One of women’s hoops’ rising stars, a KC native, is ready to play closer to home
Jada Williams is ready to be closer to home.
The one-time top-ranked basketball guard from Kansas City transferred to Iowa State from Arizona ahead of the 2025-26 basketball season. A standout in high school who’s grown a large social media following, Williams is expected to continue to excel at her new Big 12 stop.
“I’m just super excited … my aunts, uncles, my cousins, my sisters and all able to come,” she said. “My nieces and nephews have never really seen me play, so I’m excited for them to.”
Williams attended Blue Springs High School before transferring to La Jolla Country Day School, a private school in California, to finish out her schooling. She then committed to the University of Arizona.
At Arizona, Williams led the Wildcats in scoring and assists, and totaled 23 double-digit scoring performances last season. She’s also represented the United States, winning gold medals at the 2022 FIBA U17 World Cup and 2021 FIBA Americas U16 Championship.
She’s been a key part of the rise of women’s college basketball on social media, garnering nearly 600,000 followers on Instagram and over 520,000 on TikTok. She posts mostly basketball content along with lifestyle, culture and fashion videos.
Williams’ move from KC to a California private school came with hopes of boosting her college offers and maximizing her NIL (name, image and likeliness) opportunities. NIL wasn’t legal in Missouri until 2023, but California was the first state to pass the NIL law under their “Fair Pay to Play Act” in 2019. The state later confirmed in 2021 high school students could also benefit from the law.
3 hours, 45 minutes away
Williams said she’s ready to be closer to home at Iowa State — three hours and 45 minutes now, to be exact.
“What Jada brings to our team is energy, passion,” said Bill Fennelly, women’s basketball coach at ISU.
“She loves to play the game. … She’s a unique basketball player and she fits our system perfectly. Our fans are going to love watching No. 8 play.”
Williams was trained by popular Kansas City basketball trainer Marcus Walker growing up — Walker also trains a lot of local youth talent. Walker played basketball professionally overseas before learning he had an enlarged heart and couldn’t continue his basketball career in 2012.
“When I first started training Jada, women’s basketball in general wasn’t popular,” Walker said. “Nobody was really highlighting young ladies.”
“I could see that (Jada) could do certain things that other young ladies that I had been around … other people wouldn’t even tell them to try,” he added. “I was just like, man, I can get these girls to do the same thing that I can do.”
Walker called Williams’ game “fearless.”
And he’d know. Walker “died and came back to life” on Aug. 15, Williams said, due to difficulties with his enlarged heart.
“When I had no father role in my life, he was there,” Williams said. “I look up to him in so many different ways. … Thinking I was going to lose him was something that I was not prepared for.
“That kind of set me back and helped me realize, like, every single day matters.”
Williams said she was excited to show Walker what she can really do on the court this season and hopes to secure a national championship at ISU.
“(I want) to go all the way to the natty,” Williams said.
Williams was an inaugural member of the Nike Hoops Summit team in 2023 and a multiyear captain at Blue Springs High School, where she was named MVP or co-MVP every year she played there. She was also a 2023 McDonald’s All-American and SLAM All-American.
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