Gabby Williams has no idea how or why she started having issues with migraine headaches but she is thrilled that she can refer to the migraines in the past tense.

The senior All-American forward was forced to sit out a few practices but she was able to return in practice in time to play in last night's exhibition win over Fort Hays State.


"When I came back I think I was out for a week and a half, I felt out of rhythm, I missed some of the offense we put in," Williams said. "It was weird. We thought it was a concussion but I never got hit so I didn't see how it was a concussion. We have no idea how it came but I am glad it is gone now."

Williams said she had to spend additional time in a dark room, no watching TV and as little time as possible spent on her phone. She said eating chocolate is one of the things that is said to help so with Williams dealing with migraines around Halloween, it's about as close as you can get for perfect timing for a migraine.

HUGE ADDITION FOR NOTRE DAME
Most of the recent news surrounding the Notre Dame program hasn't been exactly positive with star post player Bruanna Turner out for the season as she continues to rehab from the knee injury she suffered in the 2017 NCAA tournament. Then came the news that senior guard Mychal Johnson recently tore her ACL leaving the Fighting Irish without four of the players who averaged at least 10 minutes per game during the 2016-17 season when you factor in Lindsay Allen's graduation and Erin Boley's transfer to Oregon.

Well, Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw finally received some good news as yesterday it was announced that Nebraska transfer Jessica Shepard is eligible to play immediately after receiving a waiver from the NCAA.

Shepard was the leading scorer and rebounder at Nebraska in each of the last two seasons. While McGraw doesn't expect Shepard to score as much as she did in her two seasons at Nebraska with all the other offensive options returning, she will give Notre Dame some needed size to replace Turner.

"It was a long process," McGraw said. "We were waiting to hear but so excited to have her. She brings experience, she is a great player. She is very talented, really versatile, she can score in a lot of different ways. She can face up and is a great passer, she can rebound and is really strong around the basket so a lot of good stuff and we need all of it."

McGraw said that Shepard is the first undergraduate transfer at Notre Dame during her time there. She said that Turner could be at 100 percent by January or February. However, the decision was already made to keep her out this season.

Texas coach Karen Aston said sophomore forward Joyner Holmes, who is not enrolled at Texas for the fall semester, has done everything she needed to and is set to be enrolled in the second semester. Looking at the academic calendar on the school's official site, the final day for exams in the fall semester is Dec. 20 meaning she should be able to come back for the Big 12 opener at Oklahoma on Dec. 28 and will certainly be back by the time Texas hosts UConn on Jan. 15. Even with Holmes out of the lineup, Texas was picked second behind UConn in the preseason Associated Press poll.

WILSON REFLECTS ON CINDERELLA BOBCATS
South Carolina's national player of the year A'ja Wilson was among the six players at today's NCAA media day at ESPN and I probably spent as much time interviewing her as I did for any non-UConn player in the event's history.

Among the topics I brought up was her reaction to Quinnipiac's memorable run to the Sweet 16 before the clock struck midnight for the Cinderella Bobcats thanks to South Carolina's emphatic 100-58 victory.

"I remember we were watching them playing and saying, 'dang, they are really doing this,'" Wilson said. "That just goes to show how great the (sport) is and how we are growing. That is March, that is the beauty of March, there is always that one Cinderella team. I think our guys' team were the Quinnipiac on the men's side but just to see those teams do those things just goes to show they were a great team ad if you trust and believe in something, you can go after it. Seeing them in Stockton, we were looking around like, 'are these the underdogs, they are really coming at us right now.' They had their crew, their band so it was a lot of fun seeing them playing and make history like that."

Wilson said that perhaps she will tune into the WNBA Draft lottery on Nov. 13 but she won't plan her day around it. She has had conversations with former teammates Tifffany Mitchell and Alisha Gray 


It was a great group of players at this year's media day. I've always enjoyed talking to Wilson dating back to when she was being recruited by UConn. Oregon's Sabrina Ionescu gave me some tremendous quotes about the story I wrote for tomorrow's paper focusing in on Breanna Stewart's recent posting on the Players' Tribune where she revealed she was sexually abused as a child and also how Stewart's action serve as a reminder of the platform a star like Stewart (and those in attendance at ESPN) have to make a difference in the world.

Gabby Williams was her typical quote machine, Louisville's Asia Durr was also a pleasure to talk to. I never got around to interviewing Mississippi State's Morgan William or Kalani Brown of Baylor but it was a well run and productive morning spent at ESPN. It's nice when the people running the media day go out of their way to make players available to the print media. It was a far cry from what transpired at American Athletic Conference media days when no time was specifically budgeted for people like me to interview players. Thankfully UConn made their players available for multiple hours and I did manage to get some of the other players from other teams I wanted to talk to but it wasn't easy. I'm not sure exactly when I will be done transcribing everything from today (especially since I haven't finished listening to the interviews for my football advance) but it was certainly worth the journey even if I did get stuck in multiple traffic jams on I-84 this morning.