Education
Born in Dayton, Ohio, Williams started playing organized basketball at age 10 in the Dayton Lady Hoopstars Amateur Athletic Union program, played on Lady Hoopstar teams which won one national Amateur Athletic Union age group championship and finished in top four twice.
Williams had a stellar basketball career at Chaminade-Julienne, a Catholic high school in Dayton, Ohio. She was named the 1997 and 1998 Ohio Player of the Year and was named in the 1997-1998 Associated Press girls Division I All-Ohio high school basketball team She was named "Ohio"s Mission Basketball" by the Associated Press and chosen by a statewide media panel.
Williams was also named a WBCA All-American and the WBCA high school player of the year.
Williams participated in the WBCA High School All-America Game, where she scored eight points.
After graduating from Chaminade-Julienne, Williams was heavily recruited by numerous collegiate teams. In 1997, she was the subject of a seven-page feature in a January 1998 issue of a Sports Illustrated magazine article on the pressures of being recruited.
Ohio State arranged for a private jet to fly Williams from her home in Dayton to Columbus, approximately 70 miles away. She mentioned this to UConn coach Geno Auriemma, who responded by mailing her a little wooden plane, explaining, "Sorry, Tamika.
This is the best we can do.".
Williams attended the, majored in interpersonal communications, and served as President of UConn"s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.
From 1998 to 2002 she was part of the UConn basketball team, which became National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I National Championship teams in 2000 and 2002 under coach Geno Auriemma.
She completed her four-year collegiate career in 2002 with averages of 10.6 points per game and 5.8 rebounds per game. She finished as UConn"s all-time leader in field goal percentage at 70.3% (560-for-797), which is also an National Collegiate Athletic Association Division 1 record. She also holds the Huskies" top four single-season marks for field goal percentage, ranked 14th on UConn"s all-time scoring list with 1,402 points, and finished 10th all-time in rebounding (763).
She was one of four players (along with Asjha Jones, Swin Cash, and Sue Bird) called by Sports Illustrated "best recruiting class of 1998".
In recent years, she has been spending the Women's National Basketball Association off-season working on getting a master"s degree in sports management at Ohio State University.
