Abdur-Rahim adds Williams to USF staff
MBB/WBB: Williams was Murray State's Head Coach from 2003-07
The Murray State coaching tree continues to grow new branches in Tampa, Florida.
New University of South Florida Men’s Basketball Coach Amir Abdur-Rahim has hired Joi Williams to be his new Chief of Staff. Abdur-Rahim’s first year at Murray State, in 2006-07, under first-year Men’s Head Coach Billy Kennedy was Williams’ last year in Murray leading the Racers’ women’s program.
"Joi is someone that I've had the pleasure of knowing and learning from the last 18 years," Abdur-Rahim said in a statement. "I met Joi when she was the head coach at Murray State when I was a graduate assistant. Her teams were disciplined, connected and tenacious defensively. We were able to hire one of the best coaches in the country in Joi for this role. I'm excited to learn from Joi, but I'm even more excited to witness her impact on our staff. Being an alum of USF, Joi will be invaluable to our program. She is someone who knows the value of a USF degree and what the relationships with other alumni will do for the future of our players after their basketball careers. Joi is an absolute home run hire for our program."
Williams played collegiately at USF from 1984-88 where she started all four years.
After graduating from USF, Williams spent 14 years as an assistant at Florida and Clemson before landing her first head coaching job at Murray State in 2003. Williams took over a Racer program that hadn’t had a winning season since 1988-89. While her overall record was 54-61, Williams punctuated her four-year rebuilding job with a 21-10 record in 2006-07.
Williams parlayed that success into being named the new head coach at Central Florida in the spring of 2007. She took the Knights to two NCAA Tournament trips in her first four years in Orlando.
After leaving UCF in 2016, Williams worked as an assistant in the WNBA, spent four seasons as the Director of Quality Control for Clemson’s women’s basketball program, and was the Assistant Athletics Director for Women’s Basketball last year at Mississippi State.
After the announcement, Williams wrote on Twitter: “Grateful for this opportunity!! Let’s Go Bulls!”
Last week, Abdur-Rahim added William Small as one of his assistant coaches. Small spent the last two seasons with Abdur-Rahim at Kennesaw State, after spending the last ten years working under Steve Prohm at both Murray State and Iowa State.