NORFOLK, Va.- Blaine Taylor remembers how special Drew Williamson was on the court during his years as a point guard at Old Dominion.
"When we recruited Drew, he was a state champion," Taylor recalled. "He was a winner, two in football, one in basketball, so you knew you had something special. This guy knew how to get to the winner's circle and I think he's probably contributed in a pretty good way at FAU."
From player to coach. That's been the road taken by Williamson. Following his playing career, he was the Monarchs' director of basketball operations before joining Virginia State as an assistant coach. Williamson returned to the Division I ranks in July of 2021 at Florida Atlantic and is in his second season as an assistant for the Owls. This past weekend, FAU won its first two NCAA Tournament games to advance to the Sweet 16.
Williamson's success as a coach comes as no surprise to Taylor, who was his head coach with the Monarchs during his playing days.
"He would go to open gym and play as a point guard and take pride in not turning the ball over," remembered Taylor, who is now the Athletic Development Officer for Major Gifts with the Old Dominion Athletic Foundation. "He went to the CAA Tournament, we beat VCU in overtime, championship game, plays almost 100 minutes in three games as a freshman and doesn't turn the ball over at all, so he really understood the game and how to go about winning and I think that spilled over into his coaching career."
From 2003-2007, Williamson patrolled the backcourt for the silver and blue. He led the Monarchs to two NCAA Tournament appearances and the final four of the NIT. The former guard still holds the program record with 130 consecutive games played. His former coach thinks Williamson and his teammates made an impact on ODU athletics far beyond basketball.
"I don't know that we'd have football here today if we hadn't made the Constant Center a success and Drew was part of that group," said Taylor. "It was interesting to see the championships arrive, but he's going back to Madison Square Garden. The last time he was there, we played in the finals of the NIT against Michigan and he's going back for another trip to the Garden."
That trip is for the Sweet 16, where the Owls will face Tennessee at 9:00 PM on Thursday. FAU, the ninth seed in the East Region, held off Memphis in a thriller and then ended Fairleigh Dickinson's Cinderella hopes to earn a trip to the region semifinals. Florida Atlantic is 33-3 on the season and the two most recent victories marked the program's first in the NCAA Tournament.
"When things go well, there's a lot of people that do something right," Taylor pointed out. "I can see the ballhandling of that team influenced by Drew, the defense of the team, the character of the team, the resolve of the team in a close game, so to get 30-plus wins on a season, there's a lot of people doing good things and Drew's one of them."
