By Trent Spinner
Media Relations/Communications Student Assistant
As the 2018-19 Northwest basketball season tipped off, one spot on the Northwest bench was left bare as the NBA dipped its hands into the Bearcat coaching pool just before the season.
Former Northwest basketball player Bryston Williams served his role as he helped recruit for the Bearcats as an assistant coach over the summer months. However, before the season got underway he was offered a job by the Detroit Pistons as a development coach.
Before Williams took his talents to the motor city, he was a basketball player from St. Joseph, Missouri. There he made his mark at Lafayette High School, when he helped lead the Fighting Irish to their first district title since 1985. After averaging a little under 19 points per game, he was put on the radar of the new coach of Northwest basketball,
Ben McCollum.
Williams joined the roster of Bearcats in 2009, as part of McCollum's inaugural recruiting class. Williams made his time influential and impactful as he provided an energy that fueled the fire of McCollum and his teammates. Stats weren't always his strong suit, it was the fire that he brought that made him a great basketball player in McCollum's new system.
Now as Williams looks upon the legacy that he has established at a young age, it was McCollum that helped fuel his fire to this point.
"He honestly changed the direction of my life, more than just the basketball aspect… he's going to develop you as a person, about telling the truth, about high character and how you treat people," Williams said. "To this day I talk to him every day, to gain knowledge and things like that even though I'm in the professional game."
Williams played under coach McCollum from 2009-2014, but decided his love for Northwest and his passion for coaching would be better suited with a master's degree. So after his playing time was over he took McCollum up on an offer to become a graduate assistant coach for the basketball team from 2014-2015.
Post 2015, Williams played the 'who you know' factor as he was offered the opportunity to work with the G League's Iowa Energy as a development coach in Des Moines. His opportunity came from the help of McCollum, as he began calling people to see if any opportunities were open. As it so happened the Truman State coach, Matt Woodley, was heading to Des Moines to be the head coach of the Energy and with McCollum's help, Williams tagged along.
From there his career took another turn as the Woodley was relieved of his head coaching duties from the Energy soon after.
At the time the Energy were the G League partner of the Memphis Grizzlies, but a year after the Williams was given his position, the Grizzlies switched affiliates to the Memphis Hustle. With the help of some inside alliances, Williams secured his spot on the Hustle as an assistant coach.
"There was actually a coaching change about halfway through the season when Woodley got fired. Glen Cyprein was a long time scout for the Grizzlies and he took over him. I got really close to him," Williams said. "There was a guy, Bob Tate, who was a shooting coach for the Grizzlies… I became really close with coach Cyprein and coach Tate and one of my specialties was learning shooting. After the G League season coach Cyp and coach Tate went back to Memphis and supposedly talked highly about me."
After a year with the Hustle, Williams decided to come home and establish his career where his roots were. During his stint with the Hustle and the Energy, Williams was granted pivotal experience that allowed him to become one of the new assistant coaches for the Bearcats.
His job title in Maryville, didn't last long though, as he was called up by the Pistons to help work as a development coach. Williams's role there was brought on by his connections within the Grizzlies as his name worked its way through the front office of 'Bad Boy' nation. Before anything happened, Williams's first instinct was to go to his boss, mentor and friend McCollum's office.
"One of the assistant general managers, Ed (Stefanski), he called me and obviously there was the whole coaching deal with Northwest, he was with the Grizzlies (got hired with Pistons) well he called me and asked what I was doing and wanted me on staff," Williams said. "So when I ended up coming back to college for two or three months, when Ed called me about the job, I told him let me talk to coach Mac (McCollum), because this is my guy and I'm not going to go behind is back. He said this is a once in a lifetime opportunity… and he said 'if you don't take it you're fired, so you better start looking.'"
For McCollum it was an easy decision to let him go, because he knew that there were many more possibilities for a person like Williams.
"I think with him he felt a sense of loyalty toward me," McCollum said. "I wanted to make sure that he was OK to pursue his dream… I didn't want to hold him back, I never want to hold anyone back when they have an opportunity like that."
Williams was given an opportunity that few get the chance to experience and for the people that knew him this came as no surprise. His energy and drive led him to this point and McCollum knew this recipe would lead to his eventual success as a coach.
"He's high-energy and he's positive," McCollum said. "It's a pretty simple formula and not a lot of people can be the same person every day with that kind of energy and he was able to do that, which allowed him to be a success and be in the NBA."
Many people would view this chance to be a development coach for the Pistons as an end goal, but for Williams this is just a stepping stone to his next goal.
His ultimate goal is to become a head coach and with his energetic demeanor, anything seems possible.
"My long term is to be a head coach," Williams said. "It's a lot easier to be an assistant because you don't have to deal with the criticism of the media, but I really enjoy developing individuals and that skill into a team and playing together."
