's two games before its win against Oklahoma, at home against Texas and at Iowa State, were examples of this. Each game had a different reason why, too.
At Texas, Williams said it just seemed like everything went wrong. She went 0-for-5 from the field that game and finished with a season-low two points — her only game this year below nine points. Her lone 3-point attempt failed to hit any part of the rim, something she can laugh at now but diminished her confidence in the moment.
"Of course, if I'm hitting stuff, then it's easier to shoot, just as it is for anyone. An example, though, where it was difficult was the Texas game where I'm hitting nothing. I felt like I took so many shots and I look back and I only took five from the field and one airball from three. Those airballs feel like so many more in my soul," Williams said, with a laugh, "but when I'm not doing well it weighs on me more as a player and (the coaches) have to kind of work with me through that and snap me out of it, like, 'You still need to take shots, still need to be aggressive, because of the flow of our offense.'"
At Iowa State, it was a little bit of a different issue and she was able to correct it.
Williams went 0-for-3 from the field, scored one point and K-State fell behind by 11 in the first half against the Cyclones. In the second half, Williams turned up her aggression, scored 14 points on 5-of-9 from the field and pulled K-State within two twice in the fourth quarter.
The difference between the two halves, Williams admitted, was two-fold. One part of it was being "more creative" with the ball. More specifically, not pre-determining any post move or using one before it's ready.
"In the Iowa State game, I found myself kind of turning to moves that were not working. Like the up-and-under move. That move works pretty much once every game. But sometimes I do it too early, because I don't establish the original move, allowing for the up-and-under to go through. So, basically, I kind of locked into the up-and-under too early, as opposed to just allowing myself say, 'OK, what's the defense doing behind me? What can I do, knowing that, to score in a creative way?'"
Then, Williams said it came down to simply being aggressive. She made it a point of emphasis to do so against Oklahoma, and it paid off with her third 20-point game this season.
"It was more of a mindset. Coming off those two games, I was, like, 'I can't have these games.' Personally, being more aggressive when I have the ball, allowing myself to be more creative when I have the ball, too, instead of just limiting myself as far as that goes," she said. "Also, my teammates being able to give me the ball and just the flow of the offense against different teams also contributed to that as well. But it was definitely a mindset for me going in, being aggressive."
K-State women's basketball coaches used to have to tell Peyton Williams to shoot more. Those days are pretty few and far between now.
It's not as if the senior forward never passes up a good look or open shot, either. She still has games where she, as K-State's leading scorer at 15.8 points per game, does not get up enough field goal attempts. She just recognizes it faster.
"She is pretty self-aware about it," sophomore guard Christianna Carr said of Williams, averaging 12.4 shots a game, up 1.5 shots from her average last season. "In our conversations in the huddle sometimes, she'll say, 'Hey guys, that's my fault. I need to start shooting the ball more. That's on me.' Even during halftimes of games, it's nice to hear one of your leaders taking accountability for how they can do better, too. Instead of just of nagging on how our team needs to be better, it's nice to be able to hear that accountability from other people as well."
Williams did not need to call herself out in K-State's 92-74 win against Oklahoma last Saturday. The Topeka native scored nine points in the first quarter on 4-of-6 shooting. She finished 10-of-18 from the floor and 2-of-5 from beyond the arc, matching her season high for total shot attempts and three-point attempts, for a team-high 24 points.
K-State head coach Jeff Mittie praised Williams' aggressiveness, especially within the flow of the game.
"It's imperative that Peyton do this, as opposed to always having to call plays, because plays are going to work much better when she's aggressive when we're not running plays," Mittie said, as K-State (8-9, 2-4) plays at Kansas (12-6, 1-6) on Wednesday at 8 p.m., on FSN. "We were able to find that balance (on Saturday) with her in that she was very aggressive, and we weren't calling her number. Then, when we did call her number, those things were executed much better."
While Williams, fittingly, holds the team's lead in shot attempts this season, she still struggles every so often at pulling the trigger on the floor. K-State's two games before its win against Oklahoma, at home against Texas and at Iowa State, were examples of this. Each game had a different reason why, too.
At Texas, Williams said it just seemed like everything went wrong. She went 0-for-5 from the field that game and finished with a season-low two points — her only game this year below nine points. Her lone 3-point attempt failed to hit any part of the rim, something she can laugh at now but diminished her confidence in the moment.
"Of course, if I'm hitting stuff, then it's easier to shoot, just as it is for anyone. An example, though, where it was difficult was the Texas game where I'm hitting nothing. I felt like I took so many shots and I look back and I only took five from the field and one airball from three. Those airballs feel like so many more in my soul," Williams said, with a laugh, "but when I'm not doing well it weighs on me more as a player and (the coaches) have to kind of work with me through that and snap me out of it, like, 'You still need to take shots, still need to be aggressive, because of the flow of our offense.'"
At Iowa State, it was a little bit of a different issue and she was able to correct it.
Williams went 0-for-3 from the field, scored one point and K-State fell behind by 11 in the first half against the Cyclones. In the second half, Williams turned up her aggression, scored 14 points on 5-of-9 from the field and pulled K-State within two twice in the fourth quarter.
The difference between the two halves, Williams admitted, was two-fold. One part of it was being "more creative" with the ball. More specifically, not pre-determining any post move or using one before it's ready.
"In the Iowa State game, I found myself kind of turning to moves that were not working. Like the up-and-under move. That move works pretty much once every game. But sometimes I do it too early, because I don't establish the original move, allowing for the up-and-under to go through. So, basically, I kind of locked into the up-and-under too early, as opposed to just allowing myself say, 'OK, what's the defense doing behind me? What can I do, knowing that, to score in a creative way?'"
Then, Williams said it came down to simply being aggressive. She made it a point of emphasis to do so against Oklahoma, and it paid off with her third 20-point game this season.
"It was more of a mindset. Coming off those two games, I was, like, 'I can't have these games.' Personally, being more aggressive when I have the ball, allowing myself to be more creative when I have the ball, too, instead of just limiting myself as far as that goes," she said. "Also, my teammates being able to give me the ball and just the flow of the offense against different teams also contributed to that as well. But it was definitely a mindset for me going in, being aggressive."
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