Red and black! Oh no. It might be significant. The University of Georgia's colors are red and black. Was this a sign that she had decided to go to Georgia next year?
But then someone else mentioned Williams' new hair color. Forget that she and Dunbar senior Rhonda Price had tried bleaching their hair on a lark. At this five-day gathering on the campus of Indiana-Purdue at Indianapolis (IUPUI), where scores of college coaches were sizing up 75 of the top high school female players in the nation, every gesture, word and whim could be considered to have some hidden meaning.
So what color was Williams' hair now? Honey blonde, burnt orange, copper, auburn ... Auburn? Was she headed to the Tigers?
Another coach remembered seeing George Williams, Tamika's dad, wearing a Florida State shirt at the National AAU tournament in Chattanooga earlier this month. Someone else remembered her mom at the same tournament. Josephine Williams wore a blue and green cap several days in a row. What did that mean?
And, hey, what about the family dog. His name is Duke! Naah, nothing so blatant. Besides all the scouts know Tamika calls that little schnauzer Pooter. In fact, one of the Purdue coaches even drew a picture of Pooter and sent it to Tamika's Retford Drive home.
Welcome to the goldfish bowl scrutiny of Tamika Williams, possibly the most sought-after girls high school basketball player in the nation. Most scouting services rank her, Lindsey Yamasaki of Oregon City, Ore., and Suzanne Bird of Middle Valley, N.Y., as the top three prospects for the coming season.
And the 6-foot-1 Williams' stock went up after last week's All-American camp. Bill Moss, the Urbana High girls basketball coach who also coached the Nike competition, said, "Tamika, definitely, was the No. 1 player in this camp."
You would have agreed if you watched her Thursday when the high schoolers went up against a pair of teams filled with top college players and pros. One minute, there was Williams using a dipsy-doodle move to take the ball up and under the basket as she scored on Duke's 6-foot-6 Michelle Van Gorp. Soon after, Williams slapped the jump shot of former San Jose State and current Portland Power pro Falisha Wright out of the air. Before the day was done, she had wrestled a rebound from Tennessee star Chamique Holdsclaw and scored over former Olympian and Philadelphia Rage pro Dawn Staley.
"This camp went well,'' Williams said afterward. Typically she passed the credit off, this time in the direction of C-J girls coach Frank Goldsberry. "He keeps telling me I act too nice on the court. That I need to step up and dominate. That's what I tried to do. This week I felt I stood out big time."
And minutes after her rousing play, there she was on the sidelines, kibitzing, smiling, hugging and slapping palms with her teammates, showing once again that off the court she moves just as easily among her peers. Interaction like that is what prompted Moss to say: "To me, she is the classiest women's basketball player to come out of the game in years. She's something special."
That helps explain why Sports Illustrated is following her for a story on high school athletes and why ESPN taped a special segment with her. When it comes to recognition and resume, no other high school girl in Dayton history has drawn this much national attention. She has been recruited by almost every college and university with a women's basketball team
Last season she began to narrow her prospects, paring the list of pursuers to 100 schools, then 40, then 20 and now down to about seven. Still in the running - as of last week - were Connecticut, Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia, Purdue, Ohio State, and Notre Dame. But then, Tamika admitted the list keeps changing.
And so, as one prominent coach said Thursday: "We keep praying and lighting candles."
Not to mention sending mail. The letters and UPS packages arrive at the Williams' Jefferson Township home by the bundle. With everybody trying to get an edge, the special notes, birthday cards, Christmas greetings and Easter wishes have been coming to everybody in the family, not to mention cousins and even the family dog
"We know the UPS man and our mailman so well, that they both come to Tamika's high school games," said Josephine.
What they see at the C-J games is a Parade All-American - not to mention National Honor Society student with a 3.5 grade point average - who averaged 22 points and 14 rebounds a game last season. The Eagles were 24-0 last season before being upset by Mason in the regional semifinals.
"This year I want her to play with a little bit of an attitude," Goldsberry said.
"She could dominate the game, but she is TOO unselfish. She's never wanted her teammates to talk about her. Never wanted them to feel uncomfortable. That's why she passes when she should shoot. When I handed her her Parade All-America plaque, she turned it over quickly so her teammates wouldn't see it. It's not in her nature to act the superstar."
Goldsberry's urgings took effect two weeks ago at a University of Michigan Team camp, where Williams led the C-J team to an unbeaten run through the competition. It continued last week at the Nike camp and probably will surface again today in Washington, D.C., where Williams is playing for the Philadelphia Belles in the 90-team national junior AAU tournament.
It's doubtful any Dayton teen-ager has had a four month span that tops Williams'. Playing for an American All-Star team, she helped defeat teams from Croatia, Sweden, Italy and France in a tournament in Paris this April. There was also a stop in London. Then came several AAU tournaments in the Midwest as she played for the Dayton Lady Hoop Stars, with whom she won the national age-group title last year.
"Women's basketball has changed and these days you can't just play through the winter months," said Pat Hewitt, the Hartsville (S.C.) High School coach who worked with Williams in Indianapolis. "These days if you want to be the best you must play the best. And you find the best in these camps."
Williams understands the process: "I know scholarships are on the line here. I also know when I make these trips I miss things back home. I was gone for the prom, but I know what I'm working for. Once I sign my name on that line, my entire college education is paid for."
Goldsberry said Williams sees the big picture: "She's aware people are looking at her not just for her basketball. It's for her academics, the way she carries herself."
Although NCAA rules prevented college coaches from talking about her at the camp, one prominent coach who sought anonymity did voice what everyone was thinking in Indianapolis:
"She is going to be a great college player. She's intelligent and coachable. She's a good student and she understands little girls are looking up to her. She's the kind of girl you want your daughter to be. Her parents have done a good job."
Both parents were raised in Mobile, Ala. George is a Vietnam vet, graduate of Central State and Wright State and recently retired from General Motors. Josephine graduated from Alabama Sate and this past spring retired after 24 years of teaching math at Colonel White High School.
The family understands the recruiting process because they have done it before - though never on such an intense scale. Oldest daughter Tangy played college basketball at Bowling Green and son Mike started at Virginia Military and finished on a basketball scholarship at Miami University. After that he played professionally in Europe.
And if you watch young Tiffany - a 5-foot-8 Corpus Christi sixth-grader - on the family's backyard court, you know she'll likely follow suit. Tamika said she was in the sixth grade when she got her first recruiting letter. NCAA rules permitted phone contact with high school seniors this summer beginning July 1st at 8 a.m. Tamika's first call came at 8:01 from Kentucky.
"You can only take about three calls a night because coaches will talk an hour maybe an hour and a half," Williams said. "They talk about everything - the climate, your favorite color, animals, music, shoe size, what finger you wear your rings on, do you have anything pierced or tattooed.
"They notice everything. At one game my oldest sister took out a tube of Mac lipstick. She only had it out a few seconds. A week later a coach mentions it and said Mac was her favorite lipstick.
"When I'm travelling, I check into a hotel and there are letters and faxes already waiting for me. I know this would get some people down but everybody says, `If anyone can handle it, it's you Tamika.''
Goldsberry is helping her in the process. They have sent questionnaires out to prospective schools asking everything from graduation rates to academic help that is available.
One college coach who got the questionnaire was especially impressed. "This girl has her head on straight. She's got a lot going for her. She's got everything."
Williams hears such talk and smiles. Maybe the coaches don't know her as well as they think they do. She doesn't have everything. That's when she mentioned she broke up with her boyfriend.
"Yep, " she said with a laugh, "Just say I'll be coming home single ... and lookin'."
And this is a gal who understands the recruiting process.
* CONTACT Tom Archdeacon at 225-2156 or by e-mail at tom_archdeacon@coxohio.com
PHOTO CREDIT: MARVIN FONG/DAYTON DAILY NEWS