Far from a normal Monday for Mikaylah Williams of LSU, less than 48 hours withdrawal from the defeat of the Tigers against Texas in the Southeast Conference Tournament, she returned to attention and, perhaps for the first time, without a team.
The second year sensation of female basketball basketball was the only star of a lot of social media content to raise Cane's, the popular chicken finger chain that originated a few hundred feet from the LSU campus.
In the original location, known as 'The Mothership', Williams greeted fans, took orders from counter and drive-thru, and did everything that anyone who lived in Baton Rouge could dream of participating in that combination of cash.
However, even with the chaos of fans, the press, the police and the fast food workers that surround it, with the smell of fried food that permeates every centimeter of the restaurant, Williams knows that he is at the door of the story.
LSU is about to embark on the NCAA tournament for the first time since the rise of female basketball without Angel Reese, and Williams is an integral part of the Tigers in the absence of the star of now Chicago Sky.
“With Angel, it is simply to be without apologies yourself and that is something I have entered, such as being able to talk to my team and be a leader,” Williams said before Sunday's team. “So that's something that really instilled in me.”
Mikaylah Williams will enter its second NCAA tournament with LSU after last year's defeat
Williams had a front row to see Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese battles over the years
Williams was recruited and is trained by one of the biggest faces of the game: Kim Mulkey
Reese and Clark have been an integral part of female basketball growth in the last two years, with the catalyst for that increase in interest at a time that Williams had a front row.
As the best classified recruit of LSU in the 2023 class, he saw the Tigers win a national title, knocking Clark's Iowa in the game for the title in the second year of Kim Mulkey leading the best of swamps.
The now Infamous Reese point to his ring finger on the face of the Indiana fever star, has been reproduced millions of times throughout the world and linked to that duo in a rivalry on the court that has pushed sport to a new dimension.
“The female game is growing like no other,” said Williams. “Angel doing what he is doing, unmatched, Caitlin Clark doing what he does, I'm glad to follow his steps and, hopefully, still have that impact for people who come behind me.”
Williams had a better thing than a front row seat a year ago, playing in the game seen by record audience.
The NCAA tournament games that involved Clark broke the audience brand of all time four times in a period of 13 months, including the Hawkeyes surpassing the Tigers in Elite 8 last season in what was the last game of Reese of their university career.
“Obviously, Caitlin Clark is incredible and the atmosphere with her was incredible,” Williams added last year's confrontation in Albany. “Just knowing that feeling of walking back to the tunnel without the W reaching the Final Four, just remember that feeling and try to pass that feeling for the costumes because some people were not in the team last year.”
“So just give them that feeling and telling them:” I promise you that you don't want to feel that feeling. “Just pressing me and my team to work hard.
Williams expects to leave an impact similar to the one that Reese and Clark have for those who come next.
Reese and Clark are now in the WNBA, playing for Indiana Fover and Chicago Sky
Reese recently spoke with Williams about keeping his head up after a recent defeat against Alabama
Williams could see firsthand last year how Clark was in the tournament
Williams is still in contact with Reese while a LSU torch bearer talks to another. The most recent time was after the defeat of the Tigers against Alabama in the national position, the last time they were defeated in the regular season.
Reese told Williams to “keep his head up,” since the WNBA star knows very well that there were bigger games ahead.
Even with LSU not raising the SEC championship trophy, his second trip to the NCAA tournament means anything about the bets of the Vicir season or play will be new.
And with such confidence in a coach like Mulkey, Williams has learned that lesson, both with the defeat at Clark and substantial reminders since then.
Almost a year after her first year season ended, Williams clearly described the “disappointment” by not living up to his team's potential, and the “repentance” that he reese, she and others could have done more.
“(Mulkey) instill that in us and we have to win to move on and have to win to continue playing basketball,” Williams continued. “It's like,” How long do you want to play basketball? Do you want to play basketball for those six games? Or do you want to go home early? ”
“And if you ask everyone in the locker room right now, I don't think anyone wants to go home early.”
That takes at the time of Monday to shine, around the booths printed in Tigre, with photos of Elvis Presley hanging on the walls of the original Raising Cane location, a much smaller version than was built around the rest of America.
Williams has become a leader for LSU after Reese left the WNBA program
Clark is at the forefront of the popularity of female basketball in the last two years
Mulkey, Reese and others have made shifts working on the fast food joint that can be the second most emblematic brand of Baton Rouge.
Williams was only after a setback for injuries to his teammate Aneesah Morrow, whom Williams said he will be ready for the NCAA tournament.
Together with Flau'jae Johnson, Morrow and Williams are considered 'Big Thre' of LSU and should be the decisive factors in how their hopes of a second title of the NCAA in three years decrease.
The popularity of female basketball places the Bossier City sniper, Louisiana, a small town east of the state border with Texas and almost four hours to the northwest of Baton Rouge, at the crossroads of being a star in a city with high expectations and more ocular than ever before.
“I want my legacy to be kind, humble and really wanted to show people back home, young women, young people, young people back home, who can be on the biggest stage, and it is possible to do it back at home.”
The next time Williams is in the center of attention, his team will return to his side. And the mission is simple, with those for whom she wants to create a path, like Reese and Clark they have in her mind.