Bruce Pearl’s coaching staff has been remarkably stable since the 2018-19 season, just before the start of Auburn’s historic Final Four run that year. So, when Pearl finally saw some turnover within his program this offseason, he wanted to make sure he nailed the hire.

Pearl believes he did precisely that with the addition of Corey Williams, who last week was named the Tigers’ newest assistant coach. Williams comes to Auburn after spending the last two seasons as an assistant at Texas Tech, where he also served as the program’s interim coach in the Big 12 Tournament, and before that was an assistant under Eric Musselman at Arkansas.

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“Really, really excited about Corey,” Pearl said Tuesday evening in Atlanta before the first stop on the AMBUSH tour. “I like to say that if you want to judge me, judge me by the company I keep. Sometimes that can get me in trouble, but I’m very excited about Corey.”

Williams fills the vacancy on staff left by the departure of Wes Flanigan, who spent five seasons back at his alma mater before leaving earlier this month for a role on Chris Beard’s inaugural coaching staff at Ole Miss. Flanigan previously worked with Beard at Arkansas-Little Rock during the 2015-16 season.

Ole Miss has yet to announce Flanigan’s hire.

“I just think everybody’s got to do what’s best for themselves and what’s best for their families,” Pearl said. “We appreciated Wes’ time at Auburn.”

Pearl didn’t waste much time in filling that position on his staff heading into Year 10 with Auburn. Between working to reconstruct the Tigers’ roster following a second straight NCAA Tournament appearance and second-round exit, Pearl tapped Williams for the role less than two weeks after Flanigan’s departure.

The 53-year-old Macon, Georgia, native brings more than two decades of coaching experience with him to Auburn’s staff. That includes his most recent stop at Texas Tech, where he was part of a Red Raiders program that advanced to the Sweet 16 two years ago while finishing 12th in the final AP poll, going 18-0 at home that season and ranking first in adjusted defensive efficiency, according to KenPom. Prior to his time at Texas Tech, Williams worked on Musselman’s inaugural staff at Arkansas. The Razorbacks went 20-12 in that first year before the postseason was canceled due to the pandemic, and in Year 2 they went 25-7 overall and advanced to the Elite Eight before losing to eventual-champion Baylor.

A former standout point guard at Oklahoma State, where he played for legendary coach Eddie Sutton, Williams was selected by the Chicago Bulls in the second round of the 1992 NBA Draft. As a rookie, he was part of the Bulls’ first threepeat team with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen under coach Phil Jackson.

“He was a great student-athlete,” Pearl said. “Such a great athlete that he got drafted both by the Chicago Bulls and the Kansas City Chiefs. He played alongside Michael Jordan, carried his bags for a couple of years for the Bulls, got himself a ring. Played with one of my former players at Iowa, BJ Armstrong.”

Williams was a student assistant at Oklahoma State in 1994 when the program advanced to the Final Four, but his coaching career began in earnest in 2000 as an assistant at Oral Roberts. In 2007 he joined Leonard Hamilton’s staff at Florida State, and then was named head coach at Stetson in 2013, serving in that role for six seasons before joining Musselman at Arkansas.

“Just (look at) the people he worked for,” Pearl said. “When you’ve got Eddie Sutton and Leonard Hamilton and Bill Self and that family tree on your resume, it speaks volumes. And he’s a better person, so very excited about him and his family. His family and his wife’s family are from Macon, Georgia, so this is an opportunity for him to come closer to home. It just checks a lot of boxes for us.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.