Buzz Williams took unlikely path to Marquette

by Jeff Goodman
Jeff Goodman is a senior college basketball writer for FOXSports.com. He can be reached at GoodmanonFOX@aol.comor check out his blog, Good 'N Plenty.
 
When Buzz Williams left for the Final Four in Charlotte nearly 15 years ago, he didn't have a dollar to his name. He had spent every cent of the $1,200 loan he received from Oklahoma City University on a plane ticket, a suit and tie and business cards.
They read: Buzz Williams
No Title, Just Looking for an Opportunity
Williams didn't have a place to stay. He just stood in the lobby of the Adam's Mark Hotel for three consecutive days handing out one of the eight different colors of business cards he brought with him to every coach that passed.
"I was in there for 72 hours straight," Williams recalled.
 
 
 

 
 
After getting a tip that UT Arlington coach Eddie McCarter had an assistant opening for $400 per month and a free dorm room, Williams went to work.
Poor McCarter had no idea what hit him.
"He left me a message at my hotel what seemed like every hour," McCarter said. "I had to call him back or else I wasn't going to be able to get anything done."
McCarter told Williams to meet him in his hotel room the next morning and the Texas native walked in with his suit, tie and resume in hand.
"He impressed me from the moment he walked in," McCarter said.
A few days later, his impressions of Williams intensified when he pulled into his driveway back in Texas and found the young assistant smiling.
"He was waiting on me," McCarter said. "He was just so persistent. He just wouldn't stop."
"I just wanted to show him how much I wanted the job," Williams said.
Williams got it, worked his way up to the top assistant spot and the rest is, well, interesting to say the least.
Williams is now the coach of a Marquette team ranked No. 14 in the nation and off to a 4-0 start in Big East play for the first time since joining the league.
But it's a long way from sweeping floors at Navarro College in Corsicana, Texas, back in 1990.
That was when Williams, then known as Brent Williams, first introduced himself to Lewis Orr and asked Navarro's head coach if he could sit up in the bleachers, take notes and observe the players in preseason practice.
"The guy just buzzed and buzzed," said the 71-year-old Orr, who was recently hired by Williams to be a consultant with the Marquette program. "He's always on the move and full of energy."
"I hadn't even turned 18 and had no idea what I was writing or seeing, but I did it for 30 days," Williams said. "I knew I wanted to be a coach and was seeing players I had never dreamed of. As far I'm concerned, at the time, Coach Orr is the best coach in the country."
On the 31st day, Coach Orr told Williams if he wanted to keep coming, he'd have to get in early and sweep the floors.
Williams didn't flinch.

People thought Buzz Williams blew it when he left New Orleans, but it sure looks like a smart move now. (Mel Evans / Associated Press)
However, after watching Williams perform his task for several days, Orr informed him that something needed to change.
"That's why you're going to struggle," Orr said. "You missed the corners."
It's a lesson that has stuck with Williams through his days from Navarro to Oklahoma City University and various D-1 stops all the way to becoming the head coach at Marquette.
Every single college coach he met while in his two years as a student assistant at Navarro received a hand-written letter from Williams each week. By the time he graduated from OCU, there were 425 coaches on his list.
That summer Williams was working three jobs — from 8-12 in the mornings at the local YMCA, from 3 until midnight at True Value unloading trucks in the warehouse and also delivering the Dallas Morning Newsseven days a week from 2-6 a.m.
That's when he got a call from Win Case, the head coach of Oklahoma City, one of the 425 coaches who was being worn out by the weekly letters from the aspiring coach.
"He just got the job and wanted to talk to me," Williams said. "I had only met him once before, but I had written him every week."
Williams took the job and spent the next two years as a student assistant where he helped the team win an NAIA national title in 1994.
It was in April 1994 — a couple months shy of his graduation — that Williams made the trip to Charlotte and came back with a D-1 gig at UT Arlington.
There was just one problem.
He didn't have a degree.
"I had six weeks of school left, but hadn't told anyone that," Williams said. "I got back to school on Friday and Coach McCarter wanted me to start a week from that Monday."
Williams went into the registrar and wound up getting a form which he took to each of his professors. In some classes, he was in good enough shape to take a zero in the remaining tests and still earn a passing grade. In another, he needed to crank out a paper. A week later, he drove up to the registrar in a U-Haul and picked up his degree.
Williams became a full-time assistant at UTA nine months later, making $27,500.
"I'm not surprised at where he is right now," McCarter said. "He has tremendous work ethic."
After four years at Texas-Arlington, Williams bounced around — a year at Texas A&M-Kingsville, one at Northwestern State and four at Colorado State, including one NCAA tournament appearance. Then he helped orchestrate the remarkable turnaround at Texas A&M with then-Aggies head coach Billy Gillispie before getting his chance.
Williams attended the Villa 7 Consortium out in Portland and was introduced to New Orleans athletic director Jim Miller.
Williams was the fifth interview for the job and ended up becoming the head coach.
"It was a dream come true," Williams said.
Life at UNO wasn't what Williams envisioned out of his first job though. Hurricane Katrina had torn the city apart and the program had virtually no support. Williams refused to comment on the specifics of his departure, but sources close to him told FOXSports.com that the welfare of the players didn't fall in line with Williams' values.
"Obviously, I didn't know how it would all turn out," Williams said. "In a lot of ways, though, it made me better able to understand what was most important in life. Sometimes we get so caught up in what kind of coach I am, but no matter how successful you are, the most important thing is being a husband and father."
Williams' has three children between the ages of three and six and another one due in May.
"Family comes first," said Williams' wife, Corey. "I never feel second to basketball. I know he'd drop everything to take care of his family."
There were numerous long and extensive talks between Williams and his wife before a final decision was made — one that sent shockwaves through the coaching fraternity on July 6, 2007.
Williams committed what appeared was career suicide. He resigned at New Orleans.
"He didn't want to give it up, but it just wasn't the right situation," said Corey. "It was a joint decision."
Then he opted to become an assistant coach with Tom Crean at Marquette despite a relentless pursuit from Gillispie, who had recently taken over at Kentucky.
"I thought he lost his mind," McCarter said. "I knew it was tough on him down in New Orleans, but I didn't think it was a wise decision to give up a head job."
It was everything Williams had worked for since he began sweeping floors at Navarro 17 years earlier.
Gone.
Williams then began working for a coach he barely knew in a foreign league. He had always been able to go into Texas and get recruits because he was one of them. But now even he questioned how his small-town Texas drawl would be received when he had to go into New York.
Nine months after giving up one of the 340 or so Division 1 head coaching jobs that everyone in the industry positions for each year, Williams pulled the ultimate shocker when he was hired to replace Crean as the head coach at Marquette following Crean's departure to Indiana.
"We took a leap of faith and it paid off," Corey said. "It's surreal."
"It's very emotional in a lot of ways to me," Williams said. "I'm incredibly blessed and humbled. I don't ever act like I deserve any of this because my story isn't any better than any other coach's story."
Marquette is ranked 14th in the country and Williams has managed to win his first four Big East games in a league that is considered the most potent in college basketball history, one that also features Hall of Famers such as UConn's Jim Calhoun and Louisville's Rick Pitino.
"Who doesn't belong here?" Williams joked at the Big East media day. "I was 14-17 at the University of New Orleans. I don't try and compare myself to these guys. I'll just be happy if I have a job in a few years."
Even if it's sweeping the floor.