Assistant coach Corey Williams 'glad to be part of the Auburn family'

AUBURN, Ala. – For coaches whose teams are not competing, the NCAA Final Four serves as a convention, reunion and job fair.

It was in Houston at the 2023 Final Four where Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl met Corey Williams, the Tigers' new assistant coach.

"I knew right off the bat he was someone I wanted to work for," Williams told Andy Burcham in the Talking Tigers podcast. "I made that known. Other schools offered me as well but he was the guy I wanted to work for. I was so excited for the opportunity. All I want to do is enhance what they've already established."

Williams sees Auburn as a destination more than the next stop on the journey elsewhere.

"I'd like to be here for a long time and help Coach Pearl win a national championship," Williams said. "That's my goal."

In his first few weeks on the Plains, Williams noted how wearing Auburn gear attracts attention.

"They're like, 'War Eagle!'" Williams said. "I've got to get used to that. All I can do is smile and say 'War Eagle' back. I don't know if I'm supposed to say anything else."

Raised in Macon, Georgia, Corey and his wife, Nicole, have been married for nearly three decades.

"My momma always told me to be respectful and treat people right," Williams said. "I've tried to make sure I've done that over my career."

Williams' resume begins with NBA playing experience, a fact that helps him connect with recruits.

"Most kids want to get to the NBA," he said. "I can talk about that. I do it the right way, with integrity and character. I'm going to represent Coach Pearl, this basketball program and this university in the right way. I'm a spiritual guy. That's who I am. I think people see the genuineness in what I do."

After starring at Oklahoma State from 1989-92, Williams was drafted by the Chicago Bulls at the start of the franchise's third straight championship season.

"'Hi, my name is Michael Jordan, I'm glad you're here,'" Williams recalled the legend saying at Corey's first visit to the Bulls' practice facility before the '92-93 season. "I shook his hand and that whole day I never let anybody touch that hand."

During his season in Chicago, Bulls teammates nicknamed Williams, "Pee Wee."

"He said, 'Pee Wee, I'm going to win you a championship,'" Williams said of his first meeting with Jordan. "Fast forward, we beat the Suns and Sir Charles Barkley, he's at the podium and says, 'First of all, I want to thank Corey Williams on down for helping us win this championship.'

"That's something I always take with me for the rest of my life. It was unbelievable watching one of the greatest players in the history of the game play every day. I like to tell people I had the best seat in the house."

After one season with the Bulls, Williams bounced between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Continental Basketball Association. After returning to Oklahoma State to complete his degree, Williams played professionally in Taiwan for three years, then he and Nicole owned and operated a seafood restaurant for three years.

"My wife and I built it from the ground up," said Williams, who sold the establishment in 2000 when he started his coaching career at Oral Roberts University.

"I always felt like I wanted to be a coach," said Williams, who was the head coach at Stetson from 2013-19 between assistant coaching stints at Florida State, Arkansas and Texas Tech.

Coached and mentored by Eddie Sutton, Leonard Hamilton Bill Self, Rob Evans and Phil Jackson, Corey Williams joins Auburn for Pearl's 10th season, hoping to help the Tigers win their fourth SEC championship in the Pearl era.

"I think the most important thing I can do is give back to these young men what God has blessed people to give to me," he said. "My family is extremely important to me, I know how Coach Pearl feels about family and I'm certainly glad to be part of the Auburn family."

Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer