Mississippi State women's basketball to hire Samantha Williams, former Lady Vols assistant | Source

STARKVILLE — Mississippi State women's basketball coach Sam Purcell is hiring Samantha Williams as an assistant for his staff, a source with knowledge of the move told the Clarion Ledger on Monday.

The source requested anonymity because no official announcement has been made.

Williams − who has already updated her profile on social media to reflect the move − comes to Mississippi State with a veteran background which most recently included Tennessee. She was hired onto the Lady Vols' staff in 2021 under coach Kellie Harper.

In three seasons, Williams helped lead UT to two Sweet 16 appearances before a second-round exit this season. Following Harper's firing on April and the hiring of Kim Caldwell a week later, Williams was not retained.

Williams' coaching career started at St. Louis where she was an assistant for the 2001-02 campaign. She spent the 2002-03 season as an assistant at Columbus State before making a jump to the SEC for the following season as an assistant at Auburn.

Her first prolonged stint as an assistant came at DePaul (2004-07) before stops at Duke (2007-11) and Louisville (2011-19). She left the Cardinals to serve as coach of Eastern Kentucky (2019-21) before going to Tennessee.

While at Louisville, Williams overlapped with Purcell (2013-22) as assistants under coach Jeff Walz.

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Purcell is entering his third season as coach of MSU. This offseason, he's had to revamp his staff with all three assistants leaving. Corry Irvin was named coach of Chicago State, Gabe Lazo left to work as an assistant at Tennessee and Murriel Page parted ways with the program.

Williams will work with Fred Castro and Anita Howard who have been hired onto Purcell's staff.

Stefan Krajisnik is the Mississippi State beat writer for the Clarion Ledger. Contact him at skrajisnik@gannett.com or follow him on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, @skrajisnik3.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Samantha Williams: Mississippi State women's basketball to hire Lady Vols assistant