When Dusty May was hired to be Michigan’s next head coach, he was on the horn with Drew Williamson the very next day.
Williamson coached on May’s staff at Florida Atlantic for the last three seasons as an assistant, and as much as May prioritized getting new faces on his new staff, he also knew guys like Williamson were must-haves in the move.
For Williamson, the feeling was mutual. He described following May to Michigan as an, “easy decision,” as May is someone who pushes him and can get him to where May is at now. Williamson wants to keep growing as a coach, and after three years with May he knows he can do that under the Wolverines’ new head man.
But as much as he plans to grow on the job, his new role also centers around fostering growth. As both assistant coach and Director of Player Development, Williamson will be keyed in on the strides players take within the program, even if that looks a little different these days with fewer and fewer players spending four years with the same college program.
“I think the biggest thing for us is taking it day by day,” Williamson said of player development in this era of college athletics. “We need to make sure these guys are able to play within our system, get the shots the way we want them to get. And our job is to make them look really good on the court and kind of hide their weaknesses but also put them in situations where you can see their strengths as players. … Everything we do in player development is getting to our offensive system.”