Stetson men’s basketball head coach Corey Williams has signed a contract extension, Athletics Director Jeff Altier announced today.
Williams, who recently completed his third season at Stetson by leading the Hatters to the finals of the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament for the first time since 1994, is now signed through 2021.
“Coach Williams has methodically and consistently improved the caliber of student-athletes involved with the men’s basketball program,” said Altier. “I have tremendous confidence in his ability to reach our goal of winning the Atlantic Sun Conference men’s basketball championship.”
“I’m excited because we’re building something special here,” said Williams. “The confidence the university administration has shown in me to continue to build what we started means a lot to me and my family. I want to thank everyone for giving me an opportunity to continue my coaching career at Stetson.”
Under Williams’ guidance, the Hatters have qualified for the A-Sun Tournament in each of the last three seasons, the first time that’s happened since Stetson qualified from 2007 to 2009.
The Hatters enjoyed an impressive march to the A-Sun Tournament championship game last month, a run spurred on by a stunning 80-73 home win over conference powerhouse FGCU in the regular-season finale. Stetson, the tournament’s No. 7 seed, steamrolled both NJIT (82-67) and Lipscomb (96-75) on the road to reach the tournament finals, where they again met FGCU.
In the championship game, the Hatters pushed the home standing Eagles to overtime before suffering an 80-78 defeat in a game which came down to the final play.
Stetson’s successful flourish at the end of the season has given Williams and the Hatters an extra boost as they go through off-season workouts.
“We finished really strong,” said Williams. “We finished last season the right way. The kids are extremely excited to get back after it. They’ve told me that if we had a game today, they’re ready to go. The future is bright and I’m awfully excited to be the head coach here.”
In three seasons Williams has significantly upgraded Stetson’s on-court talent, as the Hatters have produced two all-conference selections, four all-freshman team picks, and two academic all-conference selections. Derick Newton was named as the 2016 A-Sun Freshman of the Year and was recently chosen to the CollegeInsider.com Freshmen All-America team alongside players from Duke, LSU, Florida State, Kentucky, Xavier and others.
Newton, second-team all-conference forward Brian Pegg, and every other significant contributing member of last season’s squad will return for 2016-17.
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Photo Courtesy Stetson Athletics
