“I was dribbling as soon as I could walk.”
Before you dismiss that as youthful hyperbole, listen to some folks who’re older and were there: Her parents – Duke and Brandi Williams.
“I was teaching our son how to dribble – we were going back and forth – and I happened to look over at Breezie,” Duke said. “She was in her bouncer, and I mean she was locked in and wouldn’t stop looking at the basketball.
“I told my wife, ‘Brandi, look at her! She’s ALL about it!’”
Mention of that moment brought it back to life for Brandi Wednesday night as she spoke by phone after returning to their Canton home from Fairborn:
“I remember it like it was yesterday. She was in her little bouncer/jumper thing.
“Duke was trying to teach Darrion to dribble a basketball, and her eyes were locked in on the bouncing ball. That’s the honest to God truth.”
Once out of that bouncer, Breezie knew what she wanted.
“She could walk when she was 10 months old,” Duke said. “She had little fat rolls that looked like muscles. She was just a very powerful little girl and as soon as she got the ball in her hand, she started dribbling. Nothing was too much for her.”
So what about the nickname?
“Her brother, when he was little, liked “Jay Jay the Jet Plane,” Brandi said. “It was a cartoon, I believe on PBS. And Jay Jay would sing a song about his friend, the beautiful butterfly Breezie.”
“And when we heard it, I looked at Duke, and he looked at me and we said, ‘That’s it! Her nickname is Breezie.’”
And from then on, their only daughter Brielle became Breezie.
And with her, ball was a breeze.
“As she got bigger, every sport with a ball, there wasn’t nothin’ that girl couldn’t do,” Brandi said. “She even juggles. She’s pretty talented.”
Breezie played four years of varsity basketball at GlenOak High in Canton.
Her freshman and sophomore seasons, the Golden Eagles made it to the four-team state tournament and junior year they reached the regional final.
In her prep career she won second team All-Ohio Division I honors and her AAU team, the Ohio Xtreme, won a national championship
She went on to play two seasons at New Hampshire – where she made the America East Conference All-Rookie Team as a freshman – and then transferred to Bryant University for a season before entering the portal again and coming to Wright State for her senior year.
She has started the Raiders’ first five games this season, including Wednesday’s 83-76 overtime loss to Bellarmine in front of a crowd of over 6,000 kids who filled the Ervin J. Nutter Center with ongoing screams of delight and earnest cheers during the Education Day promotion.
Combining her three college stops, Breezie has now played in 94 college games and started 85 of them.
She led the Raiders with 18 points against Bellarmine. Coming into Sunday’s game with Indiana University East at the Nutter Center, she leads WSU in scoring (14.4 points per game), steals and minutes played. She’s second in assists.
“Breezie adds a ton for us,” said WSU head coach Kari Hoffman. “She can get downhill and score. She plays in transition, defends at a high level. She’s just a very skilled player.
Credit: Bryant Billing
Credit: Bryant Billing
“We’re very lucky to have her.”
‘Just play hard’
Although Wright State – as did New Hampshire and Bryant – lists her on its website as 5-foot-5, Breezie admitted Wednesday she’s more like 5-foot-3.
The truth is she doesn’t need two phantom inches to hype her towering basketball talents.
“I never let her look at her size as a thing,” Duke said.
“I’d tell her, ‘The ball don’t care how old or how young you are; how big or how small you are. The ball is the ball … just play hard.’
“And her attitude became: ‘You’re not gonna look at me as little. I’m strong.’ She takes it personal when someone bigger tries to post her up.”
Breezie agreed with her dad. “I think I’m kind of fast and tough. And I can jump. That helps me equalize things with bigger players.”
And that’s exactly what happened Wednesday with 3:03 left in the fourth quarter and the game tied at 62 when she got the ball in the paint with her back to the basket and Bellarmine’s 6-foot-3 Rachel Shropshire guarding her.
She gave a fake one way and then wheeled around for a turnaround jump shot she arched over the big defender, an under-pressure shot that gave Wright State a two-point lead.
It was one of 17 lead changes in the game.
The fourth quarter would end with the score knotted at 68 and in overtime Bellarmine turned to its two veteran guards, Ashlee Harris and Triniti Ralston, who provided 13 of the team’s 15 points.
Along with Breezie, Wright State, now 3-2, was led by Claire Henson, who had 13 points and 12 rebounds; Rylee Sagester, who had 16 points; and Chloe Chard Peloquin added 11 rebounds and nine points.
‘This is the fit’
When the NCAA granted college players an extra COVID year, Duke said high school players like his daughter, a 2022 grad, often were bypassed by teams deciding instead to add a veteran fifth-year player they already had seen tested in the college game.
Breezie chose New Hampshire and in her first season she started all 27 games, averaged 9.6 points and won all-rookie honors.
Although she started 23 of 29 games the following season, her minutes and production went down slightly, and she felt a bit of a disconnect with the coach who resigned at the end of the season.
By then though she was in the portal and was picked up by Bryant, which had played against her in the AEC.
Her minutes and statistics went back up – she started 26 of 29 games – but late-season drama between some players and the coach made her uncomfortable and she decided for her last college season, she wanted to be closer to home.
Her mom is a school administrator who was the dean of students at St. Thomas Aquinas High School east of Canton. Her dad is an electrician and an independent contractor for developmentally disabled individuals.
Her brother is a laboratory scientist at Mount Carmel Medical Group in Westerville.
It used to take them 10 hours – that includes flights – to get to New Hampshire; nine to go to Bryant.
Canton to the Nutter Center is a three-hour drive.
But the embrace she feels now doesn’t come just from back home, but from WSU too.
After high school recruiting and two trips through the portal, Duke noted:
“We’ve been to a lot of colleges over her four-year career. Usually after every visit, she’d have one thing she didn’t especially like.
“But on the way home from Wright State, she said, ‘Dad, I have absolutely nothing bad to say about this place.’
“She was a little hesitant because it was early in the portal process, but I said, ‘Well, if you lost this opportunity, how would you fee’
“She thought a second and said, ‘I would be devastated.’
“And I said, ‘Well then, you have to commit to them. This is the fit.’”
And that’s how it’s turned out, Breezie said: “I love it here.”
Her mom and brother were at Wednesday afternoon’s game and afterward Brandi talked about her daughter’s experience so far at WSU.
“She does love it. She’s very happy with the players, the coaches and the community. This is the first time she’s finally found somewhere where it’s home.
“Don’t take this wrong, but I hate that it’s her senior year and she won’t get more of this.
“I’d love to see her get a chance to play (professionally) overseas and experience other countries and cultures.
“She wants to keep playing. She doesn’t want to see the ball stop bouncing yet.”
It’s that same fascination she first showed when she was in that bouncy chair caught up in all the dribbling … of a ball … not down her chin.
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