See emotional reaction to Iowa State women’s basketball loss
Iowa State women’s basketball coach Bill Fennelly offered an emotional response in his postgame press conference following a March Madness 2025 first round loss to Michigan.
After Emily Ryan completed her college career, the Iowa State women’s basketball team hit the transfer portal, looking for some experience at the guard spot.
The Cyclones now have it after Jada Williams, a former five-star recruit and star point guard for Arizona the last two seasons, announced on social media Wednesday that she’s transferring to Iowa State.
“I’m super excited,” Williams said in a phone interview with the Des Moines Register on Wednesday afternoon. “I’m super excited to be a Cyclone.”
A star, both on and off the court, will be making her way to Ames. The 5-foot-8 guard averaged 11 points, 2.6 assists and 2.5 rebounds in 63 games, including 58 starts, for Arizona over the last two seasons.
A member of the Pac-12 All-Freshmen team in 2024, Williams has been a constant contributor since the first day of her college career. She averaged 9.5 points and 2.4 assists per game as a freshman.
Williams was even better as a sophomore, leading the Wildcats in scoring (12.7 points per game), total minutes (916) and assists (2.9).
At the end of March, she announced she was entering the transfer portal and quickly became one of the most intriguing players available.
“I love Arizona,” Williams said. “I love the people here and I love my teammates and and I think had a blast here. But God was showing me that the future holds something different.”
Different meant a new college. Williams took a visit to Iowa City and followed that up with a trip to Ames. She said she fell in love with Iowa State’s culture.
It helped that Williams, a native of Kansas City, Mo., knew Cyclones’ star Addy Brown, who hails from Derby, Kan., well. Williams said the two had played with and against each other for years.
Williams could help fill a big void for the Cyclones now that Ryan, one of the most successful point guards in Iowa State history, has exhausted her eligibility. Ryan played five seasons for the Cyclones and is the school’s all-time assists leader.
Her potential replacement walks into a great situation. Williams was a McDonald’s All-American in high school and is a social media star with over 621,000 followers on Instagram. She joins an Iowa State roster full of talent.
Brown and fellow Cyclones star Audi Crooks announced over the weekend that they planned to return for their junior seasons at Iowa State. Crooks led the Big 12 Conference in scoring. Brown is one of the most versatile players in the nation.
“Our goal is to win a national championship next year,” Williams said. “So, we’re about to start putting in work in the next couple of months and get to it.”
Brown and Williams just needed a great guard with ball-handling skills. They get it with Williams. With the three on board for the upcoming season, Williams believes national championship talk isn’t far-fetched.
Crooks and Brown led Iowa State to the Big 12 Tournament title game as freshmen. They came a win away from reaching the Sweet 16 later that season. As sophomores, the team struggled at times but still went to the NCAA Tournament.
Williams expects them to be back during her first season. And to possibly go far. Really far.
“I think that’s a realistic goal for us,” Williams said. “And definitely Sweet 16, Elite Eight, Final Four is definitely something that we believe we can do, that we’re super passionate about. I think we’ve talked about it a lot, me Addy and Audi.”
Williams wouldn’t say who her choices in colleges came down to. But Iowa State was the perfect fit for her moving forward.
“As long as we stay together and we have the same end goal, I think we can do some magical things next year,” she said.
(This story has been updated to add quotes following an interview with Jada Williams.)
Tommy Birch, the Register’s sports enterprise and features reporter, has been working at the newspaper since 2008. He’s the 2018, 2020 and 2023 Iowa Sportswriter of the Year. Reach him at tbirch@dmreg.com or 515-284-8468the same end goal, I think we can do some magical things next year,” she said.
