Tulsa Takes on the Oklahoma Sooners With New Head Coach
12/26/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 26, 2004
Tulsa, Oklahoma - The Tulsa men's basketball team plays state rival Oklahoma at the All-College Classic on Tuesday, December 28, at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City. The Hurricane will be coached by Alvin "Pooh" Williamson, who was appointed as interim head coach on Saturday following the resignation of John Phillips.
"The timing is what it is," said Williamson. "We have to get better regardless of who were playing. We are playing a very, very good opponent - Oklahoma - in Oklahoma City. With playing them, the measuring stick is a little higher."
Williamson, 31, is in his fourth season on the Tulsa coaching staff. A 1996 graduate of Tulsa, Williamson was the point guard that led Tubby Smith-coached Hurricane teams to consecutive NCAA "Sweet Sixteen" appearances in 1994 and 1995. He has been a part of four NCAA tournament teams with the Hurricane, including two as a player and two as an assistant coach (2002 and 2003).
Prior to returning to his alma mater as an assistant coach, Williamson coached one year at Tulane University (2000-01). Before that, he spent two seasons as an assistant coach at Illinois State (1998-00) and two seasons at Washington State (1996-98).
At a news conference on Sunday afternoon, Williamson said, "It's bittersweet. I'm very, very, very excited, I want to first and foremost say that, about the opportunity. But for myself, Kwanza, Ja and Steve Cooper, we're all, without a doubt, very, very disappointed in the fact that coach Phillips is no longer with us."
"I want to thank Coach Phillips for everything. For bringing me back to my alma mater, to the city I love, to the university I love and to the program and university that helped me become the man I am today. I want to thank him for that, for everything he did for me with basketball and outside of basketball."
Following the game against Oklahoma on Tuesday, Tulsa opens play in the Western Athletic Conference with two home games. Tulsa faces Louisiana Tech on Thursday, December 30, at the Reynolds Center, then hosts SMU on Saturday, January 1.
Additional comments from a press conference with Coach Williamson:
Opening statement: "It's bittersweet. I'm very, very, very excited, I want to first and foremost say that, about the opportunity. But for myself, Kwanza, Ja and Steve Cooper, we're all, without a doubt, very, very disappointed in the fact that coach Phillips is no longer with us. I want to thank him for everything. For bringing me back to my alma mater, to the city I love, to the university I love and to the program and university that helped me become the man I am today, away basketball or anything, just as a young man. I want to thank him for that, for everything he did for me with basketball and everything else. Secondly, I want to talk to you about how excited we are as a staff. Last night, we got in at 7 o'clock. Our guys were here. Coach Phillips talked to them. He was real brief. There were some hugs, some different things took place, and then the guys hit the floor. To be honest with you, we didn't know what to expect. We had a pleasant surprise by 9 o'clock last night that those guys worked their tails off for two hours for us. So we're really excited by that. Obviously, the timing is not great. It never is in a situation like this. But the fact that we have three games in five days, there's not a lot of practice time involved. We're gradually going to make some changes and do some different things."
Do you feel you'll have to audition the next two months? "No, not at all. I'm going to let the chips fall where they lay. I'm going to concentrate every day on those 13 guys - Kwanza, Jay, Coach Cooper and me -- we're going to try to get them better. We're going to try to make things better and make progress."
When you talked to coach Phillips on Saturday how did he sound to you? "He sounded kind of like a guy who had been wrestling with this situation. In a way he was a little relieved to get it done. It was a very, very, very unselfish situation, I do believe. He has always said all along that the players come first, and he felt that this was better for the players. It was a very unselfish act for Coach Phillips."
What can you take from Tubby Smith when you played for him? "His personality. His infectious enthusiasm and his demand -- he was going to work and you were going to work if you were playing for him. At the same time, he was a great person. He always had a smile on his face. I say always, but every now and then he had a scowl on his face that I saw plenty of my first couple of years."
"That's kind of my personality too. Obviously, the energy that I'm giving I want them to take and kind of adopt my personality and have that on the floor. When they do well I'm going to hug them, when they don't I'm not going to hug them. I may lift my foot off the floor and want to kick them in the tail every now and again. Hopefully, I'll do a lot more hugging then tail-kicking. That's kind of what I remember from him as a player, and my personality now as a coach."
What has gone wrong the last two years? "To be honest, a lot of what `s going on now is what happened last year. I can't tell you what it was last year. It's like a hangover from last season. It's one of those things where if something can go wrong, our guys had the mentality that it was going to go wrong. We have to do a lot of work between the ears. Our guys have some talent, now they have to show it. It's been a situation where, if you've been in some of our practices, you'd say who's that team. We have to get carryover. That's been a theme that we've talked about -- you can't be great in practice and then when all of a sudden you get popcorn, cheerleaders get up in the air and get people in the seats, you don't play the same. So, we have to have carryover."
