Born in Dayton, Ohio, Williams started playing organized basketball at age 10 in the Dayton Lady Hoopstars AAU program, played on Lady Hoopstar teams which won one national AAU 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 1997-98 Associated Press girls Division I All-Ohio high school basketball team. She was named "Ohio's Miss Basketball" by the Associated Press and chosen by a statewide media panel. Williams was also named a WBCA All-American and the WBCA high schoolplayer 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.".
College
Williams attended the University of Connecticut, 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 NCAA 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%, which is also an NCAA 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. She was one of four players called by Sports Illustrated "best recruiting class of 1998". In recent years, she has been spending the WNBA off-season working on getting a master's degree in sports management at Ohio State University.
Professional career
During the 2002 WNBA Draft, the Minnesota Lynx selected Williams in the first round, sixth overall. In 2003, she set a WNBA single-season record for field-goal accuracy, with a percentage of 66.8%. On March 14, 2008 Williams was traded to the Connecticut Sun in exchange for Kristen Rasmussen.
Coaching career
Williams served as an assistant coach at the University of Kansas for their women's basketball team. Williams served as the head coach for the Senior National team of India at the Asian Games held in Guangzhou. The games were played in November 2010. Williams joined Matthew Mitchell's Kentucky staff as an assistant coach in August 2014.
