A veteran women’s basketball coach is joining coach Sam Purcell’s staff at Mississippi State.
Multiple sources told Maroon and White Daily that Purcell is expected to hire Samantha Williams to his staff this week. Williams comes to Starkville after spending the last two seasons coaching at Tennessee on coach Kelli Harper’s staff.
Williams adds over 20 years of college coaching experience to the Bulldog staff and already has several years of experience coaching alongside Purcell. The two coached for seven years together under Jeff Walz at Louisville where she was a part of a staff that recruited nine McDonald’s All-Americans during her time and made two trips to the Final Four with six Sweet 16 trips and four Elite 8s.
Williams began her coaching career at St. Louis and Columbus State her first few seasons before joining the staff of her Alma Mater at Auburn in 2002-03. She would then join coach Doug Bruno at DePaul and help the team to a 72-25 record over three seasons with three NCAA Tournament berths and the first Sweet 16 in school history in 2006.
In 2007, Williams coached under another legendary coach in Joanne P. McCallie for four seasons and the Blue Devils enjoyed a 114-26 record during her time with four NCAA Tournaments and three trips to the Elite 8 while finishing inside the top 10 every year. She also helped the team to three top 5 recruiting classes.
After her time in Louisville, Williams earned a head coaching job for the first time in her 18-year career at Eastern Kentucky. Taking over a team that went 0-18 in the Ohio Valley Conference the year prior to her arrival, she won five games in conference play in year one and eight in year two but would leave the team and head to Tennessee after two seasons.
Under Harper, Williams helped get UT to two Sweet 16 appearances and was pivotal in the portal recruitment of former State player Rickea Jackson. During her career, she has been to 21 NCAA Tournaments in 24 years with only one year missed as an assistant.
As a player, Williams was a Parade All-American out of high school at DuPont Manuel in Louisville, Ky. She played for Purcell’s father in law, Joe Ciampi, at Auburn from 1992-96 and was a four-year starter for the Tigers as she scored 1,106 points with 495 rebounds and 323 assists over her career and led the Tigers to two Sweet 16s and an Elite 8. She had the school record for 3-pointers at 161 and was a co-captain on the team her final two seasons.
Williams joins what looks to be a complete staff for Purcell as the coach had to replace all three assistants. Eastern Michigan head coach Fred Castro was hired as the team’s Associate Head coach while former Georgia Southern assistant Anita Howard was also brought on to join the squad.
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