IUPUI's Macee Williams Takes her Game to Another Level in Junior Season
By Jared McMurry
Sports Capital Journalism Program, IUPUI
After arriving at Fountain Central High School in Veedersburg, Indiana in 2012 to become the new girls’ basketball coach, Amie Anthrop was quickly made aware of the talented eighth-grade class she had coming.
When she went to watch them though it wasn’t any of the top players that caught her eye. Instead it was the star of the B team — a player with potential like she had never seen before.
That once raw talent from a small west central Indiana town is now undeniably the best women’s basketball player in the Horizon League.
That player, who went from trying to be a good player to wanting to be the best, is IUPUI’s Macee Williams.
“She was very raw initially,” said Anthrop, who coached at Fountain Central from 2012-16 and now coaches at her alma mater Clinton Prairie. “She was good, but she just lacked some of the basic fundamentals.”
The biggest jump for Williams came between her freshman and sophomore seasons.
“Her transition from her freshman year to sophomore year is where it was just night and day different,” Anthrop said. “She bought into the process of wanting to get into the gym and wanting to get better, and it literally went from just trying to be good, to being the best.”
Williams averaged 17.1 points per game and grabbed another 13.1 rebounds a contest, leading the Mustangs to a 21-4 record and sectional championship her sophomore season.
The college coaches quickly came calling, and one of the first in line was Jags’ coach Austin Parkinson.
And his instant comparison to a former teammate told him enough to offer a scholarship to the 6-2 center and No. 69 ranked player in the class of 2017 according to ESPN Hoop Gurlz.
“She was a kid that we tried to recruit really early on,” he said. “Because I thought she could be a really special player. It was crazy, she’s No. 50, she’s left-handed, she has a quick first jump, but doesn’t jump real high. She reminded me exactly of my Indiana All-Star teammate Zach Randolph.”
An Indiana All-Star recognition was also in the cards for Williams as she averaged 26.2 points per game and 16.2 rebounds as a senior, but a matchup against the best player the state of Indiana has ever seen and future WNBA No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 Indiana junior/senior all-star game first put her on people’s radar.
“She gets in the game, gets fed the ball in the high-post, and guarded by Jackie Young,” Fountain Central girls’ tennis coach David Kight said. “Macee turns, faces her, takes three dribbles to her right and scores on her. I watched people in the gym and they’re looking at their program like ‘Who is this kid?’ Next time down the court, the same thing. People are looking around like, ‘Who is that?’ And I felt like at that moment everyone in that gym knew who she was.”
Williams also played tennis and volleyball at Fountain Central, but wasn’t inserted into the starting lineup in tennis until her senior year, because she missed workouts on Tuesdays and Thursdays for AAU basketball practice. Something Kight completely understood.
“I remember her being real nervous about asking me,” he said. “And I was like, ‘Listen, you’re going to go to college to play basketball. You’re going to get a free education. If you need to miss tennis Tuesdays and Thursdays then that’s what you needed to do.’”
Williams and her No. 1 doubles partner Hattie Duncan didn’t lose a match during Williams’ senior season until the regional. That’s how talented she was, and everyone could see it.
“Best hands I’ve ever seen, boy or girl, since I’ve been here in 20 years,” Kight added. “Just the best hands of an athlete and I got to see that not just on the basketball court, but I got to see on the tennis court when she’s up at the net volleying. Nothing fazed her.”
With other college choices at hand, IUPUI became the easy choice for Williams.
“I came for a visit and sat in the locker room, and I just felt like I was already on the team,” she said.
And Parkinson, now in his 10th year the helm of the Jags’ program, will never forget the feeling he had when he landed the biggest recruit in program history.
“I remember when she committed my wife was with me and I remember I said to her ‘She’s going to go down as the best player in IUPUI’s history, and it’s not even going to be close,’” Parkinson said.
“And it’s not going to be close.”
Williams was named the Horizon League Freshman of the Year in 2018, and won Player of the Year honors with 16.1 points per game and 8.8 rebounds per game last year as a sophomore.
As a junior, she once again earned Player of the Year honors. She averaged 17.8 points and 8.9 rebounds per game in the regular season, ranks eighth in the country with a 60.9% field goal percentage, and has helped IUPUI to its first-ever Horizon League regular season title.
“I guess it’s having a team where everyone is so good,” Williams said. “I definitely don’t think I’m the best player in the Horizon League. I’m still coming in everyday to practice and competing and just definitely working on the stuff I need to work on to become the best player I can be.”
Just as Anthrop said after watching Williams play for the first time as an eighth-grader, the sky remains the limit. No one who has watched her progress will be surprised by how far the game of basketball takes her.
“Am I surprised she’s having the success?” said Kight, one of the most respected tennis coaches in western Indiana. “Not one bit, because some kids you’re around, you just know they’re going to succeed. She’s a phenomenal human being, and deserves all the success and she’s worked extremely hard to get it, because you don’t get noticed coming from Fountain Central unless you deserve to get noticed.”