How the new Big 12 Conference brought two old teammates back together after huge Fight

With recent expansion of the Big 12 Conference due to conference realignment, many have been left wondering how the new faces of the league – Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah – will come in and affect the league.

However, for Kansas sophomore guard S’Mya Nichols, conference realignment has allowed her the chance to soon compete against a former teammate.

Nichols and Arizona’s star-studded sophomore guard Jada Williams have a long history of playing together in the Kansas City area, playing on the same AAU team, the Missouri Phenom, up until their freshman year of high school.

“We had the same trainer at the moment and we’d just always see each other and then, boom, we started playing with Phenom together,”  Nichols said to the Kansan during Big 12 women’s media day on Tuesday.

The two had a prior connection to the Phenom while in middle school, both playing in AAU tournaments with a team based out of Oklahoma, which is when the two first started playing together.

Their years with the Phenom eventually led them to the 2019 Junior NBA Global Championships. The pair led the Phenom and represented the Central Region, winning the tournament championship with a perfect 7-0 record.

“I remember prepping (for the Junior NBA Global Championships) as if it was March Madness,” Nichols said. “Playing with Jada, of course, she put on a show, and that’s what she needed to do.”

Winning the tournament wasn’t just a highlight of the trip, however. After all, they were just teenagers at the time.

“We made a lot of good friendships, we were all from the same area, so being able to hang out, go swimming, go shopping, stuff like that, those were my best friends growing up,” Williams said.

Nichols isn’t the only connection that Williams has to Kansas, as freshman guard Zoe Canfield was also a member of that Phenom team, and Canfield’s father, Jordan, was an assistant coach.

“We used to go to their house all the time, go swimming, hang out, eat food, stuff like that,” Williams said.

Williams spent her first year of high school at Blue Springs High School, just outside of Kansas City, Missouri, and finished her high school career at La Jolla Country Day School in California before ultimately continuing her collegiate career at Arizona.

Despite the distance, both Nichols and Williams have stayed in contact throughout high school and now in college via social media.

“She’ll post something, I’ll swipe up on it. I’ll post something, she’ll swipe up on it,” Nichols said. “Then we’ll go back and forth  and then it’s like, oh, we don’t talk, and then we’ll talk again  another week later or two.”

Williams agreed, saying that their bond “never broke” and that their parents are still close friends and remain in contact.

While the two are competitors and will soon take to the hardwood opposite of each other on Jan. 19 inside Allen Fieldhouse, it’s not something that is brought up often in their conversations.

“We know it’s coming, but that’s something like, when you have friends you’ve grown up with throughout basketball, that’s just not your top priority to talk about,” Nichols said. “Of course I’m excited, I’m honestly excited for her to even keep coming back to Kansas and play in front of her family because they are nearby.”