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Kent Williams followed Cuonzo Martin to Tennessee in April 2011 after working as an assistant under Martin for three seasons at Missouri State. Williams now enters his second season with the Volunteers.
An elite scorer during his collegiate playing days, Williams helped Tennessee's guards become efficient shooters and savvy all-around scorers during the 2011-12 season.
Tennessee shot an impressive .438 as a team, and starting point guard Trae Golden shot .439 overall while leading the SEC in free-throw shooting (.903 in league games).
Long-range shooting specialist Skylar McBee posted a career-best scoring average and shot a team-best .391 (63-of-161) from beyond the 3-point arc.
"Coach Williams is a really good teacher," McBee said. "He played at a really high level and knows his X's and O's. He spends a lot of time with us on the court and off the court, watching film and breaking things down.
"He always finds ways of helping you understand a concept so that you can apply it your own game."
During his three-year tenure as an assistant in Springfield, Mo., Williams helped the Bears average more than 20 wins per season, earn a pair of postseason berths and capture the program's first-ever Missouri Valley Conference regular-season championship in 2010-11.
MSU improved from 11 wins in the 2008-09 campaign to a 24-12 record and the CollegeInsider.com postseason tournament title in 2009-10. The Bears' 69.8 points per game led the MVC that year, and their 19 home wins tied Kansas for the most among Division I programs.
"Kent Williams is the second-leading scorer in Southern Illinois history," Martin said. "He knows how to score, how to get shots off, how to come off screens, how to read screens. He's another guy who our players can really relate with and learn from."
Williams' input from the bench was instrumental in MSU's stellar 2010-11 MVC championship run and subsequent NIT berth. Missouri State advanced to its conference tournament title game, ranked seventh nationally in turnovers per game (10.3) and led the MVC in 3-point shooting (.376) and assist/turnover ratio (1.28).
A native of Mt. Vernon, Ill., Williams graduated from Southern Illinois University in 2003 after an outstanding four-year playing career under head coach Bruce Weber (Matt Painter was an assistant coach). Willams' 2,012 points at SIU from 2000-03 make him the Salukis' second-leading all-time scorer, and he ranks 13th on the Missouri Valley Conference career scoring chart.
He earned first-team All-MVC honors in each of his last two seasons at SIU after collecting second-team honors as a sophomore. He was the MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2002 and 2003 and the MVC Freshman of the Year and Newcomer of the Year in 2000. Williams also was one of 50 players named to the MVC All-Centennial team, which was announced in 2007.
He is the only player in SIU history to lead the team in scoring four straight years, helping his team to the NCAA Tournament in 2002 and 2003, including a run to the 2002 NCAA Sweet Sixteen.
Following his graduation from SIU, Williams spent one season playing in the NBA D-League, leading the league in 3-pointers made and 3-point percentage.
He spent one year working for TEKsystems in St. Louis before joining Purdue's basketball staff as supervisor of basketball operations in 2005.
Williams was selected by Athletes in Action to serve as head coach for a team of Division I All-Stars during the summer of 2010 on a tour of Poland. That squad finished the tour undefeated.
Williams is the career scoring leader at Mt. Vernon Township High School.
He and his wife, Jessica, have a 2-year-old daughter, Kennedy, who was born on Christmas day.
