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Adam Williams new Men’s BB asst coach hired

W-S HerdFan

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HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Marshall men's basketball head coach Dan D’Antoni announced Tuesday afternoon the addition of Adam Williams to the staff as an assistant coach.

“Adam Williams’ addition to our coaching staff gives us an exciting young basketball coach who is one of our own,” D’Antoni said. “Adam is not just a former Marshall basketball player who started his coaching career here, but he comes from a family with a rich basketball legacy in West Virginia. We are very happy to welcome Adam and his family back to Huntington.”

Williams is a former Marshall men’s basketball player and a native of West Virginia. He also coached in the Mountain State, serving as the head coach at Salem University. Williams played for the Thundering Herd for two seasons – 2007-08 and 2008-09 – and played in 59 games (11 starts) before working as a graduate assistant for former Marshall coach and current Stetson coach Donnie Jones.

Williams has been an assistant for Jones at Stetson the past three seasons.

“Words can’t describe the excitement my family and I feel to be coming back home to Marshall. My wife and I are both Marshall alums, as well as my dad and my sister playing hoops for the Herd. The university holds such a special place in our hearts. The opportunity to work for Coach D’Antoni is also something I consider once in a lifetime. His love for Marshall is second to none, and I can’t wait to help him continue to elevate the basketball program to an elite level.

“I also want to thank Coach Donnie Jones at Stetson. Coach Jones is my mentor in this profession. He is like family and a person that means so much to me in life. I have learned so much from him and been given unbelievable opportunities to do something I love thanks to him. Lastly, I can’t wait to get started. We are! …”

At Salem, Williams inherited a program which won four games in the season prior to his arrival, and he slowly built the Tigers into a winner. In 2018-19, Salem posted its best record since the 2005-06 season, winning 17 games – more than the previous four seasons combined. Williams earned ECAC Coach of the Year honors that season.

Williams has also coached at WVU Tech, and worked as the Director of Operations at UCF.

Adam Williams is the son of Tex Williams, a West Virginia coaching legend who was inducted into the Marshall Athletics Hall of Fame in 2001. In 2004, Adam Williams earned the Evans Award as the top high school basketball player in West Virginia.
Fire away!!
 
Interesting. DD hires Slay, whose experience in coaching is super thin. Slay resigns, prompting an entire thread full of second guesses, theories & rumors for the reasons he quit, + the usual dumpster fire program barbs…….

DD now hires Williams, another former player with a much deeper bench in terms of coaching experience, and it’s crickets. Is the hate for DD so strong that any kind of kudos is verboten?
This guy could become our next mens BB HC, yet no one seems interested enough to chime in one way or another. Great hire by Dan imo…..
 
Interesting. DD hires Slay, whose experience in coaching is super thin. Slay resigns, prompting an entire thread full of second guesses, theories & rumors for the reasons he quit, + the usual dumpster fire program barbs…….

DD now hires Williams, another former player with a much deeper bench in terms of coaching experience, and it’s crickets. Is the hate for DD so strong that any kind of kudos is verboten?
This guy could become our next mens BB HC, yet no one seems interested enough to chime in one way or another. Great hire by Dan imo…..
Because it's an assistant coach. Not really a meter mover event. Seems like a solid hire and that's pretty much all there is to say about it.

We hire assistant coaches all the time in football and it barely moves the interest meter as well. HCs and Coordinators are all that really grab attention.
 
Because it's an assistant coach. Not really a meter mover event. Seems like a solid hire and that's pretty much all there is to say about it.

We hire assistant coaches all the time in football and it barely moves the interest meter as well. HCs and Coordinators are all that really grab attention.

Translation: "Unless its Nick Saban for football or Mark Few for basketball, we aren't excited...because we're Marshall. We're both a poor public school in WV but also demand attracting the best coaches out there."
 
Translation: "Unless its Nick Saban for football or Mark Few for basketball, we aren't excited...because we're Marshall. We're both a poor public school in WV but also demand attracting the best coaches out there."
No. Assistant coaches don't move the needle. Period. Why? Because no one pays much attention to them. In any sport. The vast majority of fans couldn't name an assistant coach nor pick them out of a line up. Unless they're someone like Mark Cline or JC Price that coached here for nearly a decade and built relationships with the fanbase and this is true for every program.

You're throwing a hissy fit over absolutely nothing.
 
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Interesting. DD hires Slay, whose experience in coaching is super thin. Slay resigns,
In other words, Slay was his first choice.
prompting an entire thread full of second guesses, theories & rumors for the reasons he quit
Because no one in power has the courage to say
, + the usual dumpster fire program barbs…….
Because the program IS a dumpster fire. ANY discussion of the program, no matter the base cause WILL descend into pointing out that those in power are 100% fine with a token effort. It is one of the few ways we have of telling them it is unacceptable to us, and shaming them into making it unacceptable to them.
DD now hires Williams,
Second choice.
another former player with a much deeper bench in terms of coaching experience,
Really? Assistant coach at a nothing one-bid school, failed HC at tiny Salem College.
and it’s crickets.
Yep. The level of disgust with this token effort is such that only a few hard core delusionals really care who the 2nd assistant is in June.
Is the hate for DD so strong that any kind of kudos is verboten?
Hate? No one hates DD. It is disgust. DD probably is the kind of guy who would loan you his lawnmower. Probably nice to his dog. His is just an incompetent old man who should not be in charge of a Division I basketball program.
This guy could become our next mens BB HC,
Sad to say true. When the DD token effort era ends, the next token effort era is probably to just promote one of his assistants.

This is a token effort.
yet no one seems interested enough to chime in one way or another. Great hire by Dan imo…..
The natural result of the vast majority of the fan base understanding that those in power do not care.
 
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Yep. The level of disgust with this token effort is such that only a few hard core delusionals really care who the 2nd assistant is in June.

I mean does disgust maybe play a role in this? Sure, but the reality is even if we were back-to-back-to-back national champs no one would be talking about an assistant coach hire. There would still only be a few comments and that's that. Unless the hire is a former high profile player or some coach has a high profile name no one cares about assistant coaches.

Case in point. Here is the last thread on this forum about an assistant hire other than Tamar Slay.
There are only 8 replies and only one of those replies is an actual comment on the hire itself.



Here's another. Again no discussion about the merits of the hire. The DUI arrest is the topic.

 
Interesting. DD hires Slay, whose experience in coaching is super thin. Slay resigns, prompting an entire thread full of second guesses, theories & rumors for the reasons he quit, + the usual dumpster fire program barbs…….

DD now hires Williams, another former player with a much deeper bench in terms of coaching experience, and it’s crickets. Is the hate for DD so strong that any kind of kudos is verboten?
This guy could become our next mens BB HC, yet no one seems interested enough to chime in one way or another. Great hire by Dan imo…..

I just believe it's going to take a lot more than hiring someone away from Steton University (even if they are a former player) for people to forget how much of a travesty last season was.

Pair that with the fact that we only made one significant addition to the roster and there are still a ton of questions surrounding the program.

Most people, myself included, believe that if Dan's last name weren't D'Antoni then he would've been looking for a job this offseason.
 
I just believe it's going to take a lot more than hiring someone away from Steton University (even if they are a former player) for people to forget how much of a travesty last season was.

Pair that with the fact that we only made one significant addition to the roster and there are still a ton of questions surrounding the program.

Most people, myself included, believe that if Dan's last name weren't D'Antoni then he would've been looking for a job this offseason.
Will be interesting to see what happens If we don’t have a good season coming up. Meaning 20 wins, going deep into the SB tourney and possibly a post season tourney.
If none of that happens, does Spears pull the trigger? I am assuming DD knows what’s expected and the consequences of those expectations are not met?
 
No. Assistant coaches don't move the needle. Period. Why? Because no one pays much attention to them. In any sport. The vast majority of fans couldn't name an assistant coach nor pick them out of a line up. Unless they're someone like Mark Cline or JC Price that coached here for nearly a decade and built relationships with the fanbase and this is true for every program.

You're throwing a hissy fit over absolutely nothing.

It is odd MU doesn't hire more head coaches.
Last head coach MU hired won a national championship.
 
I am assuming DD knows what’s expected and the consequences of those expectations are not met?
DD knows exactly what is expected of him.

Nothing whatsoever.

This is a token effort. The history of the future is already written. We will announce a cupcake light non-conference schedule, with two or even three non-DI programs and lots of team you have to use Wikipedia to figure out what they are; we will then begin play and underperform and some idiot will post about how we are "developing"; then comes the even lighter than the ultra light CUSA SBC where we cannot help but finish maybe 4th or 5th, and some idiot will post that that is an "accomplishment"; then some idiot will post about how nothing matters and we might win the SBC tournament and then we won't; and then there will be a week or so of pro-trying to win and thus firing DD posts. And then it will be announced that DD will return for another year and the cycle will begin again. Until DD finally retires, at which time one of his staff of losers will take over, or some rando recycle will. And it will start again.

Because those in power are not trying to win. This is a token effort. They don't care.
 
What does that have to do with anything.
It has plenty.
HC from a lower division actually KNOWS how to run a program and (I presume MU can get a successful one) can win.
Assistants/coordinators can get in over their heads, being around a HC for a D1 program and actually running one are two separate things.
 
It has plenty.
HC from a lower division actually KNOWS how to run a program and (I presume MU can get a successful one) can win.
Assistants/coordinators can get in over their heads, being around a HC for a D1 program and actually running one are two separate things.
I agree that there is nothing wrong looking at a lower division HC for a job at MU. Maybe we should look that way for our next B’ball coach.
 
that's how we got Bob Daniels who took a top 10 program and ran it in the ground in a few years.
 
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that's how we got Bob Daniels who took a top 10 program and ran it in the ground in a few years.
Yep. I’d say our process is a little more in depth than back then. McMullen was clueless and not well liked by many at MU.
 
that's how we got Bob Daniels who took a top 10 program and ran it in the ground in a few years.
Good old Johnson county Bob. A nice guy who had almost no budget and was in way over his head.
Marshall wasn’t, or has never, been within a hundred miles of being a top ten program. The ‘71-‘72 TEAM, which was a really good TEAM, was ranked eighth in the AP for about one week in Feb of ‘72. They immediately lost to Miami at the cracker box Withrow Court and eventually finished in believe around fourteen in the final poll.
 
Good old Johnson county Bob. A nice guy who had almost no budget and was in way over his head.
Marshall wasn’t, or has never, been within a hundred miles of being a top ten program. The ‘71-‘72 TEAM, which was a really good TEAM, was ranked eighth in the AP for about one week in Feb of ‘72. They immediately lost to Miami at the cracker box Withrow Court and eventually finished in believe around fourteen in the final poll.
I was speaking to the ranking just prior to his hiring, which you confirm was 8.

but thank you for clarifying, just in case I thought, or someone else would believe based on my comment, that Marshall was a top ten program along the likes of Kansas, UNC, UCLA etc etc in the 70s.
 
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