Naz Hillmon: Third-Generation Hoops Star Rebounds Her Way to Success
3/9/2020 1:10:00 PM | Women's Basketball, Features
By Steve Kornacki
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Naz Hillmon comes from a family with basketball success that few can match.
When she won a state championship with Gilmour Academy in Gates Mills in 2017, Naz joined her mother, uncle and aunts in running the family tally to eight Ohio state hoops titles. Uncle Jawad Williams, who started on North Carolina's 2005 national championship team and had a brief NBA career, is just one of a number of talented relatives who have inspired Naz.
Now a sophomore at the University of Michigan, Hillmon is a high-motor, 6-foot-1 post player whose "team-first" approach, all-out effort and scrappy style of play endear her to teammates, coaches and fans alike. She was a first team All-Big Ten pick as well as conference freshman and sixth player of the year last season, and she has two gold medals from playing with U.S. national teams.
How Hillmon became a special talent is a story of a family's belief in hard work, a championship support system, and the ability to turn disappointment into motivation and motivation into success.
Doing the Hard Work
"REBOUND!!"
Above the crowd noise, one voice always finds Hillmon on the court. Her fan section includes numerous relatives who cheer like crazy, but one stands out.
"I can hear my grandma yell 'REBOUND!' But I can't hear anything else even though my mom is sitting really close to her."
Gail Hillmon-Williams, Naz's grandmother, played basketball at Cleveland State. She touted the value of hard work to her children, including Naz's mother, NaSheema (Hillmon) Anderson, who played at Vanderbilt and professionally. Anderson is usually joined at Michigan games by Naz's grandmother and her aunts.
"My mom started by teaching me the basics," Naz recalled. "She said, 'Make sure you rebound.' That's her biggest thing. She said, 'If you're out-hustling and out-rebounding people, that will take you a long way.' "
Three generations of college basketball stars: Naz with mother NaSheema (bottom left) and grandmother Gail
NaSheema laughed heartily when her mother's basketball mantra for all of them was repeated.
"My mom's been doing that way back to when I was playing," said NaSheema. "And, with my mom, you can hear it from her no matter where she is in the gym. My mom would travel nine hours to watch me play for Vanderbilt in Nashville, and I would hear her in Memorial Gym. I would hear 'REBOUND!' and know my mom was there.
"When my brother (Jawad Williams) started playing at UNC, it was the same thing. And now it's moved on to Crisler (Center)."
Grandma Gail, 60 and recently retired as a long-time probation officer in Cleveland, proudly said, "They knew when I was in the gym because I have one of the biggest mouths there is. They knew when I was hollering 'REBOUND!' they'd better get busy."
The youngest of three sisters growing up in Cleveland, Gail was drawn to basketball after watching older sister Desiree play. Gail was six feet tall going into seventh grade and developed skills to go with great size. She was a standout at Cleveland Glenville and then in college.
Grandma Gail started the family's tradition of putting defense first and instilled the importance of doing the dirty work like rebounding. "Oh, yeah, I'm big on defense," she said. "Defense more so wins games, and rebounding is so big. Naz is all about team ball, too, and I love that."
The rest of the family reinforced what the matriarch of a long basketball family tree – a big oak, if you will – began preaching.
"That goes with my parents emphasizing it at any early age," said Naz. "My game isn't great unless I have that 'hustle' component to it."
NaSheema said, "It's more about intangible things and even things that don't show up in the boxscore. A lot of people comment that Naz has a motor that doesn't stop and that she contributes to all phases of the game, and we taught her that at an early age. But from the start, she was tremendous at tracking the ball and rebounding it. We honed in on that skill more than putting it in the basket – which is also important – but when shots are missed you have to be there to get those points.
"Not everybody wants to do that hard work, but if you do that hard work, you will be a great player."
Adds Naz, "I think rebounding is wanting it and just locating the ball. I mean, sometimes you have to run all the way from the right side of the court to the left to get a rebound. And you have to time it. I get more offensive rebounds, but I say, 'I know my players' shots.' "
"She's going to give it her all every time," Grandma Gail said of Naz. "I love being an inspiration for her to make her go hard and see to it that she's proud of the uniform she's wearing. Wherever she wants me to come to see her play, I'll be there."
A Unique Mindset
Hillmon prepped at Gilmour Academy, a Catholic institution founded by the Brothers of Holy Cross that has a dress code and plenty of structure. According to its website, the school provides a "unique holistic, independent environment" and seeks "morally responsible individuals."
"It really helped me to step out of my comfort zone in a lot of things," said Hillmon, "and they helped me in basketball with so many zone packages and my post game. That approach that 'we're all in this together' and winning a state championship was huge. Those girls there were great.
"And for my graduation, I was in Colorado Springs (Colorado) training (with the U18 national team). They called my name at the main ceremony, but when I came back they had a small ceremony for my family and teachers in our principal's office. They really supported me when I had to miss classes for that team, too."
Hillmon averaged 21 points and 14 rebounds as a senior along with 2.7 blocks and 2.0 steals per game. She finished with 2,057 points and 1,607 rebounds before picking Michigan.
"You look at the academics, and you really can't get that anywhere else," said Hillmon, a communications major whose college choice came down to Michigan, Maryland or Northwestern. "And I wanted to go to a basketball school that was coming up like Michigan. I wanted to play with girls I enjoyed being with.
"I wanted to contribute to the success and say, 'I helped build this culture.' And there's the 'four for 40,'" meaning that the four years as a student-athlete at Michigan will impact her for the next 40 years.
Hillmon led the Wolverines in scoring (13.1 points per game) and rebounding (7.0) last season, when she was the Big Ten Conference Freshman of the Year, Big Ten Sixth Player of the Year and a consensus All-Big Ten first team selection. Michigan never had a freshman make first team all-conference, and she's only the fifth Wolverine to earn that honor.
What accolade has meant the most?
"That's a good question," said Hillmon before pausing. "Maybe 'Sixth Man,' I think. I really enjoyed being a spark off the bench. I enjoy starting now, but it was a moment of change in a lot of games last year, and people recognized that. It was pretty special and also goes to show younger people that you don't have to start, and that that shouldn't matter to you, that you can thrive in any spot."
Hillmon showed great maturity and leadership in accepting coach Kim Barnes Arico's challenge to come off the bench.
"I don't know if I can say enough words to really describe Naz," said Barnes Arico, smiling and shaking her head. "I mean, here's a kid who was a special, special player coming out of high school, could've gone anywhere in the country, comes to Michigan, which wasn't a Top 10 team at the time, and says, 'Hey, I'm OK being your sixth player. I'm OK coming off the bench.' And she was our MVP as a sixth player. What other kid or parent or entourage wouldn't have complained about that?
"But she knew that she could give us that spark, and she knew she could be a difference-maker in that role, and she embraced that role. She learned that a lot from her mom and her parents, and she doesn't get caught up in me, me, me, and my numbers. She gets caught up in the team, and what can I do for the team? She gets it, and not many kids at the age of 18 or 19 get it. Sometimes it takes until you're 40 or 50 to get the big picture of things in life.
"Naz is one of those special kids that really sees the big picture, and she wants to make other people feel good and will give of herself anytime to make someone else feel better than she. She's a unique person – a gifted player – but a unique mindset."
Hillmon said Barnes Arico has helped her game take off.
"I think confidence is one of the main things she's helped me with," said Hillmon. "We didn't talk specifically about confidence, but just putting me in position to be a focal point of our offense and putting a freshman at the top of our press (defense) – not many people would do that. And her having the confidence in having me come into games and affect them with the press was awesome.
"We also have chats about what I can do in the future, and things that will come. I'd definitely say that her confidence gives me confidence."
Fire, Passion and Motivation
Hillmon is once again leading the Wolverines in scoring (17.4 points per game) and rebounding (8.7), and she repeated as All-Big Ten first team, earning unanimous selection. She surpassed 1,000 career points -- becoming just the fourth U-M sophomore to reach that milestone -- and 500 rebounds in Michigan's Big Ten Tournament semifinal game, and her team-best 10 double-doubles include a career-high 30 points with 10 rebounds in a Feb. 2 upset of No. 18 Iowa.
The future is very bright for the frontcourt star, and the WNBA and 2024 Olympics are realistic goals.
However, when it comes to rebounding, Hillmon also had to do some of that in a figurative way where making the national team was concerned. She was one of the final cuts on the U16 team in 2016.
"There were 150 girls there," said Hillmon. "I was so nervous but kept making it through the cuts. I made it to the final 18, and they only keep 12. They told us we'd stay another three days before the final cut.
"So, when they told us, they called names in alphabetical order. When I didn't get called, it was heartbreaking. I couldn't breathe. So, I called my parents. They were excited and thought I made it. I started bawling, and they said, 'You can't cry for that. We'll see you tomorrow. You got your name out there, and a week-and-a-half ago you didn't even want to go. Now, crying for not making it is too extreme. How do you go from one to the other?'"
NaSheema (top left, holding flag) saw Naz win a gold medal in Thailand (Photos by USA Basketball)
Her mother recalled: "We attribute that as a lesson from God. I'm still friends with a lot of the girls I met at USA Basketball (during her career), and I wanted that for her. So, we encouraged her to go and she competed. They all had knots in their stomachs as cuts were made, and on the final day she didn't make the team. And, oh, boy, I have never seen her so upset.
"That just put a fire and passion inside of her like we'd never seen before. Something inside of her just clicked on. And she made the teams the next two times. She doesn't have to be the star, but she's going to give 200 percent to make the team."
Her father told her to "use it as motivation," and Naz did: "That pushed me to lock in and say, 'I can play with the best.'"
Two years later, her name was called at the final cuts for the U18 team.
"I almost choked for a second," said Hillmon. "I skipped a breath. Then my head started to pound and I got real excited. I didn't think I was going to make it, and it was nerve-wracking again."
Naz won a gold medal with the U18 team at the 2018 FIBA Americas. A year later, following her freshman season at Michigan, she made the U19 team and won another gold medal at the 2019 FIBA World Cup, starting all seven games while averaging 7.4 points and 7.6 rebounds.
"Playing with and against the best in the world was just a marvelous experience," said Hillmon. "As much as they were basketball-skilled, they were so smart. Their basketball IQs jumped out. I gained so much in that system, and it was also the opportunity to see what I could do when everything wasn't run through me. It was a chance to take on different roles than I was used to, and my coaches put me in a great position to thrive in that role.
"I really appreciated it. It helped me figure out how to put my teammates in a position to thrive and play off of that."
A Spot at the Championship Table
Success on the basketball court is a family heritage for Hillmon, but a coveted membership in the "State Championship Club" was not automatic.
Mom was Miss Basketball and the Gatorade Player of the Year in 1994 for state champion Trinity High in Garfield Heights, was an All-Southeastern Conference performer at Vanderbilt, and played for the Nashville Noise in the short-lived American Basketball League.
Uncle Jawad was the Gatorade and Associated Press Ohio Player of the Year as well as a McDonald's and Parade All-American in 2001 for state champion St. Edward High in Lakewood. He chose North Carolina, where he averaged 13.1 points and 4.0 rebounds as a 6-foot-9 senior forward on the 2005 NCAA champions. Williams played 10 games for the Cleveland Cavaliers (2008-09) and has had a long professional playing career in both Europe and Japan.
NaSheema's younger sisters, Siedah Williams (four-time state champ at Regina High in South Euclid who became a standout and team captain at the University of Virginia) and Adjoni Williams (2007 state champion with Cleveland Central Catholic), also kept the ball rolling before Naz picked it up.
Seven state titles won by her mom, aunts and uncle – along with a national championship and some college conference titles -- are in Naz's blood.
Top (from left): Siedah Williams, Adjoni Williams, NaSheema Hillmon and Jawad Williams made up the original championship table. Middle: Twenty-three years after NaSheema won an Ohio state title (left), Naz got a state championship of her own (right) and celebrated with family (bottom).
"We're very proud of those state titles and championships," said NaSheema. "We would always tease Naz that she didn't have a state championship, and so when we met for holidays, she couldn't sit at the 'Championship Table' with us because she wasn't a champion."
Naz still has a screensaver photo on her phone as a constant reminder of losing a state tournament game by three points to Pleasant High in Marion her sophomore year.
"Naz missed nine free throws in that game," said her mother. "Nine free throws (she actually was 2-for-10). There's a picture of her on the front of the (winning team's local) newspaper of Naz coming off the floor, and all their players around her cheering. They're not taunting her, they're celebrating, but she's coming off the floor with this look in her face, she's horrified. I posted that photo of her everywhere, and the next year they won it."
Naz scrolled to the photo on her phone and said, "That's a reminder every day of how close we were and what we could've accomplished but we let somebody take that away from us. It's still a motivation for sure."
On March 18, 2017 in Columbus, Hillmon scored 24 points with 17 rebounds to star in a 56-54 Division III state title game win over Versailles. She collapsed in the top of the key when the final horn sounded, and her Lancers teammates piled onto her in joy.
The "Championship Table" had a new member one year after that tough loss to Pleasant High.
Her mother recalled: "For the Fourth of July when she finished her junior year and had just won a state championship, my brother came into town, and she was able to sit at the head of the 'Championship Table,' loud and proud. Now she thinks the table belongs to her. She has that state championship and two gold medals, and the table's hers now. She's telling us who can sit at the table with her."
"Me and my mom have always been in competition even though she played 100 years ago," Naz said, laughing. "We always go back and forth, and I've always chased her shadow. But I tried to separate myself. It's why I went to a different college than her, to separate myself. And as far as accolades, I tell Mom that I one-up her with the gold medals. But she was an All-American and has other accolades I haven't got yet."
Naz's cheering section often includes (back row, from left): aunt Adjoni, stepfather Victor, great aunt Brenda, mother NaSheema, aunt Siedah, grandmother Gail, and NaSheema's cousin Derick (far right)
A Supportive Family
The championship basketball family has provided support and direction to Hillmon throughout her career, but they allowed her to find her way to the hardcourt.
"A lot of people would think that they were all hovering over me and making sure that I played basketball, but they really let me come into my own self. They didn't push basketball until they found out I loved it because they wanted to make sure I loved it. And then they were all really helpful in my recruiting process because they had all been through it, and they knew a handful of the people recruiting me."
The Wolverines won out as Naz continued another family trend of picking their own state to migrate to for college.
 "My uncle has been overseas playing for so many years that he's never actually seen me play in person," said Naz. "But he and my aunts have all been very supportive."
Mom "definitely" has had the biggest impact on her basketball career.
"She had been through it," said Naz, "and put in a lot of training with AAU (travel teams) and trainers for me. But we developed a relationship in high school where we had a 24-hour rule. She couldn't say anything to me about the game until then unless I asked."
Naz said Mom can be intense but adds, "Right now, she's been soft on me and I don't like it. I've been trying to get her to tell me more about my game. I might have to take back the 24-hour rule.
"She wanted me to be coachable, and not just by her."
Clockwise from top left: Gail (left), NaSheema and baby Naz; Victor and NaSheema with children Naz (left), Zahkir (top right) and Zharius; Zahkir (from left), Naz, Victor and Zharius; Naz with Uncle Jawad; Grandma Gail (lower left) with daughters (from left) NaSheema, Adjoni and Siedah.
NaSheema, a program manager specializing in screenings at the Cleveland Clinic's Taussig Cancer Center, added, "Sometimes I can be so critical, and I understand the game at a level where other people don't."
Excelling in college basketball is a three-generation family tradition. Grandma Gail started her college career at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida.
"She had just had me and didn't want to be too far away from me," said NaSheema, who was born in Cleveland when her mother was in high school. "So, she transferred home to Cleveland State.
"Mom always set me up so I could play AAU ball, and worked two jobs to support and make sure I could go to a private high school."
Grandma Gail said, "I was a probation officer and made out my schedule to work four days each week so I could leave for games on Fridays, watch them on Saturdays and return home Sundays ready to go back to work on Mondays. I would drive the cars until they had 250,000 miles on them, putting more than 30,000 on every year."
Naz's deepest motivation also is connected to family.
"I know that there are people that don't have the opportunity that I do," said Naz. "I have an older brother (Zahkir Hilmon) who can't play anymore because of a medical condition. He played high school basketball until his sophomore or junior year and was getting recruited, but he had to stop his basketball career.
"Sometimes, when I'm having a hard day, I have to put it in perspective that my brother and so many other people can't play anymore. He's one of my biggest fans. He lives in Cleveland and comes to a lot of my games as well. He lives his basketball career through me now."
Zahkir, described by NaSheema as a really good 6-8 player "who played just like Naz does," graduated from Kent State and works for a commercial bank.
Naz also has a younger brother, Zharius Hillmon, who is playing basketball in high school in Georgia and living with their biological father, Fredrick Baker. Naz has a half-sister, Za Tasia Baker, and a step-sister, Jayda Anderson.
Fredrick, who played football as a tight end and wide receiver and basketball as a forward at Vanderbilt, also gets to several of Naz's games each year. Her stepfather, Victor Anderson, is another big part of her success.
"You won't see (Victor) in the stands too often," said Naz, "and when he's there, he's real quiet, the opposite of my mother. But he's so much of an influence in making sure I'm prepared and relaxed before a game. He always tells me: 'You can be as great as you want to be. It's the thing between your ears that's messing you up right now.' So, he just tries to make sure I'm calm and that I know I'm this great player -- focused and in the right mind space.
"He doesn't get as much credit as my mom because he didn't play basketball, but he's really been a big influence in keeping my head straight. If it's not, he's one of the first people I talk to."
"(Fredrick) is also a big supporter. After every game, he shoots me texts and says, 'Great job!' "
While playing with the national team, she's listed by her full name: Nazahrah (Nah-ZUH-rah) Ansaria Hillmon-Baker.
"I just kind of thought it would be cool to switch it up with USA Basketball," she said. "I wanted to do it because in college I just go by the name on all my papers."
She calls both Frederick and Victor "Dad" and benefits from the knowledge and love both provide her.
So many have contributed to developing her into one of the country's best players.
Connecting People
Hillmon said she "absolutely" hopes to play in the WNBA but also would play overseas like Uncle Jawad to keep her career alive. Then she wants to coach.
"She has, like her mother says, the capability to connect people," said Barnes Arico. "I think that's one of her greatest strengths. No matter who you are, Naz will connect with you and make you feel good about yourself – athlete or non-athlete, regardless of race, background, rich or poor, it doesn't matter. Naz has the ability to light up a room.
"That's one of the greatest attributes a coach needs -- to connect with all kinds of people. And she's experienced so many things in her lifetime that help her relate. I think she'll be a fabulous coach because she sees the game, her work ethic is incredible, and, while she's gifted, she's our hardest worker. She wants to be great, is never satisfied, but always encouraging, too. Just a real special kid."
Mom added, "I do see her coaching. It's funny because for a long time she wanted to be a pediatrician and just recently found this calling that she wanted to be a coach. I totally support her and I think it's the best.
"She'll be a player's coach because she has an uncanny ability of recognizing strengths and getting people to play to their strengths. We have a blended family, and as difficult as it was, Naz was the one that was able to bring all of us together in a short time. She's one of the most resilient people you'll ever meet and has a spirit about her like she's been here before.
"She is beyond her years. You talk to her for a while and ask, 'You're nineteen?' She relates to people in a way a lot of people can't. She delivers things you might not want to hear but in a way that makes you want to work harder."
Naz has had some great examples to follow, beginning with Grandma Gail, continued by NaSheema, and enhanced by a wonderful family circle.
It takes a "Championship Table" to raise a champion, in every way.
