UCLA basketball commit Jada Williams leaving Blue Springs High School for California

Blue Springs High School appears to be losing a second big time basketball recruit in a month. 

Jada Williams, who is the No. 16-ranked recruit in the 2023 class by ESPN, confirmed on her Twitter account Thursday night that she would be transferring to La Jolla Country Day School in La Jolla, California, and joining a pair of other big recruits, Breya Cunningham (ESPN No. 4 in 2023 class) and Tajianna Roberts (ESPN No. 12 in 2024 class). 

Williams retweeted a post by EGB Hoops, “With the addition of @mrsmac0606 (Williams) LaJolla Country Day now has 3 ESPN top 20 players. @taj__roberts #12 and @BreyaC2023 #4. A true PG, True Scorer and a true Post and a good supporting cast.” 

A month ago, Braden Appelhans of the Blue Springs boys basketball team, announced he was transferring to Western Reserve Academy in Ohio to enhance his recruiting profile. 

Williams, a 5-foot-8 point guard who has verbally committed to UCLA, is representing the USA Basketball in the FIBA Americas Women’s U16 Championship next week in Mexico. She – and Grain Valley High School’s Grace Slaughter, her former AAU teammate with Missouri Phenom – left this week for training camp in Washington, D.C., prior to that international tournament. 

This summer, Williams played on the 17U Cal Swish GBL team in the Nike Girls Elite Youth Basketball League, which is largely considered the top youth league in the nation. 

Williams, who will be a junior this year, has earned all-state honors in her first two seasons in high school. As a sophomore, she averaged 19.1 points, 5.3 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.2 steals for the Wildcats to earn Class 6 all-state honors by the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association. 

More:Blue Springs' Jada Williams, Grain Valley's Grace Slaughter eager to represent country on Team USA

She shared Examiner Player of the Year honors with Slaughter as a freshman while leading the Wildcats to the Class 5 state final four, which was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. She tallied 17.6 points, 4.6 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 3.1 steals per game as a freshman to earn MBCA Class 5 all-state honors. 

After that season, Williams was lauded in an ESPN.com article written by Dan Olson, who called her the next Skylar Diggins-Smith, the former Notre Dame star who recently helped the U.S. women’s team win its seventh straight Olympic gold medal. 

Prior to her freshman high school season, Williams – and Slaughter – helped lead the U.S. Central Region U14 team to a championship at the 2019 Jr. NBA Global Championship with a 7-0 record and a 72-35 win over Canada at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida.