ISU's Williams brings positive energy from the NBA

Jul. 8—College basketball has entered a new world of near-unlimited transfers and name, image and likeness rights, but one thing that has always been part of the landscape is the edge a program can gain when it can turn heads with a trait that sets it apart from its competitors.

Indiana State's men's basketball program hopes that is among the attributes that assistant coach Bryston Williams can bring to the table.

Not just because of his skills as a coach, but because of his background. Williams, you see, comes to ISU directly from the NBA — three magic letters that command immediate respect in the college basketball world. Williams worked for three seasons as a player development coach under Dwane Casey with the Detroit Pistons.

There are very few players at the Division I level, regardless of skill level, who don't have NBA dreams rattling around in their heads. Access to that world is coveted like gold.

So if you can bring someone who's been on the inside of the dream? You immediately have the attention of recruits and players on the roster who cherish the perspective of someone who's reached the promised land.

If you don't believe it? Hear this from transfer center Dearon Tucker, who came to ISU from an Elite Eight Oregon State team.

"It's great that we have a guy who's been at that level. He can show us how we can improve to get to that level," Tucker said.

Or this from ISU coach Josh Schertz.

"Bryston, because of his NBA background? Hopefully, he'll get us in the door with some guys who say, 'He's here at Indiana State. He believes in what we're doing. He left a NBA coaching position to come to college. That's how much he believes in what we're doing here at Indiana State.' He's one of the best player development guys in the world to work with. That's something we're going to pitch. He brings instant credibility," Schertz said.

As for Williams, he is aware that his NBA connection closes skepticism and opens ears from the players, but he is bound and determined not to solely be "the NBA guy" for the Sycamores. He has loftier goals in mind.

"I don't look at myself as a NBA coach who says, 'I've seen it, so listen to me.' My day-to-day process in what I value, what I learn, how I talk to, that daily process gave me the opportunity for the NBA and a Missouri Valley assistant job. The NBA means nothing to me if I don't give back to them what they're looking for," Williams said.

How did Williams' professional journey bring him to Terre Haute? Like Schertz, it began at one of the best Division II programs in the country, a championship rival for Schertz's Lincoln Memorial teams.

From Missouri to the NBA

Williams hails from St. Joseph, Mo. and had a successful high school career, leading Lafayette High School in the late 2000s to its first Missouri district championship since 1985.

Williams stayed close to home and played at the mega-successful Northwest Missouri State program. The Bearcats went to two Division II NCAA Tournaments while Williams played and has since won three Division II national championships, including the 2021 title.

Williams played for coach Ben McCollum and stayed with the Bearcats as a graduate assistant. Through McCollum's contacts, Williams eventually got an opportunity to work on the staff of the Iowa Energy G-League team, then affiliated with the Memphis Grizzlies. When the Grizzlies switched their G-League association to a Memphis-based satellite club, Williams went along and joined the Memphis Hustle staff.

"We shared facilities with the Grizzlies, so we overlapped in practice. Over time, I built my way in. I'd help the Grizzlies rebound and work with drills as they needed," Williams recalled.

"There was a shooting coach, Bob Tate, that a lot of young guys worked with. Memphis asked me to be his sidekick to help rebound. I saw the breakdown in his teaching of the shot. The detail he put into it. My thought was that if I could learn this? I would bring value and give me another tool. I became his right-hand man."

Williams left the Hustle in 2018 to return to a full-time job on McCollum's staff at Northwest Missouri State. However, the job at his alma mater didn't last long. Within a month? Williams' phone was ringing.

Williams' work with Tate paid off. Ed Stefanski, who was with the Grizzlies when Williams was there, but who was headed to Detroit to join the Pistons' front office had taken notice of Williams. He wanted to bring Williams along with him to the Pistons.

However, Williams had made a commitment to his mentor and he wasn't just going to fall for the immediate allure of the NBA.

"I committed to [McCollum] and when I commit, I'm all in. [McCollum] told me to find out what they wanted me for, since they were reaching out for me, so once he told me that, I came up with my own 'what would it take for me to leave.' I'm surprised Ed still wanted me since I was making demands. I told Ed that if you're taking me from my guy? I want X, Y and Z. He called back and said that I would have X, Y and Z," Williams laughed.

When Williams' conditions were met, he had the difficult task of breaking the news to McCollum. Unbeknownst to Williams, his college coach had a plan to take the pressure off of him.

"He said, 'These jobs don't come around very often, so you're fired, and you might want to be looking for another job.'," said Williams as he laughed about the memory. "That's him. That shows he wasn't worried about me and was happy it was an opportunity."

Experience with Pistons

Player development coaches are truly the jacks of all trades in the NBA. Not only do they do the traditional jobs such as scouting opponents and breaking down film, but, as their title would suggest, they work individually with players to hone their skills.

At the NBA level? That's a detailed job with reams of data that don't exist to anywhere near the same degree in the college world. Williams and other development coaches get right down to the smallest detail of what can make a player better. And it's their job to identify small details among the individual players that can make the team better.

It's an interesting position because it puts development coaches squarely in the crosshairs of both the franchise and individual player's goals — two things that aren't sometimes compatible.

A player may see himself as having a bigger role or be in a position to earn a bigger role. A franchise may pigeon-hole them in a certain way without interest in their personal development. It's up to development coaches to find the happy medium.

"That right there is the biggest challenge as a development coach. When I talked to my guys, I said the head coach has a puzzle and a philosophy. We have to fit your pieces inside that puzzle," Williams said.

"You have to take the ego and pride out of it. My goal, if you're not playing? I want to get you eight minutes a game. You do that by building the coaches' trust and then raise your goals as you go. If you try to do everything? Nothing works," Williams added.

The job is also, essentially, man management, and the approach Williams took on a very young Pistons team was to create incremental goals players could build on.

"There's something that every player is great at," Williams said. "There's a feel to it. Let's find things that we can put together and work on that. Analytically, I would work on things that did or didn't matter before I took it to a player, but I wanted to make it simplified for the player. Otherwise, there's so much information, they get fogged in a cloud," Williams said.

"If a kid is a good cutter? Where does he like to cut from? What's the timing of the cut? That's what we work. A team might say we need to cut more, but cutting is an art. You need to know when or where to cut. You figure out stats and what can grow his game the most," said Williams on how he took his player development to the team.

Why come to ISU?

Williams was under no pressure with the Pistons, in fact, Casey just signed a contract extension that takes him to the 2024 season. So why give up the NBA pinnacle to come and join Schertz's start-up program at ISU?

Williams views working in the Missouri Valley Conference much in the same way others might view working in the NBA.

"Working in the Missouri Valley Conference is an unbelievable opportunity. It's a top 10 conference. That alone was attractive," Williams explained. "But getting to know coach Schertz, his philosophies, how he wanted to run the team and how we wanted to play? It was intriguing. It's a NBA style, read and react."

Schertz himself played a large role in Williams' decision. When Kareem Richardson left ISU to take a lucrative assistant coaching job at Clemson in April, Schertz called on his contacts for a replacement. Among them was then-Pistons assistant Sean Sweeney.

"[Sweeney] told me he was unbelievable on the court, but what stood out to him, while they were losing? He never had a bad day. He came into a room and raised the energy level. We've all been around people like that, they're special," Schertz said.

Williams was ultimately convinced to come to ISU because he thought the leap of faith Schertz was making was equal to, or greater, than the one he was being asked to make.

"My main question for him, and why I pulled the trigger was, 'You had basically a lifetime contract [at LMU] and won at a high level, why are you leaving this?' He said he built something, didn't want to get complacent, and wanted to build something again. He wanted to see if he could do it at a higher level. For me to hear that? It showed me he's all in. He chose to bet on himself. I want to be in a foxhole with that dude," Williams said.

Positive energy

When one attends an ISU workout, it doesn't take long to see one of the attributes Williams brings to the table — positive energy.

The affable Williams is constantly talking, preaching the details that was so ingrained into him by McCollum at Northwest Missouri State and the coaches he's worked with since.

"Whether you're having a good day or a down day, he's no different: it's a great day everyday," ISU guard Cooper Neese said. "I love that about him. He's brings a lot of individual and detailed skill work, the kind of stuff I've never been around."

Of course, the players are motivated to listen because they know Williams can be their NBA whisperer. And given that Schertz intends to run a NBA style offense? It all dovetails together nicely.

"He has incredible credibility among the players. We do a lot from the NBA in the way we approach player development, it's much more influenced from that level than the college level. When he says something, it really resonates with them as players," Schertz said.

Schertz also said that Williams fits into his long-term goals with the Sycamores.

"When you look at Indiana State, the blueprint to be successful is the same as it was at LMU. You weren't getting highly-touted guys. Maybe we'll get there? But you were getting under-the-radar guys. Once you evaluate, you have to do an unbelievable job of developing them. In that aspect? Bryston is one of the best in the world at player development," Schertz said.

"And then, you want a culture, as they develop and become really good players, as they got on the radar of bigger schools, that your culture is strong enough to say, 'I don't want to go anywhere else. I love Indiana State. I'm developed and cared for at the highest level. I don't want to go anywhere else.'," Schertz continued.

"Bryston's energy and the way he goes about his business and the relations he builds with players? Our player development and culture were immediately enhanced the minute he walked into the door," Schertz concluded.

That attitude goes to the heart of why Williams is making his coaching home at ISU instead of under the bright lights of the NBA.

"My coaches helped build me and mold me in every aspect of life. I loved what I did [in the NBA], but I wanted to give back to other kids. I wanted to be that guy, when they left Indiana State, they said, 'Coach Williams changed my life. Not just basketball, but dealing with everyday people and adversity.' I want them to say that I impacted their life for the best. That's why college was the route for me," Williams said.