Mohegan — The walls in the weight room at Charlton County High School in Folkston, Ga., used to be decorated with pictures of the school’s football players.

Then along came Courtney Williams.

“I would always tell (head football coach Richard McWhorter), ‘look, I want to get a picture on the wall,’” Williams said. “So he said, ‘alright, you have to put some work in the weight room.’ So that’s what I did. That’s all I did. Every day in high school, working my legs.”

All that leg work helps explain Williams’ amazing vertical leap. It’s also a good example of her drive and desire.

Williams wanted more playing time with the Phoenix Mercury, who selected the shooting guard eighth overall in April’s WNBA Draft. She’ll get it now that she’s been traded to the Connecticut Sun, who play host to the WNBA champion Minnesota Lynx Thursday night (Mohegan Sun Arena, 7).

“I’m excited to play again,” Williams said. “I really wasn’t expecting to get drafted and sit on a bench, you know. That was very humbling. So to be able to get a second chance and actually get to play, I was very excited.”

Williams should be familiar to UConn fans, as she scored 20-or-more against the Huskies five times during her career. She was a unanimous American Athletic Conference first-team pick during her last two years at South Florida and one of 10 players chosen to the 2016 Women's Basketball Coaches Association All-America team.

The Mercury are a veteran team whose starting lineup hasn’t changed since they blitzed their way to a WNBA-record 29 regular-season wins and a world championship in 2014. It left very few minutes for Williams and her fellow rookies. Williams played just 24 minutes in six of her 13 games with Phoenix.

The Mercury were favored to win this year’s WNBA championship in the league’s general manager preseason survey. They’ve instead struggled and were looking to shake things up.

It just so happened that Connecticut (4-13) was looking to move starting center Kelsey Bone, who requested a trade last season. The Sun shipped her to Phoenix for the draft rights to center Jillian Alleyne, who tore her ACL in February, next year’s second-round pick and Williams.

“I got a call from (Mercury head coach Sandy Brondello) and she said, ‘Courtney, I’ve got some good news for you,’” Williams said. “It’s probably going to be the best move for your career.”

Connecticut now has four of the top eight selections in April’s draft — Morgan Tuck (third overall), Rachel Banham (fourth), Jonquel Jones (sixth via a draft night trade with the Los Angeles Sparks) and Williams.

South Florida relied on Williams to carry the offense — she took 33.6 percent of her team’s shots this season (723 of 2,151). She shot 42 percent her senior year and averaged 22.4 points, ninth best in Division I. She also averaged 8.41 rebounds, ridiculous given she’s 5-foot-8 and a mere 136 pounds.

“We seriously considered her in the position where we were drafting,” Sun head coach Curt Miller said. “We loved her ability to score at the collegiate level. She’s a dynamic athlete who can go get her own shot. She was a high-energy kid. She was very highly regarded by Geno (Auriemma). They (UConn’s coaching staff) felt like she was one of the few players in the country over the last few years that they had trouble guarding, so that certainly resonated with our staff and organization.

“She’s a great athlete, but you also understood that guards at her position are six, seven, or eight inches taller than her. That’s a concern in this league.”

n.griffen@theday.com