College basketball season in Mississippi begins this month, and most teams and their fans have high hopes for the season.
Most of today’s players were not around for the 1995-1996 basketball season and may never have heard about the Mississippi State Bulldogs’ run to the Final Four. Mississippi State is the only team in our state’s history to reach the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament, which started in 1939.
With the way college sports is evolving, it may take a few more years before we reach that summit again.
How hard is it to make the Final Four? The coach of the 1995-1996 Bulldogs, Richard Williams, might explain it better.
“There have been some great teams from Mississippi that maybe had a chance to go. When you get into a one-and-done situation in the NCAA Tournament, it’s all about the matchups. There’s a lot of factors that play into it that make it difficult to do. It certainly was difficult for us,” Williams said recently.
Bulldog fans will remember how Mississippi State won the SEC Tournament, defeating eventual national champ Kentucky in the championship at the Superdome. They also will remember how Mississippi State knocked off Virginia Commonwealth, Princeton, Connecticut, and Cincinnati on their way to The Final Four in New York. The Bulldogs lost to Syracuse in their opening game.
Williams began his coaching career in Natchez, where he taught math. “I was an assistant cross-country coach, assistant baseball coach, and volunteer seventh-grade basketball coach,” the 1967 Mississippi State graduate said.
He moved up the head coaching ladder from junior high to South Natchez High School (1973-1979) to Co-Lin Community College (1979-1984). When Williams began coaching, coaches did not land a graduate assistant job right out of college. They started at the lowest level. Williams had no problem with beginning his journey at the bottom. “I never got into coaching to make money or coach at some high level. My love was teaching basketball. That’s what I liked to do,” Williams said.
He might have stayed at the lowest level had it not been for his friend John Brady, who was on Bob Boyd’s staff at Mississippi State. Brady recommended Williams to Boyd, and Williams was brought on as a part-time assistant.
“Coach Boyd hired me, and he really believed in me. He was such an important person in my life,” Williams said. “He was a great teacher who truly understood the game. Lots of people copied what he did, and I really took notice of how detailed he was. Coach was very smart and knew a lot more than just basketball.”
Boyd left Starkville two years later and recommended Williams to succeed him as head coach in 1986.
When Williams took over for Boyd, MSU was a struggling program that finished 8-22. Four years later, Williams had the Bulldogs winning the Western Division of the SEC with a 20-9 record overall and a 13-5 mark in the SEC. The outstanding season earned the Bulldogs a berth in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1963. “If it was not for that 1991 team, I am not sure the 1996 season would have ever happened,” Williams said.
Williams ranks second in all-time wins as head coach at Mississippi State. From 1986 to 1998, Williams and the Bulldogs won 191 games as he guided them to five postseason tournament appearances. Among those were three trips to the NCAA Tournament.
These days, Williams enjoys his role as an analyst on Mississippi State basketball radio broadcasts.
