Blogging the Journey: 9-11 and Bowling Night

Last Thursday we planned what was a very rewarding and fun "Family Night". Coach Loya had a great idea to take the team to visit the Flight 93 memorial since is was the anniversary of September 11th. I was not able to go to the memorial, but it was a rewarding experience for our players. They had the opportunity to participate in a flag ceremony. I will never forget the events that took place on and after September 11, 2001, especially in Shanksville. The details of that day will never ever escape me.

On the way back to MAC, we stopped at Richland Lanes for some friendly competition in bowling. It's been almost ten years since the last time I bowled, but I was able to hold my own and finished with the second highest score. Despite my team losing by one point, it was a fun evening and I had the opportunity to get to know the players a little better. I am looking forward to our next "family night" experience.

Go Mounties!

Accepting Accountability and Taking Ownership

Below is an article about the San Diego State football team and how they are addressing the issue of accountability. Accountability is accepting responsibility for one's actions, which is something that young athletes struggle with some times. One writer defined it best by stating, "at the bottom line, it is credibility that matters and credibility that provides the foundation of personal leadership." For leaders, it is critical that you have integrity and character. Therefore, leaders must be held accountable and behave in ways that are consistent with the values of responsibility, which is how one establishes intergrity and character. Despite one's drive for perfect leadership, people experience failures. People make bad judgement, fail to do what they say there are going to do or what they intended to do. These failures impact a leaders credibility. However, it is how a leader responds to these failures that determines whether or not their credibility can be restored. A leader regains trust by accepting responsibility for their failures. When a leader fails to accept responsibility by placing blame, pointing fingers or making excuses, trust can be broken.

The failures of the San Diego State football program since 1998 can be blamed on many things: lack of resources and leadership, questionable hiring, recruiting and player commitment.
Each would seem to have at least one thread in common – accountability, or lack thereof. If there aren't enough members of the team taking responsibility for team problems, those problems can and usually do persist.
Which is why head coach Chuck Long has installed “leadership training” for senior players. It involves dividing the Aztecs into six teams of around 15 players, each headed by about three senior leaders. Each player gets a point per week but loses points for negative behaviors, such as being late to meetings or falling behind in the classroom.
“When you have accountability like that within your own team, now they start to do all the right things,” Long said.
Long said it also forces the seniors into “leadership roles and having them take ownership of the team.” If younger players slack off, senior leaders are expected to get after them for hurting their team's point total.
The competition started in the spring and will go through the end of the year. After yesterday's morning practice, the senior leaders held a draft to select this year's newcomers. The winner at the end gets bragging rights.
“It brings accountability on the seniors and the other players,” said starting senior guard Mike Schmidt, who leads one team along with senior defensive lineman Siaosi Fifita and senior cornerback Vonnie Holmes.
“It shows you that if you mess up, your whole team is affected by that. You get guys to look up to the seniors more, and it just brings the team together. It's good times, and it's real competitive.”
Long said the team's accountability is “much higher” than it was his first season in 2006. It's all part of the larger team-building exercises Long has tried since then. Besides accountability, the idea is to build trust and relationships. That first year, the Aztecs played softball together, competed against each other in Olympic-style games and took a trip to the Navy SEAL training base. This year, they opened camp with practices at Camp Pendleton.

Blogging the Journey: Setting the Vision

I have not recorded any happenings recently with the journey of the Mount Aloyisuis Men's basketball team. On August 27, we had our first team meeting where the vision for the season was clearly set...to make the AMC Playoffs in 2009. With MAC becoming an official member of the NCAA Division III, we have successfully completed our probationary period as a D3 school and are now eligible to participate in conference playoffs. What does this mean for the school? It gives the players, coaches and staff members in all sports something to play for! In order to be able to meet our season goal of making the playoffs, there are a couple areas of focus for the 2008-09 season:
1. Academics: maintain academic success in the classroom
2. Appearance: maintain a healthy appearance on and off the court, in the classroom and in the community
3. Individual Development: develop as an individual on the court and off the court.
4. Cohesiveness: become closer as a family off the court to ensure trust on the court.

The last couple weeks we have implemented a few things to help us acheive success in those areas, which includes weekly studyhalls and "Family Night". Along with their normal open gym schedules, we are meeting as a team off of the court two times each week to help us become better students in the classroom and better teammates off the court.

Go Mounties!

Rebuilding a Program

Below is an excellent article about BYU head football coach, Bronco Mendenhall, and how he is working to restore the program back to its tradition with hard work, passion and character. The entire article can be found here: http://deseretnews.com/article/content/mobile/1,5620,600122374,00.html?printView=true

Developing a Work Ethic: "Every morning, the blond-haired boy arose in the predawn darkness to make the half-mile trip out to the barn near his parents' Alpine home. His father always had plenty of strenuous, unglamorous work for him to do.Among the chores included cleaning manure out of the stalls, feeding the cows and horses and hauling hay. They were big jobs for a small boy who was still in elementary school.But Paul Mendenhall always had the utmost confidence in his son, Bronco, who accomplished every task with efficiency and meticulousness."He's been an unusual young man since he was seven or eight years old," Paul says. "He has always been a very hard worker. I'd ask him to do things a grown man would do. He was extremely dependable. He always did it right. In the dead of winter, in two feet of snow, or in the heat of summer. It didn't matter. He never complained."By the time he was in the fifth grade, Bronco was driving a pickup truck around the farm to perform various responsibilities — even though he wasn't tall enough to see over the top of the steering wheel."He'd say, 'Dad, I can't see,'" Paul recalls. "I'd say, 'C'mon, Bronco! Get going! And he'd take off. I didn't dare tell his mom. I could tell him to do anything, and he'd do it. He'd give shots to the horses. If you do it in the wrong spot, it could kill the horse. After I showed him how to do it, I never worried about it with him. Bronco would have to clean the stall and remove the horse manure. Sometimes he'd get down on his hands and knees and pick up pieces one by one. He wanted it to be perfect. It's a silly, little thing, but that carried on to big things. He's never satisfied with anything less than excellence in everything he does."Every day after school, Bronco would go home and return to the barn. Once inside, his eyes would gaze up at a white board filled with a list of chores his dad had scrawled on it. He was charged with major responsibilities related to the family business - caring for and training up to 20 horses that were worth a total of $400,000."My dad simply just expected it to be done, and there was never the thought of, 'I can't do this, I'm too little, I'm not yet old enough.' It was, just go do it," Bronco says. "He would leave sometimes for a week to 10 days at a time when I was in junior high school and I was responsible for running his share of the operation and going to school. I was just a little kid.But I never viewed myself like that because my parents didn't. My intention was always that whenever my parents came back, they would be very impressed. That it might look better than when they left. That was instilled early."

Preparing for a Leadership Role: "On-the job training for this position was, I think, happening since I was just a little boy," he says.He understands the responsibility he has as head coach at BYU: "If you look at the mission statement that we came up with for the football program, I think we're the flagbearer of the institution," he says. "I'm passionate about my faith and I'm passionate about principles of truth and virtue and character. Those things represent BYU and BYU's football program. We're on the front line, representing all of those things. I intend to carry that flag up high, not on the ground. If I do my job right, this place will be one of the most dominant programs in the country, as it once was."His first interviews for the head coaching position didn't go well:"He's a very passionate guy. He didn't look at the big picture in those first interviews," says athletic director Tom Holmoe. "He answered questions as a defensive coordinator, not a head coach. I was confused because he was holding back. He didn't show everything he had. Bronco understands roles. He played the role of the defensive coordinator."

Strong Family Values: While [his parents] are complete opposites, Bronco says, he benefited from their contrasting personalities and interests. "It's amazing. My dad is kind of this rough, gruff business-cowboy. My mom is very gracious. She is so strong in etiquette and manners. She's very sophisticated and involved in art and music and opera and symphony and culture."Between the two, "there weren't many areas in my life where I didn't have real exacting points of reference of how to do it and do it correctly," he says. "Diversity would be a great way to describe the way I was raised."As a young coach, he saw the impact he could have on the lives of his players: "One of the great experiences of my life was seeing young men come out of the ghettos of Chicago and Los Angeles and watching them play at New Mexico," [his father] Paul says. "We had parents come up to us and say, 'I don't know how your son has done it, but he's changed the life of our boy.' That's Bronco's goal, to change lives and help them excel. For him, it's not all about winning football games."Being able to make an impact on young people encouraged Bronco to stick with coaching. "At some point, I had to decide why I was doing this," he says. "The conclusion is, I like to see kids try hard, I like to see them develop. I don't really coach for Saturdays. I coach for the day-to-day of watching them show up and do the best they can. That's what I gain the most satisfaction from. Once I came to that conclusion, I've been at peace with what I'm doing."

On his coaching philosophy:Mendenhall believes in the warrior culture. As the defensive coordinator, he assigns his players to study various types, from Stripling Warriors in the LDS culture; to Samurai and Bushido Warriors in the Japanese culture; to the Maoris in the New Zealand culture.Mendenhall became fascinated with warrior cultures because his father served two missions to New Zealand. "What I've learned through studying these cultures is, there's a tradition that passed on from father to son, generation to generation of how they do things. It's a way of excellence and it's a lifestyle that's all-encompassing. They dedicate and devote their entire being to representing their people."Then, he adds: "Most often, there's a rite of passage that a member of the culture has to pass through to become included in. I really like the idea of investment to become a part of something rather than entitlement."That explains why he fosters a successful walk-on program at BYU. Last season, several non-scholarship players on the Cougar defense ended up starting or seeing significant playing time. In Mendenhall's program, players are judged by how they perform in practice on a daily basis. Entitlement doesn't exist.

Embracing Tradition: Mendenhall has also embraced the Cougars' rich tradition, inviting former star players back to campus to address the team. He expects his current players to understand, and uphold, this legacy.Former BYU star and NFL Hall-of-Famer Steve Young dropped in one afternoon after practice recently. He is impressed with Mendenhall's approach. "Everyone knows Bronco's a great motivator and he's a fine coach," Young says. "Really, it's about getting wins. The foundation is here, the facilities are here. Recruiting looks like it's going well. Bronco can do the job. Everybody expects significant improvement. He's taken the challenge. He's changed the logo back to the old logo to say, 'I know what the expectations are. Why hide it? We're not going to run from it.' I like that."Not long ago, Duane Busby, BYU's director of football operations, was rummaging through a pile of items in his office when he found a highlight film from the 1996 season, when the Cougars posted a 14-1 record, won the Cotton Bowl and finished with a No. 5 national ranking. The highlight film was only three or four minutes long, but Busby figured Mendenhall might be interested in seeing it, so he put it on a DVD and placed it on the coach's desk."The next day, he took our staff into the team room and called the players in to watch it," Busby says. "He told them, 'I can't get these images out of my mind. This is what we need to be.' Then he showed them the highlights. It struck an emotional chord in him. He has a passion to return BYU to greatness."

Coaching with Passion and Energy: Members of Mendenhall's staff say he's working with a sense of urgency, but in a very deliberate, organized fashion. He routinely hands out copies of inspirational books for them to read. Assistant coaches praise him for his willingness to listen to their ideas and to learn. They say that under his direction, they feel a stronger sense of ownership in the program."He's passionate about what he's doing," Busby says. "That passion is evidenced by everything he does. His passion burns brighter than anyone I've been around."Mendenhall has sought out LaVell Edwards, the Father of BYU Football, the man who built the program and the tradition from practically nothing, to mine nuggets of wisdom and advice. Their first meeting, which was scheduled to last 30 minutes, ended up going for three hours. They've met several times since.Busby, who was hired by Edwards in 1996, has an analogy for what Mendenhall has been doing in his first few months on the job. "BYU football was a machine, like a giant wheel that rolled along under LaVell," he explains. "It's taken a few bad years to stop the momentum of the wheel. It takes a lot of energy to get it spinning again."The last couple of years, watching a BYU practice was like watching two different teams, the offense and the defense. They each had different standards, which created friction among the players.

Building Unity and a Common Mindset: was one of Mendenhall's first priorities."We won't have two separate teams, like it's kind of been," says middle linebacker Cameron Jensen. "We'll have that one team that's focused and dedicated to playing and working as hard as it can, which should be BYU football."Meanwhile, Mendenhall has labored diligently to change attitudes among players who have endured three straight losing seasons. "The most important thing is attitude," Holmoe says. "You can get used to losing."

Maintaining a Balance with Family: His three sons have provided a much-needed sense of balance, Holly says, particularly when things don't go well at work. "He's a perfectionist. When things go wrong, it frustrates him. The kids help with that. They're good for him. It helps him remember that it's not the end of the world to lose a football game."The Mendenhalls spend a lot of their time together outdoors, including activities like swimming, riding bikes and riding horses. Sometimes, on Sundays when the weather is pleasant, Bronco walks with the older boys to church. As they walk, he tells them stories. "These are stories off the top of his head with good morals," Holly says. "He's a creative person. I want him to write children's books. I tell him, 'We could make a million dollars if you were a children's author.'"While he's comfortable speaking in front of crowds large and small, Bronco is a private person, Holly says, and not one inclined to engage in small talk. "People who know him know he just likes to hang out. We'll go to a restaurant and people try to talk to him. He can be abrupt when people invade his personal space. A lot of people don't relate to Bronco. He's not going to be your best friend."If Bronco wasn't a football coach, Holly says, he could be good at anything. "He has excellent leadership skills, he's honest, committed, loyal. A good guy who does the right thing," she says. "He's a deep thinker, articulate and eloquent. He's doesn't prepare for talks. He just speaks from his heart. He's very spiritual, very intelligent."Speaking of that softer side, Holly reveals that her husband is something of a romantic. "He writes me great love letters. He's so creative, very good with words," she says. "For my birthday or anniversary, he'll leave cards in the shower and in the fridge. He's very thoughtful. He's gifted in the way he uses words. I'm amazed all the time."

Blogging the Journey: For the Love of the Game!

Proud to be a Mounty! I will be starting my first year as an assistant coach at the college level with Mount Aloysisus College. As we begin the journey for the 08-09 season I will be "blogging the journey" towards our team goal of reaching the AMC playoffs. For the first time in our 3 year existance as a D3 school, we are now eligible to make the playoffs.

Previously, my experience has been working with players at the junior high, JV and Varsity levels, so this is an exciting new experience for me. It's been somewhat of a change for me to get used to not having any contact with the players during the off-seasons for conditioning and individual player development. Due to NCAA rules, coaches can not have any contact with their players on the court until the official start of practice opens in mid-October. For the past 7 years, my summers and early falls have been filled with summer leagues, camps and open gyms on a regular basis. This has been quite refreshing from a family perspective, having the spring, summer and early fall to be at home with my family, which is priority #1. However, we will be busy getting out during the off-season to recruit new players for our program. One difference between D3 and the other NCAA divisions I and II is that in D3, you can recruit all year long, there are no down periods for recruiting.

It's funny how things play out sometimes. After being so disappointed about not getting a head coaching position at the varsity level and closing the chapter on my coaching time at Windber, another door opened immediatly. This new chapter in my coaching career has provided me with the opportunity to do something that I have always wanted to do...coach at the college level. Ultimately, I still have a desire to be a head coach and run my own program. However, this is a huge step to the next level that could potentially lead me to a head coaching position at the college level. Needless to say, I am refreshed with a new attitude and enthusiasm and ready to get back on the court teaching the fundamentals and the game of basketball with a talented coach and group of players who are here for one reason...for the LOVE OF THE GAME.

Team Apostles... Leading a New Way

Team captains or co-captains are not enough anymore. It's something that is becoming more popular. The use of leadership "committees" is growing, particularly in college football locker rooms. Urban Meyer started the trend with his Leadership Committee and Champions Club at Florida. These committees are voted on by both the coaching staffs and players and are upheld to higher expectations, not just on the field, but off the field as well. In order to be considered to be apart of Meyers' Champions Club at Florida, you must excel in the classroom, in the weight room and be true to your personal values. What's the reward? Special treatment. Yes, that's right...according to Meyer, fairness or equality is not something that you see in the Florida football program. Urban Meyer is a big believer in rewarding achievement.

Similar to coach Meyer, I am a big believer in the old concept of "you snooze, you lose"! In a society today that follows the AYSO philosophy (don't even get me started on this one), where we reward kids for participation or where the runner-up is given the same type of recognition as the Champion, I am a strong believer that you should be rewarded for your performance and achievement. The fact of the matter is that life is not always fair and the person who puts in the most time & effort, is most likely the one to come out on top in most situations. Lets face it, the real world is nothing but competition, competing for the best school, competing for the best team, competing for the best business, competing for the best job!

The article below talks about the benefits of having more than just one or two "captains" leading the team. Actually, when you think about it, "leading by committee" is a very simple philosophy...the more leaders you have the better communication, commitment and buy in you have from your team. At Florida, Coach Meyer expects his leadership committee to to enhance team chemistry, police the team from within and exemplify what it means to be leaders, both on and off the field. When you give that responsibility to twenty of your players at all class levels (Seniors, Juniors, Sophomores & Freshmen), you have more players looking out for the best interests of each other.

Rich Rodriguez dropped the phrase Thursday, and ears perked up.
He
mentioned his leadership group, the one he'll consult often during the season,
to get the vibe of the team. And he referred to them as the "apostles," an idea
he has employed for years.
"It's not in biblical nature," Rodriguez said.
"The definition of an apostle is one that leads a new way. I'm not looking for
them to change the world. That's a description of it. ... I don't want anybody
to take it the wrong way."
He said the players voted and picked the group,
which is close to 20 individuals, including fifth-year senior cornerback Morgan
Trent.
Trent said he's glad the team has a larger voice to speak to the
coach, though the name is a bit unconventional.
"It's fine with me," Trent
said. "I don't think he thinks he's Jesus or anything. He broke down the word
and what it meant."
Having apostles is a longstanding routine with
Rodriguez.
"Since I was at West Virginia," he said. "I had a version of it,
too, at the small school, Glenville State. I've always had a group of leaders
that I let the players pick. We had a lot of fun with it. Sometimes it's as
simple as picking pregame music or that kind of thing. It's not like they're
making major decisions. They're not going to say, 'Coach, we're going to run the
wishbone this week.' They're making suggestions, not decisions."
As for when
they'll be implemented, Rodriguez made that very clear.
"I don't need the
leadership as much during practice -- that's what coaches are there for," he
said. "I need leadership more when the coaches aren't around, in the locker room
and around campus. That's where I need the leadership. When we're around, that's
our job."

You Get What You Put In!

To follow-up with the "Thought of the Day" that was included earlier this week,
below is an exerpt from another Blog, titled "Play the Right Way"
(http://playerdevelopment.wordpress.com/). This is a great blog to read on a daily basis that is geared towards players and player development. The exerpt explains how important the summer time is for developing and enhancing your fundamentals....your "game", if you want to take it to the next level. It comes down to one simple little thing...you get back, what you put in! In other words, as legendary coach John Wooden would say, "there is no substitute for hardwork!"
The post talks about a young player who has obviously commited himself to developing his skills over the summer by working out regularly and playing AAU ball, which provides a lot of great competition and exposure.

"While at home this week he said he gets up in the morning and works on his dribbling and shooting. At night he goes to his job for a couple of hours.
I asked him if he is playing too many games?
“No coach, not at all, I wish I was playing more.”
GET OUT THERE AND PLAY!

I think the quote, "you become what you think about most of the time", sums it up best! Everyone wants to be a champion, but not everyone wants to put the time into dedicating themselves to becoming a champion. The difference between winners and losers is that winners are willing to do the things that losers are not willing to do. I get discouraged when I hear about players complaining about the amount of time they have to put in during the summer at open gyms, summer leagues and team camps!

If you approach the summer time with the right attitude and understand that games are won during the season, but champions are built during the summer, those experiences will eventually become great memories with your teammates and coaches. When you put the time in during the summer and you see the end result when you accomplish the ultimate goal of winning a championship or just reaching your team goals, you create a bond between your coaches and fellow teammates because you commited as a group and experienced all of the sweat and hardwork together! That togetherness and bond you create provides a lifetime full of memories and wonderful opportunities.

Thought of the Day...

"Every man suffers pain...Either the pain of hardwork or the pain of regret"

Today's "thought of the day" comes from a slogan that is pasted on the wall of the Indiana Pacers' weight room in their practice facility.

I have experienced both types of pain as a player and as a coach. I would prefer to experience the pain of hardwork because regret is much more painful!

What's all the "Buzz" About?

MILWAUKEE -- The armchair athletic directors wanted a headliner, a front man to replace the one they'd just lost, a basketball coach who could generate off-the-bat buzz. Instead, they got Buzz.

Jerel McNeal's return from the NBA draft waters, along with the presence of classmates Wes Matthews and Dominic James, gives new coach Buzz Williams a Big East contender.
Three months later, Marquette athletic director Steve Cottingham still hears it from alums who wanted him to make a big-splash coaching hire after losing Tom Crean to Indiana. Guard Jerel McNeal still gets asked about the little-known coach who will steward his senior season with the Golden Eagles.
"It's funny," McNeal said. "You see somebody and they're like, 'So who's this Buzz guy?' They don't really have a clue about who he is."
Here's Clue No. 1 about Brent "Buzz" Williams: He has never let name recognition stop him before, and he has no plans to start now.
When Williams enrolled as a freshman at Navarro College in Corsicana, Texas, his path to a coaching career seemed littered with potholes.
"Couldn't play, had no relationships, had nobody in my family in college coaching," he said. "Had to pay my own way to college, so that restricted where I could go."
Determined to make it in coaching, he began to form a network, working as a student assistant at Navarro. Each week, he wrote letters to every coach he met, regardless of their rank or affiliation.
He contacted every Division I coach, asking whether he could work at their summer camps. A "very small percentage" replied, but the lack of responses didn't stop the letters from coming.
"I didn't know what to say. I just knew I wanted to be a college coach," Williams said. "It was your typical 17, 18-year-old's handwritten note."
Coach X,
Hope you're doing good. Hope recruiting's going good.
Have a good day. I'll send you a note next week.
-Buzz
The name at the bottom of the page didn't mean much back then, but Williams' persistence built relationships that helped launch and accelerate his career. Don't be fooled by the buzz cut. Williams got his nickname for his energy.
After an extended tour as an assistant coach and a star-crossed season as head man at the University of New Orleans, Williams takes over a program that reached five NCAA tournaments in Crean's nine-year tenure. Promoted to head coach after a season as Crean's aide, the 35-year-old Texan inherits a likely preseason Top 25 squad led by seniors McNeal, Dominic James and Wes Matthews.
Despite working on successful staffs and making waves as a recruiter, Williams is a relative unknown outside coaching circles. But he refuses to get caught up in the name game.
"If it's a challenge, I don't see it," he said. "I'm not concerned about my reputation. I'm only concerned about my character. Character is what I can control."
***You can tell a lot about Williams before he opens his mouth. The coach leaves quite a paper trail.
A pile of color-coded pages sits on one end of his desk. Game charts, Williams explained, from his season at New Orleans. The colors serve little purpose other than to keep him organized.
"That's more my OCD problem," he said. "Just how I operate."
On the other side of a container of Copenhagen pouches dipping tobacco, Williams has daily to-do lists for himself and his assistants. The lists have calls to make and e-mails to write, and also include recruiting depth charts for 2009 and 2010.
Williams never skips an item.
"If that No. 3 thing out of 10 on Monday isn't done, his day is in a tailspin," said Lorenzo Watkins, a former assistant on Williams' staff at New Orleans who holds the same post at Campbell University. "He's the greatest organizational guy I've ever seen, down to the colors of pens and colors of pieces of paper. It's to that extent."
Williams' organizational skills will be tested as he takes on a new role in a new environment.

He's a tireless worker, but most importantly, he cares about the people he's involved with. • He'll do well there. It's a great situation.
--Billy Gillispie on Buzz WilliamsBefore joining Crean's staff last July, Williams had been to Milwaukee only once. After his freshman year at Navarro, he'd worked the camp of former Marquette head coach Kevin O'Neill. His Texas drawl seems ill-suited amid the elongated vowels of Wisconsinites, but he's doing his best to fit in.
Marquette lost two recruits during the coaching change, including standout guard Tyshawn Taylor, who landed at Kansas. But Williams retained Chris Otule and Joseph Fulce, both Texans, and added Fulce's junior college teammate, Jimmy Butler, this spring.
The 2009 class is also shaping up. Williams went into Wisconsin's backyard and landed Jeronne Maymon from Madison Memorial High School, the same school Crean mined for Matthews four years ago. Williams has made good impressions on several local AAU coaches and is pursuing Jamil Wilson, the state's top prospect.
"He's a tireless worker, but most importantly, he cares about the people he's involved with," said Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie, who had Williams on his staff at Texas A&M from 2004 to '06. "He'll work hard enough, he'll be organized enough. He'll do well there. It's a great situation."
***Before Marquette's game at Connecticut on Jan. 20, Cottingham was chatting with his UConn counterpart Jeff Hathaway when the subject turned to Williams. Hathaway knew Williams from their days at Colorado State, when Hathaway served as athletic director and Williams an assistant coach.
"We both agreed he'd be a high-major coach soon," Cottingham said. "Of course, I didn't expect it to be at Marquette. The issue was, how long are we going to be able to keep him as an assistant?"
Cottingham's priorities changed after Crean left for Indiana on April 1. The next day, he met with Williams to discuss the top job.
Big names like Washington State's Tony Bennett and Xavier's Sean Miller came up, but Cottingham chose Williams after just a six-day search and awarded him a six-year contract. Skepticism greeted the hiring. Many thought the school could have hooked a higher-profile candidate to succeed Crean, whose name constantly had come up for other jobs since the team's Final Four run in 2003.
Crean's pre-Marquette credentials mirrored those of Williams -- thirtysomething rising star, gifted recruiter, assistant for a successful program -- but he was a Midwesterner who had cut his teeth at Michigan State, not faraway ports like Texas A&M and Colorado State. Williams' familiarity with a team stung by Crean's departure was seen as a benefit during the transition, but Cottingham insists he wasn't looking for a stopgap.
Tom Crean was a well-liked figure at Marquette for nine years, making five NCAA tournaments and one Final Four.
"I don't get paid to just pick a name off a list that the alums are, in the short-term, going to pat you on the back and say, 'That's a great hire,'" Cottingham said. "In my heart, I would have felt I did that out of being chicken. Buzz is the guy that's right for Marquette.
"When you've got that, you have to have the fortitude to say, 'He's going to get it done, so that's who we're going to hire.'"
There was the issue of Williams' lone prior head-coaching stop, a one-year stint at a program still recovering after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Williams maintains that his decision to resign from New Orleans last July was based solely on personal reasons, not professional ones, adding that the situation there was "not unstable." But he filed a lawsuit last year claiming the school breached his contract by failing to fulfill pledges relating to facilities, academic support and basic assurances such as meal money and transportation. The school's hurricane-damaged home facility, Lakefront Arena, didn't reopen until May 2.
"[Williams] told me certain things that were promised to him didn't get done," Watkins said. "His word is, 'Hey, I'm going to work no matter the situation, but you've got to give me something to work with.'"
Added Crean: "He took a real leap of faith. He did not believe in the way things were going there, and he was excited about what we were doing. I looked at it as we'd be fortunate to have him for two, three years at the most, and then he'd be a head coach again."
New Orleans has been seeking a $300,000 buyout from Williams for leaving the school. Athletic director Jim Miller, through a spokesman, declined to comment for this story.
Williams knew there was risk in giving up a Division I head-coaching job.
"I actually discouraged him," Gillispie said. "I thought he would be better off to make the most of his opportunity there. I said the only reason he would leave is because of family considerations, and obviously that was the reason.
"He got into a great situation at Marquette. He's very grateful, and he understands he got a little bit of a lucky break, but the lucky break was made by his hard work."
Williams had first met Crean when the coach spoke at a Nike consortium for top assistants. The charismatic Crean struck a chord with Williams, then an A&M assistant, who reverted to his "old ways" and wrote Crean a letter.
"It was the only letter I received other than the thank-you from the Nike people," Crean said. "It makes you root for that person. I sure paid a lot more attention to what he was doing."
The two stayed in touch and began discussing an opening on Crean's staff last June.
"I wasn't working or plotting or scheming, trying to figure out how to be the next head coach at Marquette," Williams said. "God had a plan. He's the author of my story. I'm not smart enough or good enough to dream of something like this."
*** Taking a dip of snuff, Williams recalled his first coaching job. He was a 22-year-old assistant at Texas-Arlington in 1994, making $400 a month -- $330 after taxes -- and living in a dorm room smaller than his current office at the Al McGuire Center.
He had school-issued furniture and splurged on a 20-inch TV. And he loved it.
"I thought I was rollin'," he said. "I thought I was the richest guy in the world."
Williams has never undervalued his coaching opportunities: the student assistant positions at Navarro and Oklahoma City University, the assistant-coaching posts at six schools, the year in New Orleans.
But there's no doubt this is different.
"He's one of those guys who will never forget where he's from," said DePaul coach Jerry Wainwright, who began exchanging letters with Williams in the early 1990s. "He had no free passes. There's no question Buzz was a la carte, and now he's got one of the entrée jobs in the country."
Williams' prior knowledge of Marquette's personnel will help, and he plans to run an offense similar to Crean's.
But there will be differences, as Williams brought in a completely new staff -- and a new approach.
"His personality is a big change," McNeal said. "He's always himself, and he gives everybody a chance to be themselves a lot more. In some situations, he understands the players a lot better.
"I'm just happy we've got somebody who understands the culture of our program. The things that didn't need to change stayed the same."
One thing that won't change, despite his more public role, is how Williams relates to others.
He plans to reply to every e-mail and letter he receives from alumni, supporters, maybe even detractors. They might not know his name, but they'll know he cares.
"I'll do it the same way I've always done it -- treat everybody important," he said. "It's kinda like Oprah says, 'Everybody has their own story.' I try not to judge anyone's story. I want to know their story."
In time, he hopes fans will come to appreciate his own.

Two Simple Questions to Becoming a CHAMPION:

Are You Interested or Are You Committed?
Are You a Dreamer or An Acheiver?

Now that summer is upon us, student-athletes will be busy performing their off-season workouts, attempting to develop their individual skills and becoming stronger, faster and quicker. It all comes down to one simple little phrase: Games are won during the season, but Champions are built in the off-season. However, athletes should not be the only ones preparing themselves for the upcoming seasons, coaches should be preparing themselves and their staff as continuous learners. Ask yourself these two simple questions: Are you Interested or Are you Committed? Are you a dreamer or an achiever?

There's a difference between interest and commitment. When you are interested in doing something, you do it when it is convenient. When you are committed to something, you accept no excuses.

What does it take to be a Champion? It takes commitment. It's a personal commitment to develop your skills and abilities on your own, during open gym and in the weight room. It's working hard each and every day to the best of your ability, not just because it's "convenient", but because you will not accept any excuses! It's also a team commitment to develop as a team by each team member taking personal responsibility to working hard in the off season and commiting themselves to the team...not because everyone else is doing it, but because the team is not accepting any excuses!

Think about the level of commitment you are putting forth towards developing as an individual and as a team member. Are you working out on your own? Are you working hard at open gyms? Are you running the floor, hitting the open man, making the extra pass, finishing strong at the basket, diving on the floor for a loose ball? Are you the first to arrive and the last to leave, taking some additional jump shots and free throws? Are you working hard in the weight room?

Or, are you quick to leave the gym to go hang-out with your friends? Are you worried about the voicemails and text messages on your cell phone? Are you late to arrive at open gym? Do you complain about the amount of time you have to put in during the summer? Do you only work on your game when its convenient? If this is the case, then you are not committed! You are not committed to yourself or the rest of your team and you will most likely be willing to accept excuses for not being successfull.

Ask yourself why you are doing these things, why you are playing basketball? A CHAMPION is someone who who trains even when nobody is watching! Everyone wants to be great, everyone wants to be a player, everyone wants to win games, everyone wants to win a championship, everyone wants to be all-conference. But, the difference between a dreamer and an achiever is that an achiever is somebody who is willing to put in the time and the effort towards making those dreams become a reality. Achievers are Champions...they are committed to getting better. They have a vision of what they want to be and have the commitment to preparing for how they will get there. Right now, it's not too late to start working towards being a CHAMPION!