Bruce Pearl excited to hire Corey Williams as assistant coach

Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl recently hired former Texas Tech, Florida State and Arkansas assistant coach Corey Williams. He is excited about Williams can bring to the team.

“Really excited about Corey,” Pearl said last week. “I like to say that, if you want to judge me, judge me by the company that I keep. Sometimes that can get me in trouble, but I’m very excited about Corey. He was a great student-athlete. Such a great athlete that he got drafted by the Chicago Bulls and the Kansas City Chiefs. He played alongside Michael Jordan, carried his bags…with the Bulls. Got himself a ring. Played with one of my former players at Iowa, BJ Armstrong.”

“The people he worked with. When you got Eddie Sutton and Leonard Hamilton and Bill Self and that family tree on your resume, it speaks volumes. And he’s a better person. Very excited about him and his family. His family and his wife’s family from Macon, Georgia. So this is an opportunity for every couple of closer to home. It just checks a lot of boxes for us.”

Corey Williams journey to Auburn as an assistant coach

Bruce Pearl hired Corey Williams to the Auburn staff officially on April 21.

“I want to thank God and Coach Pearl for an amazing opportunity to join his staff,” Williams said in a statement. “Coach Pearl is a proven winner in every sense of the word. My family and I look forward to being a positive attribute to his staff, the university, and community. I am truly thrilled and look forward to Coach’s mentorship and helping him win more championships in the near future.”

Williams played his college basketball at Oklahoma State from 1989-1992. He was drafted in the second of the 1992 NBA Draft by the Chicago Bulls. Williams, despite not playing football since middle school, was also selected in the 12th round of the 1992 NFL Draft by the Kansas City Chiefs.

He won an NBA Championship with the Bulls in 1993 and later played a short spell with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

After playing career ended, Williams hopped around as an assistant coach with Oral Roberts and Florida State before getting the head coaching job at Stetson.

He led the Hatters for six seasons before he was fired after compiling a 58–133 reocrd. He then spent two years with the Arkansas coaching staff and then the last two years with Texas Tech. He was the interim head coach after Mark Adams was suspended.