When Howard’s Nyree Williams decided to play for North Carolina’s women’s basketball team, she had one personal goal in mind. She wanted to make the All-Atlantic Coast Conference defensive team next season as a freshman.

You don’t hear many girls talking about defense when they head off to a major Division I program, but Williams, a 6-foot-1 senior forward who signed in November, said she already has talked about it with the Tar Heels coach.

“There’s never a game when I don’t play defense, so that goal, to me, is not unrealistic,” said Williams. “When I was talking to North Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell, that’s what she talked about, me being a defensive player.”

Williams said defense has always been a big part of her game – at first, to a fault.

“When I started playing when I was 10 years old, [the coach] was like, ‘stay with your man, stay with your man.’ I was like ‘OK, coach, I’ll stay with my man,’ so people would jog down the lane. I wouldn’t cover them. I was like, ‘That’s not my man.' ”

Williams laughs when she tells that story, but it didn’t take her long to learn. As she got taller than most of her teammates, she ended up in an usual spot for a post player.

“When I was younger I used to be at the top of the press. Usually that’s a guard position, but I’d be at the top because I’m so long, so I learned to really focus on defense. That’s how I learned. I learned to play defense and then offense came later. That’s just part of my game now. I can miss every shot in a game but my defense will be on,” said Williams, who has already scored 1,000 career points and is closing in on her 1,000th rebound.

You can find out more about Williams on today’s Varsity page, where she is The Baltimore Sun’s girls Athlete of the Week.