Iowa women add basketball assistant

Iowa women’s basketball coach Lisda Bluder has added Jaida Williams to her coaching staff. Williams spent this past season as an assistant coach at Cal-Poly at Panoma where she played basketball and led the school to a 23-7 record her senior season in 2004. She will serve as Director of Basketball Operations and she’ll coordinate team travel, set up the practice squad and manage the team managers.Williams feels her youth will be a plus for the coaching staff. She says she thinks she can relate to players since she’s not far removed from where the players are. Williams is a native of Miami and says the opportunity was too good to pass up. She says the Big Ten is one of the best conferences in the U.S. and says coach Lisa Bluder has one of the best reputations in the nation as a coach.Williams says the most important thing for a coach is to effectively communicate what it takes for a player to be successful. She says that’s ahrd work, discipline and buying into what the coaches are saying.She replaces Shannon Gage, who left to join the staff at Michigan.