AMES, Iowa \u2014 Jada Williams is just 20 years old and already knows the ups and downs of home ownership. There\u2019s a lawn to get mowed, a garage to clean, air filters to change and a handyman to call for some minor repairs at the four-bedroom fixer-upper she bought recently.<\/p>\n
Williams also has quite a to-do list outside her household chores.<\/p>\n
She is expected to lead 14th-ranked Iowa State<\/a> as the starting point guard and biggest addition to a program expected to challenge for the Big 12 women\u2019s basketball<\/a> championship and make a sixth straight NCAA Tournament appearance.<\/p>\n When she has time, she\u2019ll produce some fresh content for her more than 1 million followers on social media.<\/p>\n No doubt, it\u2019s good to be Jada Williams right now.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been here since June,\u201d she said, \u201cand my life is 100% better.\u201d<\/p>\n Williams, who spent most of her childhood in Kansas City, Missouri, was one of the nation\u2019s highest-rated recruits when she was coming out of La Jolla Country Day School in San Diego. She played her first two college seasons at Arizona, starting 58 of 64 games and leading the Wildcats in scoring last season.<\/p>\n Without elaborating, she said the environment at Arizona took a toll on her mental health. She needed peace of mind, she said, and has found it with coach Bill Fennelly, his staff and her new teammates.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m in a way better spot here,\u201d she said. \u201cI think that\u2019s going to translate on the court as well. They believe in me, they want me to shoot the ball, they want me to pass the ball, they believe in all my abilities and they just encourage me.\u201d<\/p>\n Online influencer<\/p>\n Williams has nearly 600,000 followers on Instagram<\/a>, more than 500,000 on TikTok<\/a> and almost 18,000 on X (Twitter)<\/a>. She and her godfather, former college and pro player Marcus Walker, began making training videos when she was in middle school, and that morphed into content highlighting her athletic exploits and personality.<\/p>\n \u201cShe kind of took the internet by surprise because it wasn\u2019t a big thing back then, social media, and they were just having fun,\u201d said her mom, Jill McIntyre. \u201cWe did not plan for any of this to happen. It organically happened naturally and it\u2019s been a fun ride.\u201d<\/p>\n Williams\u2019 popularity has spawned name, image and likeness opportunities that have made her one of the highest paid women\u2019s college athletes. According to the Opendorse, which provides NIL services to schools and athletes, top starting point guards in the Big 12 can expect to make about $250,000 annually. Several outlets that estimate NIL valuations put Williams\u2019 earnings as double that.<\/p>\n Williams was the first female high school athlete to sign a NIL agreement, McIntyre said, and she broke through with her first national deal in 2021 with the Spalding sporting goods company. Deals with Move insoles, sports publisher Overtime, toy brand Nerf, Lemon Perfect flavored water and social networking app Bumble followed, among others.<\/p>\n \u201cI have an amazing support system with my mom, godfather and agent,\u201d she said. \u201cThings like that make me grateful because not everybody gets this opportunity and, even now that NIL has passed, I just make sure I\u2019m not taking it for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n Williams said she\u2019s learned a lot about managing money, and the house she bought in Ames is an investment. She lives with her golden retriever, Deuce, and hangs out there with teammates, family and friends. Once her time at Iowa State is over, she plans to turn it into an Airbnb.<\/p>\n On the court<\/p>\n Williams joins a lineup that features one of the nation\u2019s top frontcourts with Audi Crooks and Addy Brown. Williams takes over at the point for five-year starter Emily Ryan, and brings speed and tenacity that make her a tough on-the-ball defender.<\/p>\n \u201cLast year, 90% of the time Emily Ryan went to the basket, that ball was going to get passed,\u201d Fennelly said. \u201cJada\u2019s going to score more.\u201d<\/p>\n Brown grew up in Kansas, about three hours from Kansas City, and has known Williams as a teammate or opponent since the third grade. They played together in the 2023 McDonald\u2019s All-American Game and kept in touch, and when Williams went looking for a new school, Brown urged her to become a Cyclone.<\/p>\n Williams averaged 12.7 points per game and her 86.2% free-throw shooting was second in the Big 12 . She shot just 29.2% on 3-pointers, battled injuries and was worn down by what she characterized as a \u201ctoxic\u201d culture.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are a lot of things as a player that can limit your game when you\u2019re not in a system that maybe fits you, and I think that was kind of her situation at Arizona,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI know she\u2019s a great player. I\u2019m excited to see her express her game here and show why she\u2019s one of the best.\u201d<\/p>\n Williams said that\u2019s what she plans to do, mostly because she\u2019s playing with a new team and a clear mind.<\/p>\n \u201cEveyrbody said Jada fell off,\u201d she said, \u201cso now I\u2019m trying to show you that I didn\u2019t fall off.\u201d<\/p>\n